I'm proud to say I'm one of those absentee voters who voted for Gavin Newsome, and elected him the mayor of the city and county of San Francisco.

I was nervous on the way back from my writing seminar. I knew Gavin would win, but I was still remembering when I thought Al Gore had won the 2000 presidential election and the disappointment I felt afterwards. I was tempted to ask someone on my muni ride home, but I was tired and didn't want to get into a political discussion.

I even half convinced myself that I was going to go to bed as soon as I got home, and not worry about who won till the morning. But my curiousity was killing me, so I turned on the TV just in time to see Newsome give his victory speech.

I was clapping with joy alone in the dark in my living room and thinking to myself, yes Brenda, despite what people say, in San Franciso there is a God.

Here's an interview with Andres Serrano, by noted art writer Coco Fusco. This guy is a trip. He's lately been photographing members of the Klu Klux Klan.

Shooting the Klan: An Interview with Andres Serrano

We talked about the following artwork, Piss Christ by Andres Serrano, in my modern art history class last night.

This art piece has caused controversy where ever it has appeared, because of the title and the nature of the artwork. It's a photograph of a cheap crucifix submerged in a container of urine that's been lit to look red.

First off, Andres Serrano is seriously catholic and my art professor said his home in Brooklyn is filled with religious artifacts. Serrano has said that his main objective for his art is to make things beautiful. He objects that people label him an anti-christian bigot, and that he is in fact a religious artist.

I wasn't looking forward to the discussion, simply because religious discussion in a public school in San Francisco can be so tedious, but I was so surprised by what my fellow classmates said.

There were a couple of people who said it was just ugly and disgusting, but there were others whose comments were so interesting and inspiring.

One woman said that she thought it has something to do with communion, and that if you eat the body and blood of christ you have to wonder if it comes out in your waste.

Another woman said she thought that the the crucifixion was still beautiful through the piss.

One man said that he thought the piece was deeply religious because it shows Christ's power of transformation. Christ can transform something so filthy and human as piss and make it holy and beutiful. That Christ came here to cleanse the world of sin by being becoming human, and was literally submerged into "human waste".

When I heard the last comment, I was so awestruck by what I think was an amazing and deeply spiritual interpretation. I don't expect such comments outside of church, and I was very surprised to hear it in public school college class.

When I first saw it, I thought to myself "Hmmm, that's interesting. I didn't necessarily think it was anti-christian, and instead thought how the cross was glowing in the red urine." Then I heard the transformation comment and thought, how beautiful and how true.

I finally finished up reading I Heard the Owl Call my Name by Margaret Craven. What a good book, and it made me weep at the end.

Right before my grandmother died, there were owls hoohooing outside my window every night. It was so creepy, because I'd never heard them before and I haven't heard them since that time.

Owls, in indian lore, are symbols of death, so the story had a personal meaning for me. I hope I never have to hear owls hoohooing again for a long time.

While we quibble about who will be mayor of San Francisco, the Cali Republic wrestles with budget problems.

Shortfall in Car Tax to Hit Home: Local governments this week will receive two-thirds less from the state than anticipated. Officials may resort to higher taxes, lawsuits.

"As a consequence, local governments across the state likely will have to begin cutting programs ranging from fire coverage to libraries, government officials say."

Below is a sad but true statement of the importance of San Francisco politics from SFGate.com, San Franciscans ready to pick next mayor, OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: Suburbanites see city as political funhouse

A telling quote from the story:

"For the rest of the Bay Area, San Francisco's election has been an engaging spectator sport -- fun to watch, even an opportunity to root.

But the race for mayor is an event that many of the region's residents and governmental leaders say will have minimal impact beyond the city's borders.

"San Francisco provides us with entertainment, but other than that, it's not terribly relevant," said Contra Costa County Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier, owner of TR's Bar & Grill in Concord.

The city is increasingly isolated as its politics have become more insular and moved further to the left.

"San Francisco is not the heart of the Bay Area, politically," said Larry Tramutola, whose Oakland political consulting firm has done work at the local level in every county in the Bay Area.

The city is increasingly isolated as its politics have become more insular and moved further to the left.

"San Francisco is not the heart of the Bay Area, politically," said Larry Tramutola, whose Oakland political consulting firm has done work at the local level in every county in the Bay Area."

The city has voted itself into irrelevancy.

People are speculating that the Demos are throwing in the towel to Bush for the 2004 presidential election, because Al Gore is supposedly going to endorse Howard Dean tomorrow.

These same people say that the Demos are conceding the race to Bush, so they can concentrate on getting Hilary Clinton into the White House in 2008. Supposedly Hilary beats any democrat including Dean when pollsters ask who do you want to be next president.

I'm taking a writing class tomorrow night by Linda Seger, who has published a bunch of books on screenwriting and creating characters. I love taking a writing class from an author before buying their books. You get to see if you like them and what they have to say, and if you do, you buy their books. If not, you pass.

Here are some books Seger has written:

Making a Good Script Great

Advanced Screenwriting: Raising Your Script to the Academy Award Level

Creating Unforgettable Characters

This is new. I just got a call from the Newsome campaign, saying if I wanted a ride to my polling place they would pick me up and take me there.

Too bad I already voted, because I would have loved to see if this offer was legit.

I've been thinking about how long I've been interested in politics, and I can honestly say I've been following politics since I was 12 years old. I have my parents to thank for that. My dad was a union leader, and union people always get involved in politics.

It's trippy to think I've been arguing politics since I was 12 years old. That's a long time. I couldn't wait to turn 18 and vote, and I've been doing it and having political arguments ever since.

I wonder if it's true what the conservatives are saying about the left wing political agenda in publics schools, and how they don't teach kids the importance of civics and voting. I've heard it said on talk shows that left wing teachers are so anti-US government, that they teach kids to protest but not vote. That's a shame, if it's true.

Talk about karma at work as well. Karma says to always do the right thing, and the right thing I feel in teaching is to teach students to study both sides of any issue. Then it's up the student to decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong. A teacher's job is to teach the student to make decisions based on an informed choice.

My left wing hippie teachers rammed it into our heads about the importance of voting, and how one person can make a difference in this world. They cited Martin Luther King Jr, Ghandi, Lincoln, etc. I can almost hear them now saying, "One person can make a difference, one vote can change everything. You can't be a participant is this great experiment called democracy and not vote. It's your duty to study both sides of every issue and make an informed decision. Don't let the media or anyone else tell you how to vote. Cherish your vote. It's one of the few chances you have to make your voice heard in government."

In school we used to study the local, state and Federal elections, and then you would have to debate both sides. I'm not saying there wasn't a left wing hippie liberal bias in my schooling, but at least they presented both sides of any issue. They forced us kids to think through logically what we believed, and why, and to defend it logically as well.

I like politics because it forces you think deeply about issues, and to always clarify for yourself what is really important about government and what you want government to do.

Politics is never black and white, and you have to figure in so many issues when you vote on candidates or propositions. You have to read stuff, read in between the lines, figure out what the bias is, the agenda, etc. You have to compare what a candidate actually says, as opposed to how they vote and what they say in interviews, on their websites, their campaign literature, etc.

My brain gets some serious exercise every time I do my political investigations, and I like it. It's good to think.

These items are pretty funny in an amusing and sick kind of way: Conservative Political Toys for Christmas

Amuse your conservative friends and annoy your liberal neighbors with the brand new Ann Coulter Talking Action Figure

Move over Saddam -- Hillary is the new Ace of Spades. While Saddam still tops the Iraqi "Most Wanted" list, Hillary tops a new deck of cards: The "52 Most Dangerous Liberals in America."

Donald H. Rumsfeld Talking Action Figure

George W. Bush Top Gun Action Figure

Controversy is everywhere, even in the sports world.

All the sports guys are just ranting about USC getting punked in the BCS. The SC Trojans, the number one team in the nation who pummelled OSU on Saturday, will not be playing the Sugar Bowl for the number one college football ranking. Once again, the Pac 10 gets the short end of the stick.

Instead the number two and three teams, LSU and Oklahoma will be playing. The Rose Bowl is great, but it's not like they'll be playing for the college championship.

And I love it too, because everyone seems to blaming Hawaii because they got whacked by Boise State. "Carroll called it "wrong" that the Notre Dame-Syracuse and Boise State-Hawaii games had some effect on who plays in the national championship game. (ESPN)

I have friends that went to USC. They loved the school, but said it was was very smoggy there.

I just heard Alistair Cooke, from the BBC, reading his current "Letter from America".

