Okay I know people love christmas decorations and the lights, but enough already. It's January 15, and there are still christmas lights, christmas trees, and christmas decorations up. I even saw a manger scene still on someone's lawn today, and there are still fake plastic santas in the windows.

I know the greek orthodox religion has a longer christmas season, but there can't be that many greek orthodox people in San Francisco. And it's not just my neighborhood. The Christmas stuff is still all over San Francisco.

I've been doing wall sits since Monday. It's a great exercise to strengthen your thigh and knees. I can't believe I used to be able to hold this position for five minutes.

The legs are the hardest part of the body to workout and get definition, because you're on your feet all day. I have to do a ton of leg exercises to get definition on my legs, and even doing leg presses of 200-300 pounds doesn't help much. If I do weights, I usually like to work my legs until they shake. It's the only way I know I've worked all my muscles.

Here's the basics of the wall sit exercise.

Wall Sit: While standing with your back against the wall, bend your knees allowing yourself to squat. Hold this position for as long as you can. You are working to increase the amount of knee bend up to a seated position and the length of time.

I can do the wall sit for two minutes and fifteen seconds, and after that my legs begin to shake. It's a great way to get rock hard thighs, at least on the front portion. It doesn't do much for your hamstrings though. I'd like to get back up to five minutes.

Of course all this eating at fancy nice restaurants is wrecking havoc with my plan to lose 20 pounds, but it's fun to eat out for cheap.

I've been wearing my pedometer again, and trying to walk 10,000 steps a day or about 4-5 miles a day. So far this month I've only missed two days, and had one day where I only walked 8,200 steps and one day when I walked 5,000 steps.

On the days when I go to the gym I don't track my steps, but I work out for an hour. I've had two gym days so far.

I'm also doing Callanetics exercises at home. Callanetics is really great for tightening and firming your body up. These exercises are also really good if you have back problems as well.

I'm thinking January will be a washout as far as losing weight, but I'm okay with that as long as I can get back into the the habit of exercising and walking and eating within my calorie range on the days I'm not eating out.

And maybe if I really get into it, I'll start working out with my pilates and yoga tapes again.

Dine about Town San Francisco 2004 Experience # 2 - Rubicon.

Rubicon is a great restaurant, and definitely worth the price of its dinners, and a bargain for its three course fixed price meal. Their attention to detail and presentation is excellent, the food is fantastic and if you're a wine buff, they have an award winning extensive wine list.

I'd been to Rubicon for a business lunch before when it first opened, but never for dinner. For Dine About Down 2004, they are only serving dinner.

They were named as one of the Top 100 Bay Restaurants in 2003, and here's SFGATE.com had to say about them.

"Few restaurants are better known for their sommelier than their chef, but Larry Stone has made Rubicon a wine-lovers' mecca. Of course, the wine wouldn't be shown off nearly as well without the talents of chef Dennis Leary, and the handsome interior. The brick walls and sculptural earthquake support beams play against refined wood booths and Dale Chihuly glass sculptures. It feels like a big-city restaurant, and has celebrity cachet: It's owned by New York restaurateur Drew Nieporent, Robert De Niro and several other celebrities. Leary offers the traditional a la carte and fixed-price menus, including a vegetarian option."

Here's the Dine about Town menu.

choice of:
Organic Arugula Salad with Walnuts and Crescenza Cheese
or
Chestnut Soup with a Foie Gras Crouton

choice of:
Pumpkin Risotto with Pinenuts, Parmesan and Sage
or
Roasted White Bass with Herb Potato Purée and "Thermidor" Sauce
or
"Blanquette de Veau" Veal Stew with Winter Vegetables and Puff Pastry

choice of:
Rubicon Créme Brûlée with Housemade Cookies
or
Chocolate Fondant with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

I had the arugula salad, bass and the chocolate fondant. My friend had the soup, bass and creme brulee. Instead of "Blanquette de Veau", they were serving a duck comfit.

Since it's a school night we decided to just have one glass of wine each, so we asked the waiter to recommend a red wine. He chose an excellent light italian red wine.

The service was excellent and besides what we ordered we received a small appetizer of smoke salmon courtesy of the chef, and after dessert some kind of really light cannoli or profiterole, again courtesy of the chef.

It's these little touches like extra food from the chef, that make Rubicon such a great place to eat. They treat you well, and it makes you want to come back for more. The restaurant itself is beautiful, with a glass sculpture flower arrangement that my friend thought looked like the glass sculpted flowered ceiling of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. She was right. The glass sculpture were done by the samer person. Whatever you think ambiance is, Rubicon definitely has it.

Red Herring was okay, but it doesn't merit a trip back. Rubicon is a restaurant to go to for a great meal and for special occassion dinners.

I'm becoming the raging consumer.

I have a subscription to Vanity Fair, and my renewal notice came in the mail for $24.95 for one year and I paid it. I received what would have been the last issue today had I not renewed, and there was an offer card which said I could get renew for $15. This irked because I just paid the higher price.

So I called their customer service and told the operator I just renewed my subscription at the higher price, and it wasn't fair because if I had waited till the last issue I would have saved $9.95.

The operator agreed with me and credited me with 10 more issues. I'm glad I called. Usually I don't care or pay attention to stuff like this, or if I do notice it I just let it go. Not anymore. It pays to call customer service because the worse they can say is no. And if they agree, you save money and saving money is a good thing.

Some would say this is France's karma for their behaviour and opposition towards the US in the war on terrorism; The Beginning of the French Jihad?

I supposed I should say something about Paul O'Neill's revelations on 60 minutes. Everyone else seems to be talking about it, and are shocked by what he said.

Me, I'm not. As an avid reader and listener to conspiracy news and talk, O'Neill's assertions were not new. Conspiracy people have been saying for years now that it was only a matter of time before Shrub was going to finish what his father started in Gulf War 1. The events of 9/11 only added to the urgency. In fact, I remember even hearing that Sadam Hussein was even predicting it himself.

It's why I didn't vote for Shrub, but talk about similarities between the Shrubmeister and Clinton.

I remember having doubts about Bill Clinton because of that Flowers girl, and wondering if the allegations about him were true and if history was going to repeat itself. The conservative talk radio shows were harping on this issue, and yet Slick Willie got elected and sure enough the Monica Lewinsky debacle came along. I wasn't shocked then either, since I'd wondered myself if it was going to happen.

So now the same thing happens to Bush. His detractors said that he would go after Hussein, Hussein even knew it himself, and yet Bush got elected. And sure enough, a member of his administration said the plan to go after Iraq was in place before 9/11. And once again, I'm not shocked.

So the mainstream media picks up a story that's been around since 1999. Big deal!

And while I now think the 2004 presidential election will be closer than expected, like Slick Willie, the Shrubmeister will be reelected. History is repeating itself, and it's so spooky!

Being a semi-vegetarian, I've been shopping at Trader Joe's ever since I moved to San Francisco. They carried veggie burgers, and other vegetarian type food. Now Trader Joe's is popular and all over the place according to this Mercury News article, Specialty market carves out niche, FUNKY FORMULA: GOURMET FOOD AT LOW PRICES.

The kind of people that shop at Trader Joe's might be changing, but they haven't changed much at all. They still carry the same kinds of products they did when I first started shopping there.

The same can't be said for Rainbow Grocery. I remember when they used to be at 14th and Mission, and they were small and everyone was really friendly and nice. The lady at the vitamin counter really knew her stuff, and they used to even sell organic clothing. I still own clothes I bought from there.

Since they've moved and gotten bigger, they're just not the same anymore. The workers aren't as friendly, they don't sell the same stuff, and it's just not the friendly and comfortable place to buy health foods that I remember.

Rainbow Grocery better watch out. Whole Foods (whole paycheck) is moving into their neighbourhood; Finally, SoMa gets a supermarket: Whole Foods to open Wednesday on Fourth Street. Whole Foods knows they're known as "whole paycheck", and they've become very competitive on their pricing. Their prices are very close to the prices at Rainbow Grocery.

The LA Times has a really thought provoking article on the media, Trashing the Media. The LA Times requires registration, so be aware of that if it comes up.

This paragraph really stood out for me.

"The Left is sort of responding to a world that isn't even here anymore," Schechter says. "They tend to look at power as being government power, whereas the real power shift has been from the public to the private, which operates more subtly, with much less accountability, more in the shadows. The government is not the driver. Market values are the driver."

If politics is all about the payback, as a female voter I think I've gotten my money's worth by voting for Gavin Newsome.

Mayor Newsome is endorsing a woman to head the San Francisco Fire Fighters; Newsom names female fire chief: Historic choice for big-city department.

Mayor Newsome is also appointing a non-white woman to the Board of Education; S.F school board to get new member Bernal Heights consultant replaces departing Cruz.

More women in positions of power in the city and county of San Francisco is worth the price of my vote any day!

There's chatter all over the internet that the next terrorist attack will be in Europe. If that happens, I wonder what the European will say about it all.

Some in the world press said that 9/11 was the USA's fault. I wonder whose fault will it be if there is a similar 9/11 attack on Europe?

The following is from an article in the NY Times on classic alternative rock programming: "It is only natural to introduce a classic alternative format because people are usually most excited about the music they heard as teenagers, said Don Yates, the music director at Seattle's KEXP-FM."