Mr. Cooke finally spoke about the Iraq War, and here's what he said at the end;

"I've put it to many people, including a famous philosopher and a leading delegate of a major member of the Security Council.

Last March, if you had a choice of agreeing to invade or having the UN approve a three-month round of more inspections, what third alternative would you have had in mind? No answer.

The true, unconfessed alternative was to say - okay, Saddam, you win; go about your missiles and your labs. We'll wait till you try to shatter Israel overnight, acquire a flock of allies and become king of Arabia, and then by golly we'll start to fight you.

That was, in March, the true alternative on everyone's mind that dared not speak its name. "

Here's the full letter to read if you're interested, Why the war couldn't wait.

I finished my art history paper, but I have no idea of whether it's good or not. I have no idea of what professors look for in an art paper. I received A's on my last two art history class papers, so I don't think I'll do too badly.

I have my modern art history paper due tomorrow. What a drag! Writing papers is my least favourite part of school.

At least I've got a title:

Painting Common Objects: The New Image Paintings of Jennifer Bartlett and Elizabeth Murray

So here's another thing in common I have in common with some of my friends.

We hate Ralph Nader with a passion and wish to God the stupid idiot would stop running for president!

This is how weird things are in San Francisco with regard to politics.

First, read this article out; S.F. Mayor's Race 2003: View From the Neighborhoods
A Green enclave Family-oriented Outer Sunset is largely Newsom Country -- but Gonzalez reigns by the dunes.

Apparently you're a conservative, according the left and the greens, if:

1) you own your own dwelling and don't rent
2) you want to live in a quiet neighbourhood
3) you're married and have kids
3) you have kids and want to live in a district that has good public schools
4) you own your own business
5) you're considered working or middle class.

How messed up in the head do you have to be to think like this? I was so insulted by this article.

I lived out at the Great Highway for a time, and our neighbours were working class people who were struggling to raise their families. What the heck is wrong with that?

I don't understand why normal people get so dissed in San Francisco. It's so weird, it's so bad, it's positively evil, and frankly it's incredibly bad, bad karma!

Reading that SFGate article made me realize why the GOP is able to gain so much ground against the Demos. Is it any wonder that democrats and the left are being outflanked politically in a serious way by the republicans?

If you're "normal", the left and the democrats sure as heck don't want your kind polluting the party. And that's not good, because the majority of the country is working or middle class, wants to own property, has families with kids who attend public school, and just want to be able to take care of their families in the best way they can, and live a good life.

I finally came up with a way to end my novel. It's a little sappy, but it fits the characters and it's a love story after all so it's okay to be sappy.

When I finished outlining the ending, I was saying "aawwww, I like it, it's so sweet."

Now if I can just finish the darn thing!

If this article is correct, China's huge thirst for oil set to change world's energy flows, this development will have interesting ramifications for geopolitics.

This article in The Guardian UK, The end of the west - Europe is no longer the centre of the world - the future belongs to the might of Asia, also says all new golden roads leads to China.

I'm worried about Taiwan. China definitely wants the island back, and I think the world will bow down and let them take it.

Sadly, the Cali GOP is already licking their chops because of what may happen in the San Francisco's mayor's race, Green win could have impact beyond city race.

" Green victory here not only would raise the fledgling party's profile but also could hasten the defection of liberals from the Democratic Party. After the Oct. 7 election of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, political analysts expect the state Democratic Party to move toward the political center to compete with the popular former actor and his centrist policies.

That would alienate liberal Democrats and send them to the Green Party, analysts say. If enough Greens desert Democrats, Republicans could solidify their hold on the governor's office and perhaps win seats in Congress. Democrats hold a 35-20 advantage in California's congressional delegation.

A Green ascendancy in California also could have national political implications. If Greens siphon off enough Democrats, Republicans could win a plurality of the statewide vote, handing California's 55 electoral votes to a GOP presidential candidate.

''If you really had a serious Green candidate taking votes away from a Democratic candidate, you could flip a state that's fairly liberal in a Republican direction,'' says Bruce Cain, a political science professor at the University of California-Berkeley. ''So it would be a huge boon to the Republican Party to have the Greens thrive in California.''"

Bible Reading:
Advent Stories, the birth of JC

What I'm pondering:
What variation of red nail polish should I paint my fingers and toes for the Holidays.

What I'm remembering:
Bad combos of nail polish and clothes.

Fun with Political Labels

So apparently there exists all these political labels that you can put on yourself.

First groups that really fit anywhere:

Single issue voters - gun control, a women's right to choose.

Flavour of the month voters - I'm going to vote for the candidate because he or she is cute, all my friends are voting for him or her.

Next, the right and left and variations thereof:

I'm not sure if I understand all of them, but here they are and from one extreme to the next.

Liberterians - No government.

The Far Right - the extremists, they tell you what's right and wrong and how to live your life, and make you feel guilty. If you don't believe in JC, you will go to hell. Us vs. Them.

Paleoconservative - characterized by Pat Buchanan, isolationist foreign policy, social programs are bad and bankrupt the government.

Conservative - vanilla conservatives

Neoconservative - The Project for the New American Century, neoconservative strategy of coercive democratization. "Neocons believe that the United States must use a high-pressure approach to compel Arab regimes to change, by force if necessary." (Wash Post) What's a little debt if you're defending the country and spreading American Democracy.

Urban Crunchy Conservative - National Review twist on Bobos (bourgeois bohemians), lives in cities, votes republican.

Everyone else, some vote, some don't.

Blue Blazer liberals - another twist on Bobos (bourgeois bohemian), votes democrat, lives in cities but mostly found in the suburbs because the schools are better

Neoliberals - Ellen Tauscher, Joe Lieberman, Zel Miller, fiscal discipline, don't bankrupt the government for social programs or foreign policy. "Neoliberals believe in political preemption first and military preemption only as a last resort. We supported the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq because we concluded that force was the only way to lance these boils." (Wash Post)

Liberals - vanilla liberals

Paleoliberals - Dennis Kucinch, Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, big government, class warware, what's a little government debt if it means more social programs.

The Far Left - the extremists, progressives, greens, they tell you how to live your life, and make you feel guilty. Forget class warfare. If have money, you are the enemy. Us vs. Them.

Socialists/Communist - all government, all the time.

Is Europe becoming increasingly anti-semitic? If you read this article, Ritual Murders of Jews in Paris, it does make you wonder.

I have to honestly admit, that what turns me off the most about the left wing progressive platform, is its views on Israel and what I see as an increasingly anti-semitic tone in their rhetoric.

I support the legitimacy of the State of Israel in the middle east, and I'm proud to say it. I don't necessarily agree with everything that Israel does, but I certainly do not consider Israel as the greatest threat to world peace.

We light a candle during each service as part of a four candle wreath during advent at my presbyterian church, but I had no idea that it's kind of a catholic custom.

"The four weeks prior to Christmas, observed in the Catholic liturgical year, is called the season of Advent (Latin: an approach, Second Coming, appearance, something's coming). On tables in Catholic homes around the world stands a wreath holding four candles, three violet (royalty) and one pink (love). Each week one more candle is lit. By Christmas all four candles are alight. Representing the light to come in the midst of increasing darkness, Advent reflects ancient times when, with no electric light on our planet, darkness was feared. The candles gave the people hope. Celebrating Advent, especially with an Advent wreath, revivifies ancient ceremonies and feasts of light."

More on the lighting of the four candle wreath; The Advent Wreath.

Just when I was writing yesterday about the importance of voter turnout, I see this article this morning on SFGate.com; GOP may decide S.F. mayor's race Close election could be decided by one voting bloc.

I think it's kind of interesting that some republicans will support a green party candidate, but if they do vote that way I think it's only because they don't like democrats.

Here's the referenced article by Rod Dreher on "crunchy granola conservatives", Birkenstocked Burkeans.

I did a google search, and apparently this essay caused a stir in all kinds of places. I even came across the term, "metropolitcan conservative".

But then again, maybe I'm "blue blazer liberal".

"Call them "Blue Blazer Liberals." Contrary to what you might expect from people with progressive politics, these dedicated Democrats are devoted to their children, care deeply about their careers and are determined to make a good living. BBLs go to church regularly and, afterwards, they might even eat a hamburger or two — real ones! Not tofu! — at a cookout….They are as comfortable in the worlds of business and high finance as any conservative Republican."

From Jonah Golderberg at the National Review Online.

Here's an interesting piece by an outsider on the SF Mayoral race, Altered consciousness in the city by the bay.

I've been conservative noticing this trend as well, although I think it will be a long time before San Francisco has a republican mayor. But then again, I didn't think The Terminator would become governor of the Cali Republic.

Maybe I'm a "urban crunchy conservative." I like this term. I had a boss tell me once, "you know beneath that expensive wool suit, pearls and expensive perfume, you're really a crunchy granola person aren't you?" I was so insulted, but he was right.

I am partially a crunchy granola person, I just don't want to smell or dress like one or vote like one either. I'm a pragmatic voter who wants a mayor to fix the city's problems, with valid well thought out plans on how to do it. How simple is that?

It's been interesting talking to my friends about the mayoral election. Sometimes I think the only thing I have in common politically with them is that:

1) none of us voted for Bush, and
2) we all can't stand him.

Other than these two related points, that's about it. I have pro-Gonzalez friends and pro-Newsome friends. And they're all voting for their candidate of choice for all completely different reasons.

One thing I am excited about, that I discovered about myself, is that when push comes to shove I'm a loyal and faithful democrat.

I used to think that the reason I couldn't see myself becoming a political consultant, was because you have to choose a party. You can't work for a democrat campaign, and then go work for a liberal and moderate republican campaign. Politics is too partisan to do that. I wanted the freedom to work for the best political candidate who can get the job done. It's the way I vote, after all.

Not that I've ever voted for a republican ever, but I like to think because I'm a fair-minded person that if one came along whom I actually liked I would vote for that person, even if he was a republican.

But with the 2000 presidential election debacle, the GOP taking back the south, Cali having a republican governor, and now this crazy SF mayoral election, I've learnt that if the democrats are ever going to retake the White House, the congress, the senate and the south and other regions of the country, the local race is where it starts.

The GOP political long term strategists figured this out a long, long time ago, and started getting their people elected at the local level, then at the state level, then into congress, and then into the senate, regions of the country became GOP voting blocs, and then ultimate political prize, the white house. It took them over 20 years to do it, but they did it, and they're still making gains.

This is not the time to split the party or jump to another party. I don't want another 4-12 years of GOP control of the executive function, the legislative function, and then at some the judicial function of this country.

I heard a politico qouted as saying, "All politics is local." They're right. The battle for the senate, the house and presidency starts with the local election, and I'm a good soldier who knows how to fight.

What's really going to be key in the San Francisco mayoral election is voter turnout. The GOP understands this, and has used voter turnout to their advantage in elections all across the country.

I'm still getting the feeling that I'm being played by the San Francisco media, and they're making the election more into a horse race than it really is.

And I'm a numbers person, who makes a living tracking and studyng historical trends.

So unless things in this world change very drastically, I don't expect voter turnout to be that high. Take it from The Matrix. People don't escape their programming that easily. Most people will choose the blue pill .

"You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe," and you don't vote.

Below are two interesting perspectives on the San Francisco mayoral race from two SF political blogs that I really like.

Where's Gonzo?

A View from the Field

The second link brings up an interesting point for me, and you can blame it on my stint as a long term strategic business analyst.

What happens after the mayor's race?

The legacy of Willie Brown has been the whittling down of the power of the San Francisco mayor's office, with the power going back to the district supervisors. Most of the power to get things done in city hall really resides with the president of the Board of Supervisors. Oh sure, the mayor's seat is still important but equally if not more important is the President of the Board of Supervisors.

So I'm thinking, Newsome can't lose. He either wins the mayor's race, or he becomes the president of the Board of Superviors, an equally if not more powerful although not as glamorous job.

One thing which the dotcom CEO also brought, was that if you're at the top you have to be professional at all times. My ex-boss female CIO tried to instill this point in me. She never gave away her true feelings ever in public; she was always polite and professional. She told me that "you never know when you'll have to work closely with or need a favour from someone that you totally hate. It's best to be on a friendly basis with everyone."

Whoever wins the races, one thing is for sure; they're going to have to work with each other in the future. Whether they can or not is going to be interesting to watch.

I was just thinking of getting my hearing checked because I've been hearing this persistent hum in my ears right before I go to sleep, and then I came across this article from the NY Times.

People Hearing Persistent, Mysterious Hum Aren't Alone

I wonder if I'm hearing the same hum for about the last three weeks.

I had my hearing checked a few year ago, and the tests were normal except for the fact that the doctor told me I can hear very high pitches. The doctor said that most people lose their ability to hear high pitched sounds as they get older, but apparently I hear the normal high pitches that you have at birth and the ones that most normal people can't hear.

Creepy, creeepy!

Here's an amusing passage from my novel. This is the male character talking, Marshall Raker.

"I don’t why I let her talk me into taking to her that Kennedy museum, but like a fool I agreed to go there with her for our third interview. What is it with democrats, liberals and Kennedy? They worship the man like he’s a god, when in reality he was nothing but a good looking ineffectual president, who had a hell of a speech writer. It was those damned horses. She looked so helpless and dreamy looking at them. When a girl looks like that in front of a fellow, it makes you just melt something fierce deep inside."

I so want to take a vacation from writng, but I know if I stop now I'll never finish my novel. I have to get through a chapter tonight.

Not sure if I'll stick to the 1,667 words a day total that was my writing rhythm during November. It's not a bad way to measure progress though, because it's about 4 pages of double spaced text a day.

I've got my christmas lights up, and they're so pretty! I love christmas lights. I'm still debating about getting a tree. It was so nice not to deal with the hassle of putting up a christmas tree last year. I'll have to think about it.

I went to my favourite fruit and veggie market on my lunch hour to pick up a few items, and I was shopping to the Grinch song from Dr. Seus' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

Sometimes I think I'm just a cranky SF food freak, because it irritates me that my fave fruit & veggie store doesn't carry Acme Bread which is the only type of fresh bread I like to buy.

On the way home I was thinking that if I ever become become obscenely rich, I will donate the majority of my money to food banks and services like Meals on Wheels, which deliver meals to the sick and elderly.

There is nothing more basic to human survival than food and eating, and it's utterly disgraceful that they are people who live in this city who for whatever reason can't feed themselves.

What is up with that?

While idiot politicians and candidates in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the country rant on and on about political ideology, speaking and living in their own virtual political world that no one else seems to live in, this is desert of the real world of San Francisco.

It trips me out that the San Francisco Food Bank is thinking of putting a food pantry in the my new working class hood, and my old working class hood.

Interesting article on politics and religion, American voters increasingly split along religious lines.

I go to church once a week sometimes more, prayer is an important part of my life, and I vote democrat. The majority of the people who go to my church vote democrat as well although we do have a vocal progressive minority, but then again we are a church in San Francisco.

While the people in San Francisco are fighting over how "really democrat and progrssive" are you, Strong Green challenge in San Francisco worries Democrats, The NY Times is reporting today that Shifts in States May Give Bush Electoral Edge.

As much as I so detest Tucker Carlson, the man did make a good point on the Chris Matthews Show when he said that if all Howard Dean has to on is his opposition to the Iraq War with no way graceful, diplomatic, pragmatic exit strategy for Iraq which makes sure that the country doesn't turn into another Afghanistan, then the democrats are sunk for 2004 presidential election.

With so many high profile GOP wins, like Bush getting his medicare bill to pass the congress and the senate and Arnie fulfilling on his two campaign promises of repealing the vehicle license fee hike and giving illegal aliens driver's licenses, what is the democrat strategy to take back the white house, the congress, the senate and the states?

Honestly, it makes me think that the democrats and the greens like that the repuplicans control the white house, the congress, the senate, and most of the governorships and state legislative bodies including the oh so left state of the Cali Republic, because if the GOP wasn't in control, what the hell would there be to protest about?

The Greens are supposed to be protesting Al Gore today, the champion of the environmental movement which I thought the Greens were supposed to represent, so maybe there's your answer. If we can't protest the opposition, we'll protest against the people who think like us. There's a really bright idea for you.

I heard Bill Press say that only in San Francisco would there people be fighting over Al Gore.

Protests are good for something. If it weren't for protests, where would progressive guys pick up chicks and get their voices in the media?

Here's something interesting.

From the CDC website, INFLUENZA SUMMARY UPDATE - Week ending November 22, 2003-Week 47

The flu is all over the world with children dying from the flu in Colorado, England and Scotland.

So there I was traipsing around downtown San Francisco the day after Thanksiving wearing a gray and white striped knee length dress, creme white tights and black Mary Jane flats, when I hear a group of tourist chicks say in back of me "look there's a miniskirt".