This is where I guess I'm not not like most people. I mean, sure I love listening to music from my youth, but not all the time. It's fun to listen to music from college and even high school, because then the memories start and you can relive your youth.

But after awhile, I start to wonder if why I'm doing that. My best glory days aren't behind me, they're ahead of me always. Sure the past was fun, but it was also sometimes very painful. I like the present and the future much, much better. It's unexplored, it's new, and that's exciting. Besides too much nostalgia makes me feel ancient and used up, and who wants to feel that way.

So I listen to the new music and create new glory day memories every year, and no matter what the radio is playing I'm totally loving it.

I went to see "The Last Samurai" on Saturday. Despite the critics' reviews, I thought it was a great movie although it could have used some judicious editing. It's a long movie and sometimes not much happens, but I liked it anyway.

I loved all the samurai philosophy, the scenes of Japan and all those great samurai costumes. And of course being a kung fu cinema girl, all that great sword fighting and blood going everywhere battle scenes. I love watching squirting blood flying out all over the place.

They had fabulous shots of Mount Fuji and for the first time, I thought I might have had an incarnation there. I've been around japanese culture my whole life, and never once did I ever think I might have been japanese in another life.

But seeing Mount Fuji and the village life in the mountains gave me a dejavu feeling, like it was somehow home or something. Maybe I was like a japanese girl living in a village at the steps of Mount Fuji.

I've never been that keen on going to Japan but now I want to visit and see the buddhist and shinto temples, especially the giant buddha at Kamakura.

The Last Sumarai takes during the time of the Meiji period in Japan, which was fun for me because of the woodblock prints art exhibition from the Meiji era that I saw a few years ago. That exhibition was on the best art exhibitions I'd seen in a long time, and it made me want to own and collect japanese woodblock prints.

Tom Cruise's performance was good, but not as great as his performances in "Born on the Fourth of July" and "Magnolia". He can do bitter guy really, really well.

Poor Carly Fiorina. I feel sorry for her. Look at what SFGATE.com is saying about her; Economists back tech industry's overseas hiring Workers deny U.S. lacks qualified staff.

I think I mentioned this awhile ago, but at my last job in San Francisco, I drafted a plan at the request of my boss to move my company's IT programming staff and work to Singapore. Singapore gives companies willing to train and move programming jobs to their country, huge tax credits and all kinds of breaks and incentives.

Besides cutting IT staffing costs in half, my company would have saved more money with the Singapore government tax credits and breaks. Compaq has their operations there.

The presentation I put together was for the Singapore EDB (economic development board), which has an office in Redwood City. My boss gave the presentation to the Singapore EDB in Singapore in the fall of 1999, and the SEDB loved it.

The economic incentive to move our IT operations to Singapore were huge, and I had a Carly Fiorina type rationale going through my head when I was drafting the presentation. It was all about the money though, and I knew it. But I so relate to Carly Fiorina right now.

Red Herring was good.

The price fixed three course menu was:

1. Ceasar salad
2. Seared Pepper Tuna (raw inside) - smoked bacon, arugula, white beans + salsa verde or Jonah Blue Crab Risotto - grilled asparagus + marscapone cheese. Waiter told us there wasn't much crab in the risotto, so we got the tuna. White beans were a little underdone, but otherwise it was good. Loved that smoked bacon.
3. For dessert, mascarpone brulee with strawberries covered in a brown sauce which was either a burnt sugar sauce or balsalmic vinegar.

For wine we ordered a bottle of Cakebread 2002 sauvignon blanc. A good lite white wine, if you need one. And for cocktails, sauza margaritas on the rocks with salt, which was the drink of the day. Wished the drink was made with fresh squeezed lime juice, but very few places do that.

This is fun. I'm going to the Red Herring Restaurant for dinner tonight as part of Dine About Down San Francisco.

Before Red Herring that space was occupied by a restaurant called Roti, which had good food but went out of business or as the website says, evolved into Red Herring. Roti used to make the best onion rings in San Francisco, only they called them "onion strings".

These are so cute! I found this posted on a bulletin board I belong to.

A Bible Teacher asked her class to write notes "to God".
Here are some they handed in:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
I didn't think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset You made on Tuesday. That was cool.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don't You keep the ones You already have?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
Maybe Cain and Abel would not have killed each other if they had their own rooms. That's what my Mom did for me and my brother.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
If You watch me in church on Sunday, I'll show You my new shoes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
I bet it is very hard to love everyone in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I'm having a hard time loving all of them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
In school they told us what You do. Who does it when You are on vacation?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
Are You really invisible or is it just a trick?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
Is it true my father won't get into heaven if he uses his bowling words in the house?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
Did You mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
Who draws the lines around the countries?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
I went to this wedding and they kissed right in the church. Is that OK?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
Did You really mean "do unto others as they do unto you"? Because if You did, then I'm going to get my brother good.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
Thank You for the baby brother, but I think you got confused because what I prayed for was a puppy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
Please send me a pony. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
I want to be just like my Daddy when I get big, but not with so much hair all over.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
You don't have to worry about me; I always look both ways.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
I think about You sometimes, even when I'm not praying.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
Of all the people who worked for You, I like Noah and David the best.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
My brother told me about being born but it doesn't sound right. They're just kidding, aren't they?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
I would like to live 900 years just like the guy in the Bible.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear God:
We read Thomas Edison made light. But in Sunday school they said You did it. So, I bet he stole Your idea.

Check this out. Some congressman freak from Sacratomato has submitted a bill to ban some of my favourite and cherished swear words from the airwaves.

Politician would ban dirty words from TV He's angry that FCC failed to act .

What the f@#ck? A plague of fbombs on that man's house!

Just for fun and because I'm in that kind of mood, I posted on Craig's list in Rants and Raves for San Francisco asking for a definition of the phrase "WMS (wild monkey sex)".

I'm curious to see what kind of definitions people will send me, if I get any responses at all that is.

I googled the phrase "wild monkey sex" and found the following definition.

The idea of wild monkey sex is to have abnormally passionate and/or hot, sticky, sweat-pouring-down-your-back SEX! with someone. Generally used in context to a particularily physically attractive person with whom sexual intercourse is desired or achieved.

Yeah! I'm writing again, at least for tonight, and just finished putting down 1,909 words.

I'm having my couple go horseback riding. How like typically harlequin romance story is that, having the couple go horsebacking riding. They'll ride together, get to know each other, later have dinner atop Reunion Tower and then boom, they're in bed having WMS (wild monkey sex). Sounds like a good date to me!

Sometimes I surprise myself in my writing with the phrases I come up with.

Like this one - his avaricious way of eating.

I'm like, where did that phrase come from?

I've been writing a little by hand every day. I just can't sit myself down to write for a long period of time.

250 words a day is such a small amount from the 1,667 words I was trying to write in November. Still I suppose, something is better than nothing.

A friend of mine told me awhile ago, after a vigorous discussion about local politics, that all my political problems stemmed from the fact that I don't fee downtrodden enough.

Apparently, I don't feel left out enough, not disenfranchised enough, not poor enough, not poverty consciousness enough, and I don't feel like the world has messed me over. I don't feel cheated by big business or corporations, and I don't feel angry enough about certain political policies.

He said I was too happy, too idealistic in my own merry way, way, and too optimistic to vote, in his opinion, the right way.

I've been thinking about what he said, and I'm like maybe he's right. I do feel like I've accomplished a ton in my life. I don't think I've been messed up by big corporations and business too much. Sure I've had job insecurities big time, but who hasn't experienced that.

And I am basically optimistic about my future prospects. Maybe I'm like so naive, and I'm still that country girl from Kauai which is a small rock in the middle of the Pacific ocean, but I honestly don't feel that downtrodden.

Maybe I am, but it sure has hell doesn't feel that way to me. I feel very blessed about my life, always have. Things could have gone so much worse for me and they haven't.

Does being happy and blessed about my life make me a conservative person? In my friend's eyes, it does. And I'm thinking, I don't care if I am conservative. I like my life. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Stupid windows xp! My windows explorer is only corrupted for my work profile, and not for anything else. How screwy is that?

If I log on as the administrator to my work laptop, windows explorer works. If I log on as myself into the corporate network, windows explorer doesn't work.

Bad morning at work.

First, a way too early conference call that I kept wondering I was asked to attend in the first place.

Then my windows explorer quit working, which means I can't search for documents. I tried to troubleshoot on my own but with no luck. Finally, I called the IT support desk at corporate and come to find out I have to reinstall Windows XP or at least repair it.

Damn! Three hours of troubleshooting only to come to the conclusion that I should just reinstall my operating system. Stupid windows XP! The IT guy is overnighting a cd to me, so he can walk me through the reinstallation or repair tomorrow.

I hate this! I hate computer problems.

One thing that I feel really bad about that happened during this mayoral election, is my loss of trust with The San Francisco Bay Guardian.

I used to really respect their reporting and their viewpoints, but this last election has opened my eyes to their incrediable bias and myopic view of the world. They would value principals above common sense and people any day.

Oh well. Like I said earlier, what goes around comes around and with events in the world spinning faster and faster, what would take years for something to come around is now happening in months if not quicker.

Never again will I ever give any credence to The San Francisco Bay Guardian political recommendations nor their political articles and commentaries. They're way too biased to be read for fair reporting purposes, and I'm not interested in reading a propaganda rag.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian gives utter and complete evidence to the conservative claim of a liberal media bias. This goes for the San Francisco Examiner, The San Francisco Sentinel and The San Francisco Call as well.

So I received a call at my work number for one of those infamous KPIX Channel 5 telephone survey polls.

The question was what grade would I give soon to be former mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown for his tenure as mayor.

I wanted to give Willie a D, but I gave him a C. The man was a nightmare and practically ruined San Francisco, but the city is still here and although bruised and damaged, it's still alive and kicking.

Willie's biggest damage to the city was his lack of policy or direction during the dotcom boom, but everyone got that one wrong including the media.

People just got greedy, and greedy people don't make intelligent decisions. What's worse, greedy people think the wealth is going to last forever and it never ever does. Money does that 99.9% of people, so in that regard Willie was average and deserved a C grade for running the city by the bay.

I received an invitation last week to attend Gavin Christopher Newsome's mayoral innauguration tomorrow at San Francisco City Hall.

I've been thinking about going only because I've never been to one, and I did do some campaign work for the guy. I wonder besides reporters, what kind of people show up for these things.

I used to hear the Bush voters on talk radio shows say how they disenfranchised they feel because people say Bush is an illegitimate president, and that their vote doesn't count. I never used to feel sorry for those people at all.

Now as Newsome absentee voter I know exactly how those Bush voters feel. Talk about karma! I feel disenfranchised myself because the Gonzo people keep saying how my vote doesn't count and that Newsome and the downtown forces stole the election.

I don't even work in downtown San Francisco, and haven't since 1997, and I'm getting lumped in with the evil downtown forces.

Remember all those serious Clinton bashers? They're getting their political karma now because now we have serious Bush bashers. What goes around comes around.

All this politician bashng .... it's just bad karma, inappropriate, and not right on some level if you're not focusing solely on the issues and you're operating on the level of pure hatred.

What goes around comes around. Bush bashing will end someday, and if and when a demo becomes the president, then it will be GOP's turn to bash.

I started "Mystic River" by Dennis Lehane last night. It's a beach read book. Not sure I like the subject, but I want to read the book before I see the movie.

Lehane won an award for his first novel "A Drink Before War", and I should probably read that book as well. He's a very descriptive and evocative writer, but let's just say the story isn't grabbing me.

It was a slow day at work, so I was pondering my writing or lack thereof in December.

The last time I worked on my novel was December 5. After that I got caught up writing about the election on my blog. Then I had to write a five page paper for my art history class, and study for my art history final which was on December 15. And then it was the holidays and shopping and just major relaxing.

But no writing, which is not good, but maybe understandable since I spent all of November doing the 50K nanowrimo thing.

But on Sunday I got that nagging feeling that there was something missing in my life and if I didn't start doing it, I would start getting depressed. That something is always "writing". Writing makes me feel like I'm doing something with my life and that I have a purpose, other than just existing.

I can't just live and exist and not have a purpose for my life. Other people can live like that, but I can't. I wish I could, but I've tried it, it doesn't work for me and it makes me feel totally depressed.

I've always got to be doing something that makes me feel like I have a purpose, that there's a reason for me be living and existing, and that the "something" is contributing to humanity on whatever level.

This urge must be some kind of aberrant gene or something I have, because other people don't seem to have a problem leading a different kind of life.

So it's back to writing tonight and working on the novel, and a host of other items on my "writing to do list".

I finished reading "Golf in the Kingdom". Golf software guy, the one that got away, would have been proud of me. Besides being an art director for golf software games, he was an avid golfer. The boy golfed at least three times a week, usually with other execs from work. Must be nice!

I'm not a golfer, but it's fun to read these books because the writers talk about mysticism and hinduism and try and relate it to the game of golf. Michael Murphy even went to stay at Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry India. My meditation teacher lived and studied at the Aurobindo ashram, so there's that connection there.

I can't imagine Krishna playing golf though, can you? Shiva maybe, even Rama and Hanuman, but not Krishna, no way. Why would he play golf with the boys when he could be out playing his flute and hanging out with those Gopi girls and being the blue god of love?

Golf is a good game for guys. It gives them a hobby and something to do on the weekends without you, and they can hang with the fellas and have male bonding time. And all the best hotels have golf courses, so you end up staying at some really nice places. Golf software guy's favourite vacation spot was The Inn at Spanish Bay.

I stepped on the scale this morning and scared myself. I weigh way too much at 162 pounds. My size 8 pants are like so tight, and I saw myself in the mirror the other day and I had a poochy belly! Spooky! That poochy belly of mine wasn't there in November.

So now I'm back to counting calories again, and doing my 10,000 steps per day. I worked out on Friday, and finally went to the gym on Sunday. I had to force myself to go, since de-habited myself and didn't go the gym at all in December.

Maybe this time I'll get to goal weight of 135-140 pounds. I watched a Dateline NBC program on losing weight, and all the diets they tried worked even hypnosis. They rated the marathon runner number the winner and the Atkins dieter second.

I tried Atkins and since I've been a partial vegetarian since I was 19 years old, Atkins was really, really hard. My body just can't handle all that protein, and I was only eating chicken, fish and eggs. If your body can handle eating all that meat-eating, then Atkins does work.

Counting calories and exercising everyday worked for me the last time, and I'll stick to that. I'm going to modify my eating a little bit by consuming more salads and fruits as meals. I'm kind of on a raw food kick.

At least I didn't gain all the weight I lost back, and although my jeans and pants are super tight, I can still wear them. 27 pounds doesn't seem like much, but we'll see.

What a drag it is to be at work today.

I took the day off after christmas and new years, so I had two four day weekends off in a row. It was so heavenly.

But now I'm back at work and it will be my first full week of work in two weeks. I need more holidays!

Maybe if I print my monthly reading list, I'll make myself find the time to read more books.

For January my reading list is:

Golf in the Kingdom by Michael Murphy - I just started this book, and found it after reading reviews of "The Legend of Bagger Vance". It's written by the founder of the Esalen Institute at Big Sur.

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley - won the pulitzer prize in 1992 (for award winning books)

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane - the book is supposed to be better than the movie.

It's kind of fun and interesting to look back and go over everything I've done in the past year. Sometimes I think I do and see so much that if I don't write them down, I totally forget about them and they all become one big blur.

Plays/Operas/Art Exhibits/Concerts/Shows seen in 2003
American Buffalo by David Mamet - play
Arts of Pacifica Asia - art exhibit
Blue Window by Craig Lucas - play
Chano Dominguez - concert
Diane Arbus: Revelations - art exhibit
Goryeo Dynasty: Korea’s Age of Enlightenment (918 to 1392) - art exhibit
Henri Moore: Celebrating a Gift - art exhibit
La Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz - opera
Leonardo Da Vinci and the Splendor of Poland - art exhibit
Les Belles Soeurs by Michael Tremblay - play
Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos - play
Love's Labour's Lost by Shakespeare - play
Marc Chagall Retrospective - art exhibit
Modigliani & the Artists of Montparnasse at LACMA - art exhibit
Old Masters, Impressionists, and Moderns: French Masterworks from the State Pushkin Museum, Moscow at LACMA - art exhibit
Opera in the Gardens - concert
Opera in the Park - concert
Orchid Show - orchid exhibit
Paul Klee - art exhibit
Philip Guston Retrospective - art exhibit
Primary Matters: The Minimalist Sensibility, 1959 to the Present - art exhibit
The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict - art exhibit
The Changing Garden: Four Centuries of European and American Art - art exhibit
The Constant Wife by W. Somerset Maugham - play
The Dazzle by Richard Greenberg - play
The Ramayana by Ruben Polendo - play
The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov - play
Treasures of a Lost Art: Italian Manuscript Painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance - art exhibit
Treasures of Modern Art: The Legacy of Phyllis Wattis at SFMOMA - art ehxibit
Urinetown The Musical - play
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett - play
Wicked The Musical - play
Winslow Homer: Artist and Angler - art exhibit

Movies seen in 2003
2 Fast 2 Furious - theater
28 Days Later - theater
A mighty wind - theater
About a boy - video
About Schmidt – theater
Adaptation - theater
Agent Cody Banks - theater
Asoka - video
Austin powers 2- goldmember - theater
Bend it like Beckham – vdeo
Billabong Odyssey - theater
Blade 2 - video
Blood Simple - video
Bringing Down the House - video
Bruce Almighty - theater
Bulletproof Monk - video
Catch me if you can - video
Center Stage - video
Chicago - theater
Daredevil - video
Dark City - video
Down with Love - theater
Dreamcatcher - video
Elf - theater
Falling in Love - video
Far from heaven - video
Four Feathers - video
Gangs of new york - theater
Gettsyburg - video
Gods & Generals - video
Identity - video
Iron Monkey - video
Kate and Leopold - video
Kill Bill Part 1 - theater
Lara Croft and the cradle of life - theater
Laurel Canyon - Video
League of Extraordinary Gentleman - theater
Lilo & stitch – video
Lost in Translation - theater
Lotr-the two towers – theater
Luther - theater
Maid in manhattan - video
Metropolis - video
My big fat greek wedding - video
Once Upon a Time in China - video
Phone Booth - video
Pirates of the Caribbean - theater
Planet of the Apes – video
Possession - video
Punchdrunk Love - video
Queen of the Damned - video
Red Dragon - video
Requiem for a dream - video
Revelation - video
Road to Perdition - video
Rockstar - video
Roger Dodger - video
Scarface - video
Sexy Beast - video
Shiri - video
Snatch - video
Spider - video
Spirited Away by Miyazaki - video
Spirit-stallion of the Cimarron - video
Step into Liquid - theater
Sunshine State - video
SWAT - theater
The bourne identity - video
The Cable Guy - video
The Gift - video
The Good Girl - video
The hours - theater
The Hulk - video
The Importance of Being Earnest - video
The Italian Job - video
The Legend of the Red Dragon - video
The Man from the Elysian Fields - video
The Matrix Reloaded - theater
The Matrix Reloaded Imax - theater
The Matrix Revolutions Imax - theater
The Matrix Revoluions - theater
The Ninth Gate - video
The pianist - theater
The quiet american - theater
The Sheltering Sky - video
The Shipping News - video
Undercover brother - video
Underworld – theater
Waiting for Guffman - video
Whale Rider - video
White Oleander - video
Winged Migration - theater
Xmen - video
Xmen 2 - theater

Books Read in 2003 - Oy vey! I'm not reading enough books per year. Will try to make a To Read list every month to make sure I keep up with my reading. My goal is three books a month, and I'm focusing on award winning books.