For whatever reason, their remark made me very self conscious. My self consciousness about my mode of dress was made even worse when I started watching the TLC show "What Not to Wear", and they started ranting about women wearing white tights and what a fashion faux pas it was.

So naturally like any good researcher, I typed "how to wear opaque white tights" into google and found all these web pages saying the "mod" look is in, and that short miniskirts and opaque tights with mary jane flats were the outfit du jour for anyone wanting to achieve the "mod" look.

Minis on the Move

The Mini is here to Stay

The Mod Squad

I love wearing white tights. It reminds me of being a little girl, and it reminds me of mod girls from the 60's. Okay, so what if they make my looks pasty white and like white fat logs, I like wearing white tights.

Tights are the perfect thing with a short skirt or a short dress. Somehow the dress doesn't seem so short if you're wearing opaque tights, because it's not like you're showing any skin.

I never wear skin coloured hose or tights. The few times I've worn them with a short skirt, I received too many annoying looks, comments and wolf whistles. What a bother! Better to wear ugly white tights than to have some icky man oggle your legs in public.

And I do love wearing a miniskirt, and god only knows you can never have enough black miniskirts in your closet. But as a gesture to the folks at "What not to Wear", I'm going to exchange the two pairs of new white tights I bought last week with a pair of grey and navy ones. I need gray ones to go with the gray and white striped minidress, and I need navy ones to go with the two knee length navy and blue dresses I just ordered.

All the astrology sites are saying, that as an Aquarian I should be glad that the planet Uranus is finally moving out of my sign after being there since 1995. Uranus, being the planet of change, causes many upheavals in one's life and it sure did in mine.

Let's see.

I'm on my second car, after swearing in my youth that I would never own one because it was bad for the environment. (that inner hippie was raging in my 20's)

I changed jobs 3 times.

I moved into a bigger place, and I'm paying about twice as much rent.

Four people very near and dear to me died; Amy, Paul, Reid, and Grandma.

I decided I needed to find a creative outlet, and I went from acting to writing. I performed in one play, did a couple of solo performances, wrote a couple of screenplays, started 3 novels and hopefully will finish one this month, and finished 24 short stories.

And then there's this bloggie of mine.

The astrology sites say that Aquarians can relax because Uranus will now be the sign of Pisces for seven+ years.

But guess what. My rising/ascendant sign is Pisces, so I think the next seven or so years will be just as eventful. And what's worse, Uranus will now be in my second house of Finance. Like I really need upheavals where money is concerned.

So doing the Nanowrimo got me into such a writing mood, I sent an email to the Turkish Embassy in DC and expressed my regret for the terrorist bombing in Istanbul. I wanted to send the email directly to t5he country of Turkey, but I couldn't figure out where it needed to go.

Here's the email I received back:

From: Turkish Embassy [mailto:turkish@erols.com]
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 8:09 AM
To: 'Brenda Elfgirl'
Subject: RE: Expression of Sadness

Dear Ms. Elfgirl,

Thank you for your kind concern in the wake of the acts of terror in Istanbul that took the lives of over 50 innocent persons and wounded 750 more. Your reaching out to our Embassy and thus to the Turkish people at this trying hour is greatly appreciated. The scourge of terror can only be defeated through the joint effort of all nations.

Sincerely,
O. Faruk Logoglu
Ambassador

-----Original Message-----
From: Brenda Elfgirl
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2003 4:30 PM
To: info@turkey.org
Subject: Expression of Sadness

I just wanted to express my sadness that the country of Turkey was the victim of a terrorist attack last week.

I think Turkey is a exemplary model of a modern Muslim democratic state, and it's horrible to think that there are people out there who are willing to destroy it.

At some point, as much as I love it, politics bores the heck out of me. All that media hype, all that meaningless mudslinging by the candidates, and sloppy journalist reporting is just boring.

That's when I turn off the new stalk radio programs and listen to sports talk radio programs. Sports is always interesting and always changing.

Okay, the 49ers and the Raiders are each sucking the big ones right now. But there's the NFL football playoffs to think about, the college bowl games and the mysterious thing called baseball transactions in the off season.

Curt Schilling, that fantastic pitcher from the Arizona Diamondbacks, was traded to Boston after the Yankees came sniffing.

Oakland traded away Terrence Long and Ramon Hernandez to the Padres.

I just finished reading The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield. Screenwriting marina hottie boy told me last year that the book was modelled on the Bhagavad Gita, so I decided to read it.

It's a golf book, and I don't do golf, but I loved the book! The author mentioned that Vance came from Mu, which is Lemuria and I was so floored. I'm setting my elf stories in Lemuria, and I was so freaked that another writer actually used the name in a book. Lemuria, according to the legends, was the mythical land and civilization before the fabled kingdom of Atlantis.

I've been reading the Bhagavad Gita off and on since I was 13 years old, and it was so fun to read this philosophical tract in a fictional book. I haven't read the Gita in ages, and it makes me want to read it again along with the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

Pressfield apparently wrote a couple of other books on war, and I want to read those as well. On Amazon.com, some of the reviewers mentioned another book called "Golf in the Kingdom" by Michael Murphy and now I want to read this book too.

The 50K version of my novel is finished. I came in at 50,088 words. I received a certificate and a winner's icon, that I will update on the blog tomorrow.

Now if I can just finish the novel to the end, I'll be very happy.

I've been writing all night. I want to finish my 50K total tonight, and take a break tomorrow. I'm not done with my novel yet, but I plan to keep writing till it's finished.

I was thinking of relaxing the 1,667 words per day pace, but I know if I do that I'll never finish the novel in December. And I do want to finish the novel before the end of the year.

If I finish the novel, it will be a first for me and I think it's an important stage for me to get to in my writing life. A novel is such a big undertaking, such a big step to take for me as a writer. I've finished writing short stories and even a 110+ page screenplay, but a novel is different.

A novel is more involved, and it's definitely longer than a screenplay as far as word counts go. My novel, double spaced is 169 pages. I have five more chapters to go. I can see the novel going into the 200+ page range by the time I'm through. Darn! That's a ton of pages.

My first goal is get the novel done by the run off election date, which is Tuesday December 9. I have a writing seminar to attend that night on character development, which means I'll have to be done during the day or finish when I get home from the seminar.

Ending on December 9 would mean adding 15,000 more words to my novel. I hope that's enough to finish the five chapters. If not, I guess I'll keep going till I finish. But I have to absolutely be done by December 31st. If I keep up the 1,667 words a day pace, and I have more to write, I'm sure I'll be finished way before the end of December.

I heard this song at the gym today, and it brought back so many good memories. The song was "Lips like Sugar" by Echo and the Bunnymen. I was trying to dance while running on the eliptical trainer, what a riot!

I want to hear Joy Division, New Order, The Style Council, and Pere Ubu!

I hate this. The secret is out. SFGATE.com has an article in their food section on sparkling lemon soda. I've been buying it for months now, and my brand has been rated # 1.

"The top choice was Galvanina Lemon Soda ($1.99 a liter, Trader Joe's) from Italy. It won praise for its "nice strong lemonade taste." Fans of this drink said "lemony and quite tart" and "good and bubbly.""

Galvanina Lemon soda is so addictive. Once I started drinking it, I couldn't stop. I have to have it in the house all the time.

I'm going to an early turkey day luncheon with the rels tomorrow. Then I think I'll skip out and go to the movies. I like my relatives, but only in short doses during the holidays.

My aunt called tonight and told me that she thought she was coming down with the flu, but she wasn't sure. And I'm like, great! Just don't cough on the food.

I found this SFGate web page about my new hood, The Sunset and West Portal. I used to live a few blocks from West Portal at one point in my life, so it's kind of fun to read what the web page has to say.

There's an incredibly expensive neighbourhood above West Portal, called St. Francis Wood. The hood has fountains, a roundabout, and huge houses on big plots (mansions), with expensive cars like hummers and rolls on every block. West Portal has 4 banks, its own satellite Charles Schwab office, antique stores, and a few investment bank offices.

A friend who grew up here told me West Portal is where the rich people go to live, when they've gotten tired of living on Nob Hill or in Cow Hollow. And if they really get tired of the city, they move to Hillsborough in Burlingame and buy a condo on Nob Hill for when they want to party in the city.

Here's a map showing how the City and County of San Francisco voted during the November 4th mayoral race election.

Neighborhood math puts Gonzalez in hole

I'm surprised Newsome won hoods like Noe Valley, Portrero Hill, Upper Market/Eureka Valley, and the Inner Sunset.