A Writer's Time - Ken Atchity
Amazing Healing Foods - Marsh Morrison
And both were young - Madaleine L’engle
Angels & Demons - Dan Brown
Art since 1940 - Jonathan Feinberg
Blood Child & Other Stories - Octavia E. Butler
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier
Dressing Rich - Leah Feldon
False memory - Dean Koontz
God talk: Travels in Spiritual America - Brad Gooch
I Heard the Owl Call my Name - Margaret Craven
Liars Poker - Michael Lewis
Making a Good Writer Great - Linda Seger
Miracle Body Tuneup for Rejuvenated Health - Marsh Morrison
Miracle Guide for Pain Free Health - Marsh Morrison
Misc vacation reading - read 2 harleqn romances & an organization book (how embarrassing but I was at my grandma's house and they were there)
Paradise Park - Allegra Goodman
Phantoms - Dean Koontz
Possession - A. S. Byatt
The Avatar Masters Handbook - Harry Palmer
The Cat who Smelled Smoke - Lillian Braun
The Da Vinci Code - Dan brown
The David story - Robert Alter
The Hours - Michael Cunningham
The Kitchen God's wife - Amy Tan
The Legend of Bagger Vance - Steven Pressfield
The Plains of Passage - Jean Auel
The Shelters of Stone - Jean Auel
The Time is Now - Rabbi Daniel S Wolk
The Whole Picture - Richard Walter

I woke up early this morning dreaming of aliens disguised as human. The dream was so interesting, I went back to sleep to see if I could reenter it. I was able to reenter my alien dreamworld four times, and each time the new dream picked up where the old dream ended.

I was with a group of people, and somehow we were the only ones who could tell who the martians really were. We were trying to infiltrate the martian community in the dessert.

But then I woke up finally and couldn't get back to sleep. Damn!!! The dream hadn't ended yet, and I didn't find out why the martians were on the earth or why they were disguised as humans. It's like not being able to watch the end of a movie.

On the way to the grocery store, I saw a double rainbow. I love rainbows!

I can't remember the last time I saw a double rainbow. I'm hoping it's a sign that good things are going to start happening in my life. Not that things aren't good, but they could always be better.

It's the month for Dine about Town 2004 again. For the whole month of January, you can eat for really cheap at some of San Francisco's finest restauratnts.

"More than 110 of San Francisco's finest restaurants will offer three-course prix-fixe menus at $19.95 for lunch and/or $29.95 for dinner. A la carte menus are available as well."

Enjoy!

I was glued to my television during the Iraq War, and now I've found out there were some unexepected consequences of watching the CNN coverage.

1) I really, really like Aaron Brown. His reporting of the Iraq War was so outstanding.

2) I want to vote for Wesley Clark for the democratic nominee for president. He was one of the Iraq War commentators on CNN along with Aaron Brown, and I came to really respect his opinions on a variety of topics. I'd vote for Wesley Clark for president in a hearbeat.

3) I watched alot of Anderson Cooper's coverage, and the man is starting to look more and more attractive. His white or very white blonde hair is kind of a turnoff since I don't do blondes, but he does have beautiful sparkling eyes that just twinkle at you.

Talk about embedded journalists. From the blog of H. Brown - SF Bulldog:

"I recall sitting in my office at Gonzo Central at 2am with 6 or 8 other reporters drinking strong liquor and comparing notes from the campaign field. … Adriel Hampton (Murphy’s right, Adriel is the press’s Journalist of the year), Carlos Petroni, Savannah Blackwell, Mike Sugerman, J.K. Dineen & Ethan Fletcher. … Matt Hirsch, Chris Finn, Chance Martin & Randy Shaw."

What were Adriel Hampton (political columnist for the San Francisco Examiner), Mike Sugerman (Reporter, Eyewitness News and Evening Magazine - KPIX Channel 5), J.K. Dineen (reporter - SF Examiner), and Ethan Fletcher (reporter - SF Examiner) doing at the Matt Gonzalez campaign HQ at that hour? There were San Francisco Bay Guardian reporters there as well, but that was to be expected. But the others?

Everyone in the media talked about there being a Gavin Newsome bias in the media, but what about these media people? And wasn’t KPIX Channel 5 the one releasing all those polls that showed Gonzalez ahead of Newsome? A media bias against Newsome? Maybe more like a white lie to cover the media’s own bias I’d say.

“Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice.” Just more evidence that the media is completely biased and won’t admit it, and one more reason why blogs are begging to be important sources of information.

“Liberal media bias” the conservatives whine, and I’m like hmmmm … perhaps there is some truth to that.

Media outlets to be suspicious about: The San Francisco Examiner and Channel 5 - KPIX.

I'm so naive that I used to think that The San Francisco Bay Guardian tried at least to be fair about their reporting. Boy, was I wrong! This last mayoral election so proved that.

Happy New Year everyone!

I had a grandma haunting this morning. When I finally got up and walked into the kitchen to make coffee, my kitchen smelled like my grandma's kitchen.

Talk about freaking out! I had to close my eyes and reopen them because I'd only ever smelled that combination of smells at home on Kauai. My kitchen didn't smell like that last night. It was so spooky! Even the cabinets smelled like her kitchen.

Why was grandma's spirit in my kitchen? How scary! I made coffee, cooked breakfast and then left. In the afternoon when I went back in, the smell was gone. Creepy, creepy!

It was raining so hard last night, I dreamt I was driving in a car on Kauai and one of the rivers had flooded and I couldn't get across.

In the 18 years I lived there, flooding happened twice but only after four to five solid days of non-stop monsoon rain. We were lucky as our house never got flooded out, but it happened to some of our neighbours.

I'm supposed to go and hang out with friends who want to spend the New Year's eve trolling up and down the Embarcadero. OY!!! It's supposed to storm tonight, and I hate being out in the rain.

There's a party I could go and hang out at as well, but all these activities involve leaving home and I just want be warm and under the covers and have it be quiet, and not deal with noise, drunken people, crowds, rain and worst of all, trying to get back home in San Francisco on a rainy night after a big event.

I think I'd rather stay home, meditate on the past year, write new year's resolutions, drink champagne and eat ice cream.

So I was trying to convince myself that I really need an iPod, but this morning SFGATE.com is reporting that Apple might be putting out a cheaper one.

iPod at center of buzz Rumors predict new affordable player at Macworld.

My inner Jack Benny says now I have to wait to find out if it's true.

I was watching Hard Ball with Chris Matthews, and Christopher Hitchens was on and I was blowing kisses at the television because I so love Mr. Hitchens and I so want to marry him. He is the most brilliant man.

Okay so maybe I don't really want to marry Christopher Hitchens physically because he's actually not very good looking, but I definitely want to marry his mind because he is just so smart and so wise.

But definitely if the situation came up, and Mr. Hitchens appeared in my bed, I would totally jump him and not boot him out of bed. I'd sooner boot Brad Pitt or Antonio Banderas out of my bed first, before I'd ever boot out Christopher Hitchens.

They were discussing the presidential 2004 election, and Hitchens said he can't stand Howard Dean as well. God, I so love Christopher Hitchens!

This is a good sign. I needed two more calendars for my place, and I was planning to wait until after New Year's to buy calendars for cheap. My inner Jack Benny is going strong again.

On Sunday I went to the mall, and the calendar store had already marked on sale for 50% off. I bought two that I really liked, and a box of christmas cards for half off as well.

Later that day as I was going through the Sunday paper, I found a free Shrek 2004 wall calendar in the paper.

Three calendars, one free and two 50% off ... such a deal! My inner Jack Benny is so happy because it thinks that it's so bad to ever pay full price for anything.

The repair guy came to my apartment this afternoon to fix my heater and my fridge. I smelled gas in my apartment on Saturday, and made PG&E come over to check out my heater. After checking it out for an hour, they told me my heater was broken.

PG&E wrote me up a hazard notice and turned off my gas. I had to call the building owner and let them know, and they sent over a repair guy this afternoon to fix the heater and also check out the fridge.

The repair guy was so great! He fixed my heater and fridge in a couple of hour. I have heat again, and my fridge doesn't leak anymore. YEAH!!!

The repair guy said my gas heater was clogged and needed to be cleaned. The same thing was true of my fridge. Is this a sign of something going on in my life? I'm stuck and that's why things aren't working.

Whatever. It's just nice to have appliances that work again.

So I have so "instant karma". Like I can't get away with anything bad without instanly getting caught. I wouldn't wish instant karma on my worst enemy, it's that bad.

Anyone who says San Francisco is a big city has obviously never lived here. San Francisco is a city made up of small towns/neighbourhoods linked together. It totally feels like you're living in a small town sometimes instead of a city with a population of over 850,000.

There is no anonymity in San Francisco because you run into people you know all the time. It's horrifying. I stopped going to Whole Foods for awhile, because I kept running into guys I had dated or people I knew but didn't want to have conversations with.

There is nothing more embarrassing than hiding in the back of some store, hoping your ex doesn't see you and praying that he leaves the store right away so you can get your grocery shopping done.

At church today, someone came up to me and said she saw me walking up Fillmore early this morning going to the sister church. I didn't say anything, because I was like so shocked. Then she laughed and said, "it's good to go church shopping." How embarrassing!

The only reason she saw me was because her mother attends our sister church and teaches preschool there, and they live in the neighbourhood.

It's a time like this that I wished I had moved to Manhattan instead of San Fran. I grew up in a small town, where everybody knew who you were and knew your business. One of my biggest youthful dreams was to a move to a big city where I could be anonymous, and not be somebody's daughter or somebody's relative. I wanted to live freely and not have anyone know what I was doing.

But in San Francisco it's practically impossible. I can't even church shop without members of my own church finding out. I so hate this small town living! I hate life in the San Francisco fishbowl.

I bought a three-ballet ticket series with a friend of mine, and instead of me having to pay, my friend paid for my portion and said it was her Christmas present to me.

Ballets tickets for Christmas ... tres cool!

In the NY Times Online edition this morning, there was an article entitled, Judging 2003's Ideas: The Most Overrated and Underrated.

This idea was considered underrated, and I think it's the most exciting political movement I've read about in ages.

"Hip-Hop Politics

Countless local hip-hop activist groups around the country are on the cutting edge of grass-roots activism and politics that matter most to the hip-hop generation. Organizations like the San Francisco-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights; the 21st Century Leadership Movement, based in Selma, Ala.; and the Hip-Hop Political Action Committee in Chicago have been in the trenches laying the groundwork for organizing the hip-hop generation into a concrete voting bloc. Four signs point to their growing influence: Active Element Foundation's publication of the "Future 500," which documents grass-roots youth activists nationwide; presidential candidates arming themselves with hip-hop to reach out to young voters; the much-discussed National Hip-Hop Political Convention in the works for June 2004; and the often-overnight platinum sales of hip-hop CD's that, once channeled into votes, will mean the end of politics as usual."

I wonder if Howard Dean will suddenly admit he likes rap/hip hop music, like the way he's now saying he's a JC believer.

I just remembered that while I was at that one corporate job during the Clinton years, I had to keep my mouth shut at meetings that I was a Clinton supporter.

I would be at these meetings with corporate directors, vice presidents, executive VPs, and the president/CEO of the company, and they were all republican hating Clinton people. And there I was, a lonely analyst, and probably the only Clinton supporter. Those guys would after awhile would start Clinton bashing, and I would just sit there and say nothing and smile.

Those guys all outranked and outearned me 4 or more times to 1. My boss, my boss' director, and the VP our oof our department were all there, and they Clinton bashed their hearts out. What could I have said? They signed my paycheck.

Not that they cared what I thought anyway. I was a woman and a lonely analyst. What did I know?

My boss knew and he used to tell not to pay attention to any of it. It was all just testerone flying around and the guys were one upping each other, and besides, they all figured I was a Clinton supporter anyway.

This was his way of trying to make me feel better, but it didn't help except I did learn to smile and agree and keep my mouth shut when I didn't agree with someone. A lesson that has served me very well in corporate america, I might add, because I kept getting promoted yearly at that place.

I had one manhattan too many at a cocktail party, given by a friend of mine who is obsessed with "Sex and the City", but I have to relay this story.

My friend, who hosted the cocktail party and who founded her own theatre company and runs another theatre company as well, told me I had convinced her to vote for Gavin Newsome. She was all set to vote for Gonzalez, but we had a long talk and she said what we discussed made her change her mind. I thought for sure that what I had said had no effect on her vote. She voted for Ammiano, so I was sure she would vote for Gonzalez. Besides she lived in Gonzalez' district, so I expected her to vote for her supervisor.

So when told me tonight she had voted for Newsome I was happy. But as the party progressed the talk turned to politics, and I started to feel bad. Most of the people were there had worked for my friend, because she directs as well as produces play in the city. The actors and other theatre types had all voted for Gonzalez, and my friend hadn't told them she had voted for Newsome.

I couldn't participate in the Newsome bashing, but then I thought I was safe because the discussion turned to Bush. I don't mind a good Bush bashing discussion myself, but then everyone there seemed to be anti-war freaks.

Feeling out of place I decided to leave, and as I was leaving I told my friend I was feeling uncomfortable with all the political talk. My friend looked at me and said, "What about me?" I felt guilty then.

I felt good that I had helped to convince her to vote for Newsome, but I felt bad that I had put her into an awkward position with her friends. My friend told me not to worry about it. None of the people there except for her directed or produced plays; they were actors or technicians. They had no power over her in the theatre world, and in her position as a director or producer who has hiring/firing power over actors and technicians, she has the upper hand.

But then she reminded me that directors and producers have all power, and that's why she became one. Actors and technicians have to suck up to directors and producers to get jobs.

Still I felt bad though. I didn't mean to get her in trouble with her group of friends. I didn't even think I had any influence over how she was going to vote, but she told me I had.

Elections are lost one vote at at time, but in these partisan times that we live in, voting seems to be hazardous unless you're in a position of some kind of power. That's horrible isn't it? My friend doesn't care that she voted for Newsome, but she wasn't going to announce it to any of her acting friends either.

I decided that I didn't want to offend anyone either, so I just left the party. Too many manhattans had made me way too bold, and I didn't want to say anything I would later regret.

Maybe our parents were right when they said that "one shouldn't discuss politcs in polite company." It's way too dangerous.

In Hawaii we have our own version of Santa Claus - Menehune Santa. Below are the words to an actual song I learned as a child. Translation for the hawaiian words are in parens.

Menehune Santa

Menehune Santa, Menehune Santa, with a big opu (tummy), bring Christmas presents in his red canoe.

Menehune Santa, Menehune Santa, under the coconut tree, seaving hats for keikis (children) and for you and me.

I know you only work at night, building Christmas toys, with many little people helping bring Christmas joys.

Menehune Santa, Menehune Santa, bring me a flower lei,
So I can give the one I love a kiss on Christmas Day.

From way up high the mountain tops you've seen just once a year, While all the little keikis dream an eastern star appear,

Menehune Santa, Menehune Santa, bring me a flower lei, So I can give the one I love a kiss on Christmas Day.

Written By:Larry Rivera

Mele Kalikimaka - a Hawaiian Christmas song

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say
On a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day
That's the island greeting that we send to you
From the land where palm trees sway
Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night
Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way
To say "Merry Christmas to you."

This song was written by R. Alex Anderson (Robert Alexander Anderson), who was born in Honolulu in 1894, and from high school on to his death in 1995 composed nearly 200 songs.

He wrote Mele Kalikimaka in 1949 and though I am not sure who first recorded it, it was probably Bing Crosby. Crosby made a record of it in 1950 with the Andrews Sisters (maybe on the backside of his White Christmas single?), and it was an instant big hit.

The friend whom I went out to dinner with last night, asked me if I wanted to go to the 11 am service on Christmas day at our sister presby church and I said yes.

So I went to church this morning, and attending two services like that reminded me of growing up. My family always went to midnight mass on Christmas eve, and then on Christmas day we went to the morning service. We couldn't open our presents till we came home from Christmas day mass.

When I was little we would open presents after church, eat and then one of the relatives would take all the kids to the beach. Growing up in Hawaii, I always received a new bikini/bathing suit every Christmas as did all my cousins.

And when you're a kid growing up in Hawaii, Christmas day is all about going to the beach to frolick around and swim in your new bikini/bathing suit and to have fun with the cousins, some of whom you don't see very often.

I think the relatives appreciated having all the kids out of the house as well, so they could visit with each other. When we'd come back, there'd be a huge Christmas day feast being prepared to eat later that night.

I think if I was in a hot climate for Christmas day, I would spend the day at the beach just to relive my memories of my childhood Christmases.

Christmas at the beach ... how perfect!

I've been thinking about my grandma lately who was like bizarrely catholic, so when I ended going to the Christmas Midnight Mass at St. Ignatius Church next to USF I wasn't surprised.

I've been there to mass before, and it's always crowded and they put on a good show. This time however, I was shocked to see the number of San Francisco Police people patroling the service and the church. Even at a Christmas eve mass in a catholic church, one cannot escape the realities of the war on terrorism.