The Inner Sunset is part of Gonzalez's district. Noe Valley, Potrero Hill and Upper Market/Eureka Valley run pretty left and progressive most of the time.

And the Western Addition was close, Newsome lost by only one point, and in North Bernal Heights he lost by two points. The Western Addition is part of Gonzalez's district, and North Bernal Heights, is totally hippie like the Haight.

Here's the statisical page of my new district of San Francisco.

The Sunset

This is my old district.

The Richmond

I lived in this district too for awhile.

Chinatown, Nob Hill, Russian Hill, Telegraph Hill, Waterfront

I don't usually go in for this kind of stuff, I'm trying to get a seat to see Al Gore speak next week in San Franciso.

I just have to see what this guy is really like in person, and if he's as awkward a speaker as everyone says he is. He was the vice president of the country for 8 years after all, and then there was that historical election debacle in 2000.

A girl friend of mine emailed me this article, Women Needed to Test Orgasm Machine, and wanted to know if I'd be willing to sign up.

It does sound intriguing doesn't it? But I don't know about having something inserted in my spine.

What I really need to start worrying about is my stupid novel. I have five more days to complete my novel and I'm only on Chapter 7. I had 12 chapters planned. DAMN!!!

I can't believe I was silly enough to think I was going to be finished with the novel early, and that I needed to stretch the time out. Now I'm behind, way behind.

I think I can at least get to Chapter 9 by November 30, and then I guess I'll just have to keep writing until I've finished the last three chapters.

I was so sure I would be able to complete a whole novel in 50K words and 30 days this year, but again I need more time and more words. At least I'll be almost finished and not 30% finished like the last two years.

A 50K novel would the equivalent of "Catcher in the Rye", which I think today would be considered a novella.

One writer I've been reading says that her ideas for stories are so big, her novels end up being very large.

I don't know if my ideas are so big or I've been writing a lot of crap that doesn't belong in the novel, and which I'm going to have to take out later.

I even wrote a brief outline for the novel this time, but I'm thinking I should have spent more time outlining exactly what would happen in each chapter and scene. I know there were times in my writing when I didn't know where my chapter was really going, and I didn't really like that feeling.

I like that I was able to be so flexible with my outline, but I was getting the feeling I was repeating information and writing contradictory things about my characters. I've done it in a ten-page short story, so I'm sure I'm doing it in the novel big time.

But this is all good. This experience is confirming something for me what I've been thinking is my biggest obstacle to completing a story. I need a good outline. I was only able to finish my screenplay because I spent a ton of time working on the outline. I wrote 20 drafts of the outline before I even started writing. The outline made the writing fly, and I was able to concentrate on writing a good scene instead of having to think what the heck the character is doing.

I heard a quote by some famous female writer, where she says if she doesn't outline her stories her characters go out of control. My stupid characters are like that. Sometimes they'll talk about everything else, give me every frickin' detail of some other aspect of their life that has nothing to do with the story I'm writing. It's like they're so happy to come alive in my writing, that they'll do anything to make sure I spend more time with them so they can stay alive and keep blabbing.

It's spooky to think that my fictional human characters have the same real human instinct for survival, and they will do anything to survive. And the only way a fictional human character survives is in a story, a long story.

And some of those fictional freaks haunt me too. If I get an idea for their story and I don't make an effort to write it down, they bug me until I can't take it anymore and I have to sit down and write their story.

I know it all sounds trippy, but this is the way the writing process works for me. Fictional freaks bugging me till I write their story down, and then when I do they are talkative and so out of control.

One thing about not working in an office and working at home is I miss the day before a holiday.

If I was in an office right now, I'd be goofing off and talking to people, and there would be lots of snacks and food to eat. Then in the early afternoon, management would annouce that we could go home early.

But I'm already at home, and I'm working because I don't have a party and holiday atmosphere to distract me.

I don't know why I'm letting myself get so upset about the San Francisco mayoral. I'm politically stupid as hell, and since I've lived here, I've never voted for the person that eventually became mayor of the city, and has it affected my life. NO!

The KPIX poll shows Gonzalez ahead is that his lead is among likely voters or people who are eligible to vote. But at the end, KPIX had to admit that Newsome has the lead among probable voters, or people who actually vote.

The saddest thing is people don't vote. We would have totally different elected individuals if we had 100% participation.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to vote for mayor, since my track record is so bad. But early training is hard to escape from. My left wing hippie teachers and my dad taught me all through my life that it was my civic duty to volunteer, protest and vote. I had only one vote, and if I didn't use it I'd lose it.

I wish more people thought this way about voting. As it is they don't, and maybe lucky for me I'll have voted for the winner of the San Francisco's mayor's race.

But I'm not counting on it. And to think I still fantasize about being a political consultant, which is a hoot and half because I'm so politically ignorant!

I'm starting to smell a media hype regarding the SF mayoral election, and I don't like it. Yes, yes, I know they've got to pay their bills but I'm an analyst and I'm adding up the facts here that they're just not adding up very logically.

I was paid by one company traded on the NY Stock Exchange and one company traded on NASDAQ for my analytical skills, and my meager abilities to put thousands of random facts together in a way that made sense. All I can say is that something is out of whack here with the election reporting and coverage.

I'm getting the same feeling I got when the media was hyping the 2000 presidential election in California and insisting that the state was in play for Bush, and when they were hyping the long term financial future and prospects of the dotcom stocks. And we all know what happened with those media predictions.

I hate when things don't make sense. I hate when the numbers don't add up. I used to be able to add up and balance $2 billion dollars in sales down to the pennies and be able to tell you a minutae of detail as to why we made the sales, and I'm telling you the SF Mayoral election media coverage feels like they're cooking the books.

I know San Francisco is whacky, but we're not that whacky enough to break the laws of math and science.

The polls don't look good for Newsome, but thank god for blogs. I found a reputable SF political blog that said the KPIX numbers are suspect.

"KPIX Poll Not Worth the Paper It's Printed On

A couple of days ago, KPIX-TV Channel 5 released “poll” numbers that purported to show Matt Gonzalez leading Gavin Newsom by a few percentage points in the Mayor's race.

Unfortunately, the results had absolutely no bearing on reality. Indeed, this “poll” has so many problems that it's hard to know where to begin - but let's try anyway.

First - the thing wasn't done by human beings. It was done by machine. People simply responded by punching buttons on their telephones in response to automated questions. These types of polls are well known to be useless, absolutely unreliable and highly inaccurate.

More importantly, though, the KPIX poll didn't sample likely voters, or even registered voters. It simply asked participants whether or not they were likely to vote - and of course, the overwhelming majority said they would, so their response counted.

Let's put this in context: 52 percent of the folks polled in the KPIX poll said they were “certain to vote” and another 44 percent said they were “probably” going to vote, which means that, if these numbers are to be believed, the turnout for the Dec. 9 election will be somewhere around 96 percent.

That ain't gonna happen.

Even in the best years, voter turnout barely breaks 60 percent; the turnout in the general election on Nov. 4 was only 45 percent and historically, the numbers for the runoff are always lower. If more than 35 percent turn out next month, that would be a strong showing.

Yet, no one at KPIX saw fit to put the numbers in the proper context when the results were reported. Instead, KPIX and the station's partner in crime, the San Francisco Chronicle, simply reported the “poll” results as if they were statistically valid, which they clearly are not.

To say that was a disservice to the station's viewers and the paper's readers would be an understatement, at best. "

KPIX used Survey USA at the time this article was posted, and they used the same survey company again for the November 25 poll.

Thanks to FJGallagher for the info.

That SF Bay Guardian story got me so fascinated that I decided to check out the San Francisco Ethics Commission website. Contributions made to a campaign is public information, and candidates have to list who contributes to their cause.

What's great about the SF Ethics site, is you can look at previous searches that people did. Sure enough, there were recent searches done on the campaign contributions for both campaigns. I haven't found a summary yet, and I wonder if some poor schlep from the Bay Guardian had to add everyhing up in excel.

Anyway, here's some interesting contributors I found while glancing through the donations list. You have to list your profession and employer.

Some of Newsome's contributors:
Kirk Hammett - Lead Singer, Metallica
Non-Profit Executive, Habitat for Humanity SF
Priest, St. Gregory of NYSSA Episcopal Ch.
Self Emp Writer (wish this was me!)
Self Emp Singer/Songwriter
Self Emp Tech Entrepreneur
Not Employed

From the San Francisco Bay Guardian, maps to contributions to the Newsome and Gonzalez mayoral campaigns.

The SF Bay Guardian is trying to say that Gonzalez gets backing from the Westside neighbourhoods, but if you read the legend of the map, 13-23 people gave money from my hood 94122 and from the adjacent hood of 94116, 8-12 people gave money. And my hoods aren't the richest ones either; it's very working class.

If you look at Newsome's map between 132 - 235 people contributed to Newsome campaign from zip 94122 and from zip 94116.

How do you compare over 100-200 people to 13-23 people, and say that he has contributions from the Westside?

The maps are eye-opening though. That's a alot of people contributing to the Newsome's campaign from all over the city. I had no idea that many people contributed to political campaigns.

If people really liked Gonzalez, doesn't logic tell you that he should be getting as many contributors as Newsome, especially from the hoods he won? I'm impressed and truly suprised, that so many San Francisco people gave of their hard earned money in these awful economic times.

But logic never seems to have any credence in the media or politics.

If the Bay Guardian were really fair, which they're often not, shouldn't they be reporting on the discrepancy betwen the number of people sending in contributions to Newsome versus Gonzalez?

Now either the SF Bay Guardian can't make maps and they've got the Gonzalez map wrong because $64,500 contributions plus $64,023 doesn't add up to the total of $99,500. The map so doesn't make sense, and why is that I wonder.

But the real story is the amount of contributors. Not the amounts, because rich people always give more, but the sheer numbers of people contributing to Newsome compared Gonzalez.

I know the state of Cali is in a big bad budget mess, and cuts have to be made but why do the budget cuts have to affect the poor, disabled and helpless in the state.

From the LA Times, Gov.'s Cuts to Hit Poor, Universities.

Here are some of the grim highlights:

Schwarzenegger's proposal would save $282 million by eliminating music, art, camping and other nonmedical therapy programs for the roughly 626,000 Californians who have mental or physical impairments that make it difficult to learn, speak or care for themselves. Another cut involves suspending the Lanterman Act, which guarantees myriad services for the developmentally disabled.

Another reduction would save $385 million by cutting cleaning, transportation and other in-home services that the state provides to the elderly, blind and disabled to help keep them out of nursing homes.

A smaller cut — $77 million — would freeze enrollment in several programs, including Healthy Families, which provides health care for children of the working poor, and which Schwarzenegger praised during the campaign. The freeze would create waiting lists for that program.

You may not be familiar with my home island of Kauai in Hawaii, but if you've seen these movies you've seen my island.

Here's a list of all the films shot on Kauai, Kauai Moives.

I couldn't sleep last night, so I decided to listen to Bernie Ward, a radio late night talk show host. He is the best Shrub bashing anti-Iraq war radio commentator on the airwaves, and may be the only one in the country for that matter.

He was so fun to listen to during the 2000 presidential election. It was night after night of total all out Bush family bashathon. Bernie is an unashamed left wing progressive, and will take on anyone who's willing to call into his show. Ward is smart as heck, and he makes mincemeat out of callers who can't logically back up their positions. He's like the snarkiest prosecuting attorney there is, only he's a left wing progressive.

So naturally, I was shocked as hell to hear him endorsing Newsome for mayor of San Francisco and arguing with the Gonzalez suppporters and making them sound like idiots on the radio.

Bernie, the left wing Rush Limbaugh, supporting Newsome, that's weird!

I find it interesting that almost all of the Latino groups in San Francisco, a nationality group that is the most sought after and wooed voting bloc of voters of the last ten years, isn't backing someone of their own nationality in the San Francisco's mayor's race.

I wonder how not having their endorsements will be explained, seeing as how everyone including George Bush wants their precious votes and how nowadays
if you're anti-Latino, you're considered a racist.

Can any politician criticize the Latino Groups without being called a racist?

So I just heard a politician interviewed on the radio, and either it was the worse spin job I'd ever heard in my life or the guy is just nuts and has no qualms about lying his butt off.

I mean, you'd think a smart politician would be at least try to spin himself out of a controversy. No, this one just out and out lied. It's trippy!

I take that back. Actually the worse spin job I'd even read was Rainbow Grocery trying to spin the "israeli products controversy". Boy, was that just bad, bad spin.

Whew! I'm all caught up again for the Day 23 word count of my novel which is about 38,300+ words. I was four days behind counting today, but I made myself get all caught up.

I could write and get ahead, but I'm exhausted. I've been writing off and on all day, and I think I've reached my limit. My brain is all mushy. I'll probably try to get ahead this week and maybe even finish before the deadline on the 30th.

It would be nice to have the weekend off, and not write. Writing every day is tough. You have to take some days off, otherwise it just becomes such a slog! I was alwasy skeptical of the writing 5 days a week method, but you know it's not a bad schedule. If I wrote during the week, I could have the weekends off.

The problem for me is always finding the time to write during the week, so I think at least maybe one weekend day could be a writing day and one day would be off. That sounds like a more reasonable schedule to me. I kind of like writing on the weekends because I get longer blocks of time.

It's interesting that it's the 40th anniversary of the assasination of JFK, and how the Kennedy Museum in Dallas is in my novel, as well as Dealey Plaza.

My characters will have a "date" at the Kennedy Museum, and my female character goes and sits in the Dealey Plaza every morning to contemplate Kennedy and his assasination. Her parents were big Kennedy fans, and she grew with her parents' obsession.

I visited there in spring 2000, while I was in Dallas for a Gartner Group conference. I went to the Kennedy Museum, which was within walking distance of the Hilton at Reunion Tower where I was staying.

There's a room in the museum where you can watch the Kennedy funeral procession, and while I was in there watching it some women starting crying very loudly. She didn't look old enough to have even been alive during the assasination, but she was obviously very moved by watching the funeral procession.

I've always wanted to write the weeping woman at the Kennedy Museum into a story, and now I've got a perfect opportunity. It was so weird to me that in the year 2000, some woman who wasn't even born when Kennedy was shot, would be mourning his death.

Someday I may even write a story where a female character find herself weeping so noisily at the 6th Floor Museum and Dealey Plaza. There's got to be some kind on interesting story leading up to that moment.

And now I'm thinking, my nanowrimo novel character could be the weeping woman at the Kennedy Musuem. What a perfect place to ball your eyes out over a failed love affaire. Isn't losing love like death after all, and if you were watching a funeral procession, it would like watching the funeral procession for your love.

And I did go there on a Friday morning before my flight back to San Francisco. Wow, then I could write myself in as a bystander into my own novel. I could describe myself as a background character. What a riot!

It's been so cold here, I went to the grocery store wearing long underwear under my jeans. I haven't done that in years, and I've only ever done it when I've gone up to Tahoe for the snow or when I'm back east for the winter.

It was the 20's last night, and that's really cold for San Francisco. I've even dug out my down coat just in case I'll need it. I've just worn the coat around my apartment, because I don't want to leave the heat on all the time. I was going to buy a down robe, and then thought I'll just use my down coat that I hardly ever wear.

I've been searching for down booties as well. I used to own some kind of animal hair booties from South America, that I received as a present years ago. They were really warm, but I was kind of freaked out wearing all that animal hair and fur. The fur kept my feet really warm, but the long animal hair used to totally trip me out. I didn't like it.

From the LA Times. I would hate to think this, but I could fit into the definition of a South Park Republican.

"Blogger Andrew Sullivan dubs the fans of all this cable-nurtured satire "South Park Republicans" — people who "believe we need a hard-ass foreign policy and are extremely skeptical of political correctness" but also are socially liberal on many issues."

I hate political correctness of any kind, I do like the US to have a strong foreign policy, and I tend to be socially liberal.

Here's a link to the LA Times article, Right wing's mass-media insurgency heralds a real change.

The sunset is this amazing beautiful reddish orange colour tonight. I haven't seen a sunset with these colours in ages here.

It's so beautiful!

I think I'm becoming what I'm calling a "political Darwinist". Darwin's theory, as you may remember, was that only the fit, the smartest survive.

I think I'm a political Darwinist, because if people want to vote ofr politicians who will do nothing to insure their own survival, than they deserve to not survive. Nature isn't a welfare state, remember? That's just a man-made construct.

I mean, if you're not intelligent enough see that your political choice will lead to your being unable to survive in your chosen habitat, and you have to move, then it's nobody's fault but your own.

I like being a political Darwinist, it's kind of like karma. People deserve everything they get. They have choices to make at all levels of their lives, and if they make wrong choices, they should reap their karma big time.