The priest gave a quite a good sermon, which was also shocking because I almost never hear decent sermons in catholic services anymore.

Merrry Christmas! It's sunny here in San Francisco, although the air is nippy and chilly.

A friend and I went to Boulevard for Christmas even dinner last night. "In the Zagat Restaurant Guide for the year 2000, Boulevard was rated the #1 Zagat Restaurant in the Bay Area for the 3rd year in a row."

Boulevard was crowded with people, and we had to wait 20 minutes for a table despite the fact that we had reservations. We had planned to have dinner and hit an 11:00 pm mass at the sister presbyterian church.

The service was relaxed and slow, so by the time we had our dessert it was too late to drive to church. I was kind of miffed at this, although my friend didn't really care because the food at Boulevard was quite good.

Their appetizers are probably the best thing on the menu, but all of their dishes are very complex so you always feel full and happy after each course. And food presentation as is customary was excellent.

I had a triple creme brulee for dessert; eggnog with a dollop of whip cream, tangerine and cream with a snow flake shaped sugar cookie, and peppermint with a candy cane. Isn't that a cute idea for a sweet? You get three mini creme brulees, and they added extra things like a candy cane and a snowflake sugar cookie.

Boulevard adds nice little touches like when you go to the restroom, someone comes by and folds your napkin for you. Of course such luxurious treatment and great food doesn't come cheap, but it's worth it to do on special times like at Christmas.

Sometimes I get really down on myself for my progress in writing, but I didn't know I wanted to be a writer till 1999 and it wasn't until sometime in late 2001 that I decided I wanted to pursue writing for the rest of my life and that maybe it was some kind of calling.

My earliest memory of wanting to be a writer was when I was in 4th grade, but isn't that an idea that all ambitious teachers put in their students' heads at that age? My 4th grade teacher had the whole class write stories, and then we bound our books up and donated them to school library where they could be checked out by other students.

I remember thinking at that age, it would be fun to write children's books. But then the idea went nowhere sort of. Oh, it resurfaced from time to time. Like in 6th grade when I discovered the playwright Eugene O'Neil and decided I want to write plays. Or like in 7th grade when we had to write a children's story in English class. But then writing got pushed back to some remote corner of mind. Always kind of there but only allowed out briefly every few years or so.

When I graduated from highschool, I saw myself as in the following two careers.

1) russian language interpreter at the United Nations. I thought it would be so cool to work for the UN and live in NYC. I chose russian because I was into the russian revolution, and wanted to restart the revolution over because communism had been such a failure.

2) Madison Avenue advertising executive living in NYC. I wanted to be one to change the way ads are put out. I wanted to put a social conscience in advertising, and decided to change the system I needed to be a part of it.

Being a writer wasn't something I thought about doing after high school or in college. I was told by countless people I was a good writer of stories, but I was like so. So what? Doesn't everybody write well and have vivid imaginations?

I wish I was one of those people who grew up wanting to be a writer. It must be so great to have started that young, and to have that writing ambition grow with you through life instead of disappear the way mine did.

I guess I should just be grateful my writing desire surfaced again, but it did so only after acting bug started to fade.

I sometimes wonder if writing is my thing, but I keep being drawn to it and it's kept me interested so far. I suppose once it starts to seriously bore me, I'll something else. But stupifying boredom hasn't set in yet. Serious frustration yes, but serious boredom no.

When I popped over to Mills College over in Oakland a few weeks ago to check out a painting exhibit, there was a glass outhouse in front of the college art museum. You couldn't see in but it was mirrored all around. I had to desperately use the facilities, so I went into the glass outhouse and did my business.

As I was sitting there, I noticed that I could see out of the bathroom and I briefly wondered if other people could see my sitting there. But then I thought so what.

I've used the bathroom outdoors before here, in NYC, Wash DC, GG Park during a concert, Shoreline Amphitheatre after a concert, doesn't matter. If I have to go, I do it. Who cares. It's better than having an accident in your clothes right?

But I guess other people have issues with going to the bathroom in public so to speak, as evidenced by this article in the NY Times about a similar see through bathroom in London; Blushing While You're Flushing, and All for Art's Sake.

I haven't blogged about this before, but my church is dissolving its relationship with our current pastor. It's kind of big deal for me, because I really liked the guy and I personally feel that there was a certain vocal minority in the church that didn't give him a chance.

No one is blameless in what happened, but I was left feeling very unhappy with my church. My unhappiness has been coming on gradually for a long time, and the pastor's resignation was the straw that proverbially broke this camel's back.

A friend who doesn't attend anymore said that "when she goes to church she gets a sad feeling, it's not a happy place." I have to agree with her. Sometimes I felt like I was watching a bad train wreck, and I couldn't pull myself away. This is a not a good way to think about one's church.

It's probably going to be about two to three years before my church hires another pastor full time. In the meantime, they will have a steady stream of interim pastors. I hate this kind of instability in a church. The world is just too crazy and stressful, and I don't need the stress of never knowing who will be preaching or worrying about the quality of the sermons.

I made a decision to start attending our sister church. It's a bigger church with two services, and it's four times the size of my current church with over 1,000 members.

We have a sister church, because part of the church's congregation split off during the time of the Civil War. The members who were Confederate sympathizers split from my church, and started their own church. The sister church is still spoken about in hushed tones by some of my church's members as those people who supported slavery.

Our sister church tends to be a little more conservative, and wealthier. Their building is located in Pacific Heights, which is one of the more richer hoods of San Francisco. Since it's a bigger church, they attract quite a diverse crowd and there is actually more diversity in their congregation than in ours because of their size.

And as an added bonus, there seems to be more single men attending there than at my home church. I had a dream last night where my grandparents were in service with me at the sister church. What my very catholic grandparents would be doing in a protestant church is one big mystery to me, but they were there and my grandma was pointing out all the cute single to me. Is this dream a sign or what?

I won't abandon my home church right away; that would be too weird and cruel. I don't know why I have a thing about that, but I do. I don't know why either, because people have left my church before without warning. Just last month, a couple I was in class with for a year just stopped showing up. When I asked around, someone told me that they had decided to leave.

But I do have friends at church, people I've known for a long time and whom I totally respect and admire religiously, politically and intellectually. So leaving is a big deal for me. My biggest fear about leaving the church is my fear that I won't find people at my new church that I respect and admire for their religious, political and intellectual smarts.

But my departure I fear is inevitable. I've been praying about it for a year now, and it is only now with the pastor's termination that I've felt it's time to leave.

It will probably be a year until I transfer my membership, which is the process you go through when you change churches in this denomination.

The sister church has an early service, and I'll probably end up going to two services every Sunday for awhile. It's a ton of church, but I think the back to back comparision of the services will help to either reinforce my decision to leave or show me why I need to stay.

I'll get good consistent preaching at the sister church, and I'm grateful for that at least. I hate churches where the sermons are awful.

It will be a serious test of my democratic loyalty if Howard Dean gets the nomination to be the democratic presidential candidate, and I have to vote for him.

I'm not an anti-war democrat, and besides that I don't like anything the guy has to say. Dean doesn't have a constructive plan for what to do with Iraq, other than to say we should get out. What kind of sense does that make? We're there. We can't just pull out.

Dean's whole platform to me is only likable if you are vehemently against the war in Iraq, and you're a strident Bush hater. And I am neither of these things. I hate political campaigns based on hatred of the other candidate. I want a campaign based on issues, not hatred and angry rhetoric!

Just heard a hot song on the radio tonight, "Naughty Girl" by Beyonce. The song is off of her Dangerously in Love cd.

I found out a friend, who wrote her first screenplay and entered the Cinequest Screenwriting competition, was picked as one of 37 semi-finalists out of a field of 271.

She received feedback on her screenplay, and is now busily rewriting her movie.

I need to think about entering my screenplay in some competition.

There was another friend of mine who entered his screenplay into another contest last year, and was picked as one of 45 first round finalists out of 550 submittted. His screenplay wasn't even that great, and he got picked.

Part 2 - The Screenwriting Panel - The ideas are out there, and anyone can access them.

There was another woman there sitting on the other screenwriting panel whom I'd met at other screenwriting functions. I asked her about her screenplay which she was working on last year. She said it had been produced and I was like WOW! I congratulated her, and then she said "No, I didn't sell my screenplay."

When I asked her what she meant she said that another movie had come out this year with her same title "Cowboy Up", and pretty much her plot. The movie starred Keifer Sutherland.

I was dumbfounded and expressed as much to her, and she said it happens all the time. You get an idea for a story, and then you see it published or made into a movie. She said, "the ideas are out there for anyone to make into a story and sometimes somebody else beats you to it."

My screenwriting colleague wasn't fazed. She was already at work on another screenplay, that she's planning to direct herself. One of her previous films was chosen for the Sundance Film Festival, and one of her documentaries was shown at the Orinda Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Trippy! But maybe not. That screenwriting teacher I took a seminar from a couple of months ago who sold his San Francisco 1906 earthquake screenplay, said that there were other earthquake screenplays in various stages of deals and development in Hollywood. Those other earthquake screenplays were all dropped by Hollywood in favour of his 1906 movie.

It's kind of cool to think that there might be some kind of creative stream that writers can all access, because this means that practically anyone has the chance to make it as a writer.

The downside to everyone having access to this creative stream, is you can work for months and months on your story only to see a similar story published or made into movie by someone else.