All the psychics are warning that karma is speeding up. If you make a wrong choice, instead of taking years to reap the the effects of that wrong choice, you'll reap it instantly. I hope they're right. The City is still way too crowded and there's definitely still too many people living here.

I hope my theory of Political Darwinism is right, and that more people be forced to leave because then the rents will come down, and hopefully so will the prices of everything else.

A high jobless rate and an economic recession should be good for something right? It's nature's way of stabilizing populations and putting things in balance.

There was a report on the local morning news show about how the SF Bay Area Food Banks are running out of food. I'm sure they did it for dramatic purposes, but the news camera man showed the empty shelves at the Food Bank in San Mateo.

I felt bad. The reason for the empty shelves, the reporter went on, was because the food banks have had to feed more people. One client also remarked that the food boxes were getting smaller and smaller, because there's just not enough food to go around.

This is the kind of stuff that makes a Sunday morning news show that nobody watches, and doesn't make the 6 pm news. There are more and more people in the SF Bay Area who are jobless and can't afford to feed themselves.

These are the issues that the local news commentators should be focusing on, and not on Governor Terminator or Michael Jackson.

It is a crime, in every sense of the word crime, that there are starving people in this very affluent part of the world and no cares enough to report on it very much.

I decided that everytime I go to the store, I'll buy extra cans of food and put the stuff in the food barrels. You know it's a sad sad world when people's basic needs like food are not being taken care of.

There's a definite kind of anger out there, that says government and politicians are not taking care of people's basic needs. It's why someone like Arnie was elected to lead the world's 5th largest economy, because if local politicians are more focused on ideologies instead of luring businesses to the state and the community so they can hire more people, maybe a Hollywood action hero can get the job done.

He does it in the movies, after all. And since most people are so removed from the political ideologies, what's the difference between the movies and politics. It's all the same, isn't it? A fantasy world that the common person doesn't inhabit or exist in.

At least in the movies, the action hero always wins and doesn't get beaten down by nonsensical political rhetoric and government beaurocracy.

I just checked the Nanowrimo site, it's only November 23 but already there are 9 pages of people done with their 50k novel. Unbelievable! I thought the point was to get in the habit of writing a certain amount of words every day, and not speed to the finish. Whatever.

This year my novel writing is going very slowly, but I'm determined to finish. I have all of Thanksgiving weekend to get cranking.

Next month, I was hoping to bring all this Nanowrimo energy into finishing my second draft screenplay, and starting the outline and rewrite of the third and final version.

I want to finish the second draft version just to finish it, and I'll probably register it with the Writer's Guild to see what that process is like. The third and final version will be sent off to that UCLA screenwriting professor review, and then I'll register this version of the screenplay with the Writer's Guild as well.

Then sometime in January or February at the latest, I'll start editing the Nanowrimo novel and rewriting it and then comes the fun job of trying to sell it. I'm scheduling myself to take a bunch of seminars on selling your writing next year.

I went to an early Thanksgiving dinner last night, and already I have turkey and gravy in the fridge.

I made a really yummy maple glazed carrot dish from Bon Appetit. Carrots boiled in butter, with a butter, maple syrup and brown sugar glaze and sprinkled with chopped italian parsley for colour.

Totally heavenly and so darned fattening!

I suppose one thing I am grateful for, if I can be grateful for anything about my writing, is I've never not had a year where I didn't write at least write one story since I started exploring writing as a creative expression in 1998.

I should make a timeline for myself of when my stories were produced to prove to myself that I am somewhat productive.

This is so funny to me. A client from the southeast region of the country sent my boss an email for a project they want us to do. The client writes in the email that they would appreciate a week TAT on the project. I get the memo because I'm working on the request.

My boss sends me another email asking if I knew what 'a week TAT. meant, and I said no. I figured it probably was a shortcut for a phrase, but I'd never heard of it.

I googled TAT, and didn't get anything. Then I googled TAT acronym, and found a list of acronyms that stated TAT meant 'turnaround time'.

This made sense because later in the memo, the client stated that the company was under pressure to deliver the project in the first week of December.

I kind of feel so behind the times that I didn't know what TAT meant, but at the same time it's amusing as heck for some reason.

Listening to the Ronn Owens Show, I heard that the Santa Barbara DA has a vendetta against Michael Jackson. Apparently, this is the same DA who was trying to prosecute Jackson back in the early 90's for child molestation when that case was settled out of court.

Owens said that on one of Michael Jackson's records, there's a song about the Santa Barbara DA. Interesting.

So now all the legal eagles are involved. Johnny Cochran of the OJ Simpson trial fame is giving statements, and Scott Peterson's lawyer is supposedly taking Michael Jackson's case. Owens called Peterson's lawyer the Johnny Cochran of 2003.

But the question, will Michael Jackson surrender? I can't imagine him in jail. I hope he gets his own cell, and they keep him away from the other prisoners.

YEAH! Now I'm all caught up with my novel again. I was two days behind and now I'm current for tonight's headcount.

It took four hours of writing to produce 5,000 plus words or about 9.5 pages of single spaced typed text.

Oy! I'm exhausted. I could keep writing more, but I know I should stop. I've heard writers say that you should make yourself stop writing when you're reached your goal, even if you want to keep writing. If you stop yourself from over writing, then you will give yourself enthusiasm and incentive for writing the next day.

Writing is such a slog. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't find some other way of expressing myself, that's not so labor intensive and single minded.

To write, I guess if you write at home, is to sit in front of your computer all night staring at your screen. I guess I could write at a coffeehouse with other people. Many of the Nano people do that just so they don't have to write alone night after night. But I can't do it that way. I've tried it. It just doesn't work very well.

I do my best writing at home by myself with my stereo blasting music. Sometimes I can write in public, but it's hard. Although now that I think about it, I'm wondering which is harder. Writing by yourself or writing with others. It's all hard! Doesn't matter which really.

The only good thing about being at home and writing is you can at least suffer in private. That's about it.

Okay, now back to the country music station. I'm now playing the soundtrack from "O Brother Where are Thou." That was such a great movie, especially the music.

Blame it on "Bend it Like Beckham", but now I'm listening to The Spice Girls. Yes, I own both Spice Girls cds, and I'm so bummed I didn't have the foresight to get The Spice Girl Dolls. My friend Ruth has all of them, and I am totally jealous.

And yes, I love Sporty "Dikey" Spice. She's got the best voice, and she's my favourite. But I liked Baby Spice as well. She was so cute!

Now I have some Reba McIntyre on. Maybe I need to go out and buy some Garth Brooks cds. I kind of like him, and I wouldn't mind have some of his greatest hits.

This Reba cd that I have has some of the most depressing songs. It's kind of a depressing cd to listen to, but I do like her voice and she does have the right accent for what I'm writing.

I found another article talking about "The Mustangs of Las Colinas", The Mustangs of Las Colinas.

Aren't the horses beautiful?

Back to writing, and I had playing some Brahms but decided I needed to listen to some Dixie Chicks because I'm on the chapter where I'm in my Texas boy's brain and I need to hear some honky tonk sounds to get me in the mood.

I have the boxed set CD of Patsy Cline's hits, and tonight may be the night to listen to the whole thing.

There's some huge white blimp that says "Sanyo" on it flying around the city. Is there a game on tonight? Those things only fly around if there's a game.

I guess here's another good reason why it's good to work at home, and why I should be grateful . No one at work knows what I'm looking at or doing when I'm on the internet.

From Blogger, How Not to Get Fired Because of Your Blog.

Thanks to Gordon Zaft for the heads up.

That whole Michael Jackson scandal is pretty weird! I listened to the press conference given by the Santa Barbara County people, and they were very condescending.

I wonder if Jackson will turn up, or as some people are speculating, commit suicide.

What some people are asking, and I think their question is valid, is why would parents allow their children to even be with Michael Jackson given that there is rampant speculation that he may be a child molestor.

And what about those children of his. What happens to them? At least with all his wealth, the children will be well taken care of financially.

Here's a link from "Booze R Us", Beverages and More on one of my favourite wines, Beaujolais Nouveau.

"Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé."

It's beaujolais nouveau time again. The release date is November 20.

I'll try to find wine reviews and post them.

From the NY Times,

"The word from France is that the nouveau is rich and fat, with outstanding color and structure. "

So why is the Schrubmeister so hot to visit merry old England, espeically when it's obvious the people don't want him there?

Okay, so he gets to sleep in Buckingham Palace, and I guess that's a big deal. I think it's maybe because there's like a knighthood or some or other honour from the British realm coming his way. Can't think why the hell else he wants to go where he's obviously not wanted.

And as predicted the steriod scandal is starting heat up, although the mainstream media seems to be ignoring it.

The Mercury News does have a section on their website for The Doping Scandal.

No media coverage on this, at least I didn't see it.

Here we go. Let the f-bombs fly.

Bono remarks were not indecent, FCC rules

"When it comes to cursing, the government says, it's all in the delivery. That's the view of the Federal Communications Commission in its decision that U2 singer Bono's colorful language during the Golden Globe Awards didn't violate federal indecency rules.

The FCC rejected complaints from the Parents Television Council and more than 200 people, most of them associated with the council, who accused dozens of television stations of violating restrictions on obscene broadcasts by airing portions of the awards program last January.

The complaints objected to Bono's uttering the phrase "this is really, really, f--- brilliant."

The FCC, using the F-word more often to explain its decision than Bono did on the air, said the word "may be crude and offensive, but, in the context presented here, did not describe sexual or excretory organs or activities." That distinction is a key test to measure whether a statement meets a federal standard for broadcast indecency."

I listened to the inauguration ceremony on the radio and I'll say one thing about Governor Terminator, he's got a heck of speech writer.

It makes me wonder why all the candidates running for public office can't have good speech writers. Aren't their enough unemployed people in the country to choose from?

I am the laziest person I know. I didn't write on Friday or Saturday, and today is my chance to get caught up on my novel and I don't want to do it.

I wrote enough tonight to cover Friday's word count, and I know if I just keep writing till I get sleep I'll be all caught for Sunday's word count. The problem is I just don't want to do it.

I don't know why either. It's not like I don't know what I'm going to write about because I do. And it's not like I'm having trouble writing either, because getting the word count for Friday earlier this evening was easy.

I just have such a desire to not write. It's crazy too, because I was just telling myself this morning that I've achieved my goal of being a writer, if a writer is someone who writes almost every day and produces stories. I've done that.

Now my new goal is to be a paid writer, which is a whole new way of writing and a whole new process. My goal has always been to be a paid writer, but being paid for writing is an entirely different proposition than being just a "writer" I've decided. I needed to become a writer first, before I could tackle being a "paid writer".

My new writing book gave me the inspiration. The book plainly and simply states that you cannot call yourself a writer, unless you write and produce product. It doesn't give define the quality of the product you produce, because that's not the point if you're a writer. A writer is simply a person who writes regularly everyday.

My chapter 5 is 11 pages. I don't want to switch chapters yet, but that's a ton of pages for a chapter.

My characters are running away from outline, but I guess that's okay. It happens sometimes.

I went to see the movie Billabong Odyssey today.

"The feature film release "Billabong Odyssey" documents the dramatic life-or-death adventures of a team of surfer/explorers who search the seven seas on the quest to find and ride the biggest wave on the planet."

It was pretty cool to see these huge waves being surfed, but I wonder what surf purists think about being towed out to a wave instead of paddling out.

Whenever I see surf movie, I feel like I'm honouring my Hawaii home roots since I grew up watching surf movies, and thinking surfers, skateboarders and windsurfers were like so rad and cool!

The movie website has videos you can watch, which are small bits of the movie.

I just listened to an interview with Brit actor Colin Firth, who played Mr. D'Arcy in "Pride and Prejudice" and "Bridget Jones' Diary". I love Mr. D'Arcy, like what girl doesnt'?

I didn't know this but the interviewer said that the scene in "Pride and Prejudice" which made Colin Firth a heart throb, was the one where he dives with his clothes on into the lake at his estate and emerges in his wet shirt. I didn't think that scene was sexy at all, but apparently many women did.

Colin Firth also writes, and one of his short stories was published in a book called Speaking with the Angel, edited by Nick Hornby.

Colin Firth, one of those totally yummy bickie Brit boys, is a writer. He says he writes as a hobby without any ambition to be published, and that Nick Hornby encouraged him to contribute his story to the collection. He's brilliant, isn't he?

Warning, unedited bad first draft fiction ahead. Below is the excerpt I posted for my novel on the Nanowrimo site.

Title: Texas is a State of Mind

Chapter 1.
It all started innocently enough. Just a series of random events that started happening in my life that could have turned out another way. I was writing articles on the ceo’s of various dot com companies that had failed during the crash of 2000. You know the guys who promised internet startup riches to venture capitalists, and the hapless public who saw the internet boom as the next get rich scheme. These same guys then proceeded to lose more than a trillion dollars worth of money during the crash. And not their money mind you, but the money of countless investors, companies and the greedy public. Yeah those guys.

Those guys were smart. They made their money in the beginning, gave themselves nice golden parachutes so in case the companies went belly up as all of them did, they would still have enough money to cook up their next get rich scheme. Ah golden parachute, now there’s a nice term that I should explain.

A golden parachute is the deal, the package, a ceo, usually the founder of a company demands in case for whatever reason he is let go, wants to leave or is fired. See, the guy has leverage in the beginning because he’s the one with the ideas and it’s his startup company.

The deal is usually lots of lots of cash, sometimes things like a plane, the company car, the company house, you know all the goodies the guy at the top should get and keep getting, never mind that the company’s stock is sinking lower than the Titanic.

And these ceo’s, they were great interview material. None of them were bitter. Would you be bitter if you walked away with millions? No, they were positive, upbeat, great talkers and salesmen and believers of their own dreams and visions. After all this time, after all the money they lost and people they let down, they were still willing to sell their dream.

And the public loved them. Loved reading about them. They were modern day Horatio Algers. These former high flying ceos were the guys everybody wanted to be, wanted to know, wanted to follow. That is until he came along.

“You’ve got to interview this guy Jane. He would be a great counterpoint to all the other people you’ve interviewed so far.” John my editor told me one morning during our weekly Monday morning assignment meeting. It was John’s idea to do the ceo articles, and he was the one who arranged for me to meet these people and interview them.

“Raker? Never heard of him.”

“That’s the point. Nobody’s ever heard of him. He’s the CEO who never was, who got there right at the top of the dot come wave, right before it was to crash. He was just about to hit it big, his company was about to go public at the end of April, and the boom, the crash happened.” John was up out of his chair now, his arms flying about like a bird who’s trying to take off.

“So how you’d hear about him?” I said in an even toned voice sitting back in my chair, hoping to calm him down. John standing up like that made me nervous; he was too excited. John sat down and smiled like a kid with a secret.

“Businessweek.”

“Businessweek? You’re stealing a story lead from them?”

“It’s not stealing. They just did a paragraph on him, when they were doing a special on the business climate in Texas after the dot com crash.” John was shuffling through the papers on his desk to find the magazine. It was buried under a pile of about twenty other journals at the bottom of his desk. He plopped the magazine down in front of me.

“Here’s your next assignment. I’ll get my secretary to schedule the interview. You might have to fly to Dallas to do the interview this week. He doesn’t like California.”

"Wait a minute. I don’t know anything about him. I need time to do my research about him.” I hated going into an interview blind and not knowing anything about my subject. An interviewer has less control that way.

“There’s not going to much information to research. I told you he wasn’t famous. But if it would make you more comfortable, I’ll try to get the interview scheduled for Wednesday of next week. You might be able to do more research once you’re in Dallas, so think about flying there on Monday. I expect the completed story on my desk the Monday after you get back.”

“What made you pick him?” I asked thumbing through the magazine to find the paragraph about Mr. Raker.

“He’s bitter about the whole experience.
You haven’t found a bitter CEO yet. This will be your first.”

After leaving John’s office, I went to the corner coffee shop to get breakfast and read about his latest discovery. A bitter failed dot com chief executive officer. A guy who almost made it, but never did. Marshall B. Raker was my next assignment, and even I could tell he was going to be a doozy.

More 60's music with The Doors first album. I think I mentioned sometime ago that my mom was a serious Jim Morrison fan. The woman was so distraught when he died.

Okay, so now my characters are driving to this restaurant in Dallas called The Mustang Cafe at Las Colinas. The horse sculptures at the place are beautiful.

Jim Morrison is crooning "Come on baby my light fire, come on baby light my fire, try to set the night on fire." The Doors are also definitely stoner music.

My sixties mood continues. Now I'm listening to Bob Dylan's album, "These Times They are a Changing."

I saw Dylan in concert a few years ago with Van Morrison as a guest. He was great, old looking, but fantastic. The guy is still rocking after all these years, and he was very energetic.