From Sean David Morton, TWELVE-CHAKRA WING ACTIVATION

This is a means of re-energizing the dormant energy fields of the body, including the rarely discussed 11th and 12th chakras, and also of igniting the long-dormant Wing Chakras in the back.

People get elves and fairies confused all the time. Elves have no wings, and they're not tiny. The idea of the wings come from the activation of the wing chakras, but elves had no need for wings to fly since they could astral travel. The average elf height was 5 ft to 6 ft. They were short compared to humans, who at the time the elf population was fully alive, were 9 feet and up.

Elves also have some kind extra bone on the sides of their body that connected the hips to the shoulder.

Some sort of cataclysm happened during the time of Atlantis where the human race had to repopulated. The new humans were shorter, more fragile.

All the otherkin races were wiped out, although I think some exist in spirit form all over the world. The present day stories and legends come from the spirit of the otherkin races, but the memories of their former kingdoms were wiped out.

There was 6.5 quake down south and people are saying they could feel it up here, but I didn't feel a thing.

So the electricity goes out last night arond 6 pm just as I was trying to decide what to watch on TV.

I have a coleman camping lantern in the living room but the switch is kind of spotty, so of course it doesn't go on when I tried to use it. I head to the bedroom and turn on the camping lantern sitting on my bedside table.

I lit the candles on my bedside table, the one in the living room and the one in the bathroom, changed the batteries in my emergency radio, and turned on the news.

There's a fire in some substation in the Mission, and I figure it's going to be awhile before I get any electricity. My sony stereo boombox has batteries in it, so I put on Christmas cds so I can listen at least listen to music in the dark and I light more candles, and think about how I wish I had bought that handheld portable TV that I keep thinking I should own for emergencies like this.

I look for the spare non-electric telephone so I can plug it in, in case I need or get emergency phone calls. I get my cellphone and the battery is low, and I make a mental note to remember to always keep the battery charged.

I decide my emergency flashlights are in the wrong places, so I hunt them down in the dark and put them where they're more accessible.

I spend the rest of the evening putting things away in my bedroom and cleaning up by candlelight, so I can conserve the batteries in my lantern in case the blackout goes on all night.

At 8:50 pm, the electricity come back on. I blow out all the candles, forget to juice up the cell phone and go back to watching TV like nothing happened.

Around 9:50 pm, the electricity goes out again. I relight the candles on my nightstand, light one extra candle at my desk, turn on the radio, and get in bed wondering if I should read by candlelight.

The thought of sleep becomes too overpowering, so I blow out the candle at my desk and lie and drift in and out of sleep listening to the news on the radio.

At around 2 am I hear my computer turn on and when I open my eyes, the christmas lights are back on. I get up, unplug the lights, turn off my computer, turn off the radio and go back to sleep.

This is a quote from an interview with Shawn Lawrence Otto, who cowrote the screenplay for Andre Dubus III novel HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG.

WS: Your first screenplay, SHINING WHITE, won numerous awards. What was the appeal of the competitions? Would you encourage emerging screenwriters to enter competitions, apply for fellowships or other awards? Did the publicity that came with the awards throw open doors for you? Was the public relations self-perpetuating or did you have to work on it?

SLO: I think the competitions are a little like the farm system in baseball. They are the minor leagues. You can play there and get feedback and hone your craft, and then if you get lucky you get called up. That's usually by an independent producer looking for fresh material or new voices, but sometimes it's an agent or manager. You just need to be careful that it's really someone who has good relationships in Hollywood. These days it's how a lot of new writers have gotten their starts. It's how I got mine.

I read "House of Sand and Fog", and although I liked the novel, I thought it was deeply flawed. I dislike passive characters, and thought the female character was too much of a "I can't help it, I'm a victim" type. Like girl, get a clue and into therapy and get over yourself.

But the novel was hugely popular, being an Oprah book and all, so I think many readers related to passive victim character.

I wish I could read a book where the main character walks into their messes with eyes wide open, knowing it's bad, but goes anyway just because they want to, because it's seductive, and because it's fun. I want to see a main character in a book cop to their BS and then get on with life.

I guess if I want to read a book with this kind of character, I'm going to have to write it myself.

Strange things I've noticed this week:

At Costco, there was a woman buying 8 20-pc dish sets of Royal Albert Old Country Rose. It's a good dish set being bone china, but kind of tacky because the roses are shocking pink and they're decorated with gold as well. Why was the woman buying 8 sets of this stuff?

Walking past a car brake and muffler shop, I happened to glance in the window and there was a television in the office with a naked girl talking. Porno at the car fix-it place? So not original, but now it's a naked girl talking on TV and not just a calendar of naked girls.

The SF police are doing a stakeout in Golden Gate Park. As you drive southbound from Park Presidio to 19th Avenue, there's a bunch of cop cars and cops on motorcycles. Not sure what they're looking for, but they're all there blocking traffic in the rain.

Walking down Geary street this afternoon, I could smell hippie lettuce ganga burning. Having grown up in Hawaii where the stuff is grown, I can recognize that smell a mile away. I turned around thinking there was someone smoking a doobie behind me, and there was no one there. I looked up ahead and noticed there was a Hemp Center store. Guess they were sampling the merchandise.

Well the blog is fixed now, but I had to republish my entire site. I kind of liked that it was in different colours in different months.

Oh well! At least it's working now.

My blog is broken. I've been writing posts, but they haven't been updating since yesterday afternoon. If the blog is updating, I can't see it.

If you can see this post, please email me and let me know.

If you're a fan of Philip K. Dick, the famous scifi writer whose stories were the basis for movies such "Minority Report" and "Blade Runner", you'll appreciate this article on him.

The Second Coming of Philip K. Dick: The inside-out story of how a hyper-paranoid, pulp-fiction hack conquered the movie world 20 years after his death.

One of the greatest advantages in having a political map like Sullivan's is, a president candidate's organization can easily focus their resources on the region that has the potential to swing.

The drawback of course is, the other regions get ignored.

Here's Sullivan's detailed descriptions of each region, The 10 Regions of US Politics.

"Our regions are based on voting returns from both national and state elections, demographic data from the US Census, and certain geographic features such as mountain ranges and coastlines. Each region represents about one-tenth of the national electorate, casting between 10.4 million and 10.8 million votes in the 2000 presidential election. "

San Francisco is part of Upper Coasts.

"The communities in Upper Coasts are known for both civic responsibility and civil disobedience. This two-part region is anchored in the east by Boston and in the west by San Francisco, but both cities tilt decidedly to the left. "

On to the 2004 Presidential Election

I'm one of those guilty people, but I've used the famous 2000 election blue and red state map to talk about politics. It's a simplistic map, and therefore a simplistic way to talk about presidential politics.

Here's a different analysis of the red and blue presidential race map, Beyond Red and Blue.

Sullivan divides the country into 10 regions, and does a much more in depth analysis of how the state votes for president in the 2000 election. It's also a political road map for Bush and the other democratic candidates on how to win in 2004.

"If either Bush or the eventual Democratic nominee in 2004 can carry a sixth region, as Bill Clinton did in both 1992 and 1996, he is virtually assured to win in November. As political campaigns pull out their maps and sharpen their pencils, setting a course for November 2, 2004, they should consult our cartography - if only to determine where their opportunities lie, and where they're wasting their time. "

Sullivan explains his rationale for 10 regions in this article, Continental Divides.

"American politics always comes back to geography. One reason for this is the Electoral College, which doesn't award votes based on which candidate was favored by soccer moms or NASCAR dads. On election night, all that matters is who won where, and the 10-region model shows the long-term trends that both parties must take into account in trying to assemble an Electoral College majority."

If I think about it long enough, I bet I could come up with a similar geographical map for San Francisco and a strategy for a candidate to win the mayor's race. Gore won in the big cities, but lost in the heartland and the suburbs. Gore won the big populous states like California and New York, and lost the smaller states.

Gonzalez won in the inner city, but lost in the outer city or as we say here, "the suburbs of San Francisco". But in San Francisco, most people don't live in the inner city they live in the outer city. The neighbourhoods and districts that Gonzalez won accounted for about 30-40% of the San Francisco population.

A San Francisco mayoral candidate popular in either the inner or the outer city, would need to win enough hoods in the opposite region to win the mayor's election. Newsome won because he carried enough neighborhoods in the inner city, as well as dominating in the outer city.

Check out these San Francisco mayoral race maps, Runoff Maps.

This is from the russian paper Pravda so who knows if it's true but I wish it would happen to me, E-mail letters from the future: People receive warnings from their future selves.

I wish my future self would let me know if I'm ever going to make it as a self-employed writer, and answer other burning and important questions in my life.

I was reading a political blog from someone who is a Gonzalez supporter, and a well known San Fran political writer, and at the end of his entry he penned "Gavin Newsom is white trash."

Is there a difference between the GOP and the Progressives in San Francisco?

Didn't the GOP and their commentators for eight plus years call Bill and Hilary Clinton "white trash"?

Didn't Dick Cheney say at the 2000 GOP convention that "He and Bush were going to clean out The White House"? Which by the way, sounded a ton like Gonzalez's campaign slogan of "Anyone but Newsome" and "We're going to get rid of the Democractic machine"

The Progressives keep harping on how they're not "politics as usual", but to my eyes, they're mirroring the GOP tactics right down to calling Newsome "white trash".

So much for being a different party; more like "The Left Wing GOP."

Watch! The Greens probably already have a plan to put a Recall on the ballot next year.

There's no more demanding and stressful job than being an NFL Coach. Poor Jim Fassel, coach of the NY Giants was canned, New York Giants Fire Coach Jim Fassel. The season isn't even over, and he already got his pink slip.

Look at George Siefert. The 49ers fired him, and he has the NFL's best-winning percentage of all-time.

Part 1 - The Screenwriting Panel

As I mentioned earlier, I sat in on a screenwriting panel last week at The Academy of Art College.

If you want to sell your screenplay to Hollywood, one way is to go before a screenwriting panel. Basically, you have two minutes to pitch your screenplay before two to four Hollywood types either coming from film studios or production companies.

It's basically a two minute sales pitch where you tell them enough to get them interested enough in your movie to give you their contact information. The screenwriting panel has the opportunity to ask you questions, but then your time is up and they boot you out.

Most screenwriting expos have them, and there will be an opportunity at the end of the January in the SF Bay Area to pitch your movie. The whole process reminded me of an audition, although not as intense. At least you're selling a product like a movie, and not yourself as actor to play a role.

In a screenwriting panel, you sit and it's almost conversational and you actually get to see the people. In some theatre auditions, it's just you alone on stage and your reviewers are sitting in the audience and you can't see them.

There's a line of people, you get about five minutes to pitch your movie, they yell next, and then you leave and the next person gets a turn. And some places are very strict about time. If you talk too much and you're not done, tough luck, you're history.

One of the guys on my panel went to LA two weeks where he paid $25 every time he pitched to a pane. He ended up getting 11 Hollywood types who said they would read his script.

Now it's not a guarantee of a sale, or you might not even get feedback so you can improve. The guy I mentioned heard within two days after sending his script out, that a couple people weren't interested. They didn't say why, just no thank you.

It's a brutal process, but going before a screenwriting panel is one of the few ways an amateur without an agent can sell a script to Hollywood.

And screenwriting is just like acting. Everyone wants to do it, and the competition is stiff. Everyone thinks they can act, and everyone thinks they can write a better movie than the ones they've seen.

I spoke to my brother this morning and he's Mr. Extremely Frugal, but in this situation I think he's going a bit too far. So my brother is flying to Florida to pick up a BMW that he's buying from a friend. Then he and another friend are driving the BMW cross country to LA, and shipping it to Hawaii.

I'm like, why go all the way to the other side of the country to buy a BMW and have it shipped across the ocean. Okay, I can understand maybe wanting to drive cross country in a car but then shipping the car home? Maybe the BMW is like some tricked out luxury car that he's buying for a totally insanely cheap price, but then what about shipping costs?

But I'm the big sister and like my life is any better so I say, "Great, have a fun drive!"

I still haven't gotten around to getting a christmas tree, but I bought everything else instead.

I bought a two foot poinsettia, it's more of a bush than a plant, for the living room. I also bought a tiny poinsettia for my bedroom. For the pinetree smell, I bought a christmas pine wreath. The wreath is sitting on my coffee table and gives off that nice pine scent.

I've also strewn christmas decorations on every available surface. I might not have a christmas tree, but I've got a ton of christmas decorations around the place right now.

I got up at 7 am this morning, turned on the TV and watched as Tom Brokaw announced that there was special news. For a moment my heart stopped thinking of 9/11, but instead he announced that Sadam Hussein was captured.

Is it really him? I thought the guy had three doubles, or was dead. Where the heck did he get $750K in US cash? And the most important question, what happens to him now?
War crimes tribunal? What about his two sons? What happened to them? Are his people going to try and rescue him, and we get a scene like in the movie "SWAT"?

Still immersed in studying for my modern art history final. Dwelling on questions and issues such as:

1) differences between minimalist and post-minimalist art
2) factors in minimalism that lead to conceptual art
3) characteristics of postmodern art
4) explaining Jean Baudrillard's theory of "Simulacra and Simulations" and how it applies to postmodern art
5) the wider significance of Christo's art
6) the wider signficance of Philip Guston's later work
7) the changing paradigm of beauty in modern art, especially the work of body/image artists of the 1990's.

I'ved been busy studying for my modern art history final on Monday. I love taking classes, but the tests I could do without.

I've had such a busy week too, with events every night until Wednesday. On Thursday I felt happy just to have a free night with nothing to do, that I ended up going to bed early.

I have to do some Christmas shopping tomorow, so Saturday is devoted to studying. I have a great story about sitting on the screenwriting panel at The Academy of Art College Wednesday afternoon, which I hope to write about sometime this weekend. There were even three movies presented that I thought could potentially be made into films, which was a first for me since I started doing screenwriting.

More later.

This is an interesting essay by Warren Hinckle, An Old Town win, on the San Franciso mayoral election.

Hinckle describes old town San Francisco voters as "politically centrist, big labor orientated, pragmatic, tolerant-look-the-other-way about life and sex styles". This is me exactly!

I just read FJGallager's Blog. I like this guy; his political comments are so insightful.

I hope Newsom keeps his political organization together, and they work to get supervisors who think like him elected come next November. Heck, I'll go and even volunteer to unseat some of these freaks. The GOP has been doing this kind of stuff for 20+ years with impressive results, so the Demos in the city should just copy their tactics.

I hope that the positive effect of the Gonzalez campaign will be that more people will be interested in politics and pay attention to issues 24/7. There really should be more than 15% of the population of the city and county of San Francisco deciding the future of this great place.

But already the pundits are weighing in and saying that the energy created by the progressive party campaign won't last; Despite loss, Gonzalez remains hopeful.

But look at Tom Ammiano and what happened to him after his 1999 run for mayor. Ammiano was a write-in candidate, talk about serious grass roots, but where is he now - he's still around but hardly influential.

Politics like life is a slog. I give credit to the Newsome campaign because they've been at this since Care not Cash. They were organized, and they worked really hard. I don't expect those suppporters and organizers to go away.

I went to his first campaign rally, and the guy definitely has something. I'm not even sure what it is, but he's definitely got his own kind of political charisma. I've been down to the Newsome campaign HQ for volunteer meetings, and his people have high hopes for him.

They were talking even Governor of the state, and those people were serious and probably started planning their long term strategy from day 1 of Care not Cash. Newsom's people are taking a page out of the GOP winning playbook. They know that politics is a long term process that can take years to have any success. They say Bill Clinton has presidential ambitions in his mind in college.

It's the tortoise and the hare story all over again. The tortoise is slow, but it wins the race. Much of life is like a tortoise race. They say writing is like a tortoise race. Writing is a slog, and you can work for years and years without any hope of success. Those writers who are successful are the ones who've been working day after day, day in day out, with their attention always on the long term result.

The progressives have some great deas, and I hope they keep at it. We need everyone's ideas and energy to make the city a better place. Only time will tell.

Another disturbing factor that was brought out in post-election coverage was the number of people actually voting.

There are about 750,000 people who live in San Francisco. Of that number, about 466,000+ are registered to vote which is about 50%. But in any given election, only about 200,000+ people actually vote which is about 25%+ of total population.

A political consultant was on a program saying that a candidate doesn't have to appeal to all the voters, but just to the 25% or so who actually vote. And of that 25% of the population who vote, the candidate needs to really just reach 50% plus one to win an election.

That's sad. Any candidate running in San Francisco has to appeal to only 110,000+ people to get elected which is about 15% of the population.

15% of the population of the city decides how the place will be run. What a sad comment on our voting process. It's like those 80/20 rules isn't it?

Here's a couple of interesting points that I've now heard twice about the SF Mayor's race.

Anyone running against Newsome would have automatically gotten 42% of the vote. Apparently Ammiano back in 1999 received the same amount. So if it was Leal, Ammiano, even Aliotio running against Newsome, wouldn't gotten 42% of the vote.

5 percentage points that went to Gonzalez was due to a Willie Brown backlash. There was so much hatred of Willie Brown, that there were people in San Francisco who wouldn't have voted for Newsome just because Willie Brown endorsed him.

Pundits are also saying that many people are tired of the Demo party machine, and that weariness brought The Gropenator (new term for Arnie courtesy of Bernie Ward) the Cali Republic's governor seat, and brought many votes to Gonzalez.

It makes you wonder that if there wasn't the Willie Brown factor, would Newsome have won by 12 percentage points as did Kamala Harris in the DA's race.

The big loser is the San Francisco Bay Guardian. They endorsed Hallinan and Gonzalez and lost on both endorsements.

I was listening to all the post-election night coverage, because I love politican spin and I wanted to see how this election would be spun.

The funniest bit I heard, and perhaps this is indicative of the intelligence of the Green Party campaign, was the Green Party saying that they were going to go after Newsom's supervisor seat.

Newsom ran in the Marina district, which is a yuppie enclave with one of the highest per capita median income levels in the districts. Most people there are conservative, and I would even venture to say many of them are republicans as well. Marina people and their self-centered, rich and selfish ways are the butt of many inside SF jokes.

How the Green Party thinks they're going to take the Marina is something only they know.

If the Greens do get a supervisor to win the Marina district, then I think the Demo party in San Francisco has something to seriously worry about. But I think not.