The California Recall election is on for October. The 9th circuit court of appeals just issued their decision.

The ACLU will probably appeal, so the next question is will the Supreme Court take the case or turn it down.

The news is reporting that republican Rep. Darrell Issa of San Diego County, the guy who started all this recall mess, said at The Commonwealth Club that "if there are still two republicans in the race when we finally get to vote, to vote NO on the recall." Meaning Davis is way better than Bustamante.

What a freak!

The presure is definitely on for McClintock to get out of the recall race.

Those 9th circuit court of appeals judges are very funny. They won't let you BS them that's for sure, and they will call a lawyer for laying on the gloss.

KGO 810 AM is broadcasting the 9th circuit court of appeals 11-judge panel hearing on the California recall.

It should be interesting to listen to just to hear what the arguments are on both sides.

Look for the station on Google. You may be able to listen online if you're interested.

Here's a twist on democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark; Latest contender for president comes from long line of rabbis.

That Erasure song got me started on a synth pop kick, having been a huge Joy Division fan in my youth.

I've been looking at cds by Kraftwerk, New Order, Style Council, The Jam, more Erasure, OMD, Level 42, Men without Hats, Bronksi Beat, and of course Depeche Mode.

As my friend Drew used to say "techno pop and disco!"

This is so cool. Erasure doing a cover that old Elvis Presley tune, Can't Help Falling in Love. Click on the song to hear it. You'll need Real Player to hear it.

This is one of my favourite love songs! It makes me cry every time I hear it.

This cover version is almost as good as the time I heard Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman doing a cover version of "Misty" in Golden Gate Park.

My friend and I went to see free Shakespeare in Golden Gate Park. It was a hot day, which is rare in that part of San Francisco, and I roasted my legs while sitting in the full sun.

They're like burnt and on fire right now, but I put some after sun lotion on them so hopefully I won't peel or burn. The sun was so hot today, and it's still hot at 8 pm.

Usually the fog rolls in on hot days, but not today. The whole city seemed be out enjoying the park, and it was great to see everyone out.

We watched "Love's Labour Lost", which was done with late 50's costume La Dolce Vita style. Everyone was good, except for the page who was played by a girl. She totally annoyed me for some reason. She was very cloying, and really not that funny.

Usually the pages are played by guys, and it's a different part when it's played by a guy. The page part is supposed to be a young boy in his teens, and most actors play it that way. This actor chick played it like a some 20 or 30 something chick, which was so off putting in a way.

I don't know. The rest of the audience seemed to like her, so maybe I was the only one who kept praying for a giant hook to get her off the stage. The critic at the SF Chron thought the performances were uneven, and for once he and I agreed.

At Sharon Meadow the local radio station Alice 97.3 put on their annual "Now and Zen" festival, which featured Liz Phair, Maroon 5, Seal and Duran Duran.

The music was so loud from Now and Zen, that we could hear it during the Shakepeare play. It was kind of annoying but kind of fun, because we had wanted to go to Now and Zen but decided we didn't want to pay that much money for the tickets.

I kind of felt that I got my wish. I saw free Shakespeare in the Park and I heard Duran Duran and Maroon 5, the two bands whose music I really like.

The music was so loud that you didn't really have to pay money to hear the concert. There was a ton of people sitting in front of the flower conservatory enjoying the concert, because the sound at that location was so clear.

I heard that Maroon 5 song they keep playing on the radio "Harder to Breathe" (they sound Bon Jovi to me), Seal's hits (saw him in concert a few years ago), and all my Duran Duran faves. YAY!!! And I didn't have to pay $40 to hear them.

My friend had seen them in their young and beautiful days, and we both wanted to remember them as those pretty young boys on that boat sailing on the ocean and not have that be spoilt by an older and I'm sure more weathered version of themselves playing their old hits at some kind of reunion concert.

Simon LeBon was beautiful and I want that memory of him preserved!

Here's a very interesting article on The Darwin Awards website, Stupidity should be cured — Watson.

The best bit from the stupidity story:

"If you really are stupid, I would call that a disease," he was quoted by The Times of London as saying. "The lower 10 percent who really have difficulty, even in elementary school, what's the cause of it?

"A lot of people would like to say, 'Well, poverty, things like that.' It probably isn't. So I'd like to get rid of that, to help the lower 10 percent."

I got into a Second City Television mood, and started surfing the internet for news about them. I remember watching their show a long, long time ago, and thinking they were so funny and just as good as Monty Python's Flying Circus. I love Monty Python!

The big news is the Second City Televisious group is releasing on DVD next year their shows from NBC. I bel they'll be expensive, but definitely worth getting.

Then I went surfing for Monty Python stuff, and they have a 14-dvd set of all of their Flying Circus shows. It's not cheap, but it might be worth getting one day.

I have this one memory of an SCTV show, where there some kind of murder on the show and the people involved were all children's television stars. It must have been very funny if I still have memories of it to this day.

I have a couple of Monty Python Flying circus memories as well. One is a sketch where there's a bunch of people in a boat, and they're out in the middle of the ocean. They're starving and have to decide which people to eat.

My other vague memory is when they used to go out and interview people in the english countryside, and the interviews were always so strange, but funny in an odd way. It wasn't until I saw British television years later, that I realized they were spoofing BBC interviews.

BBC news is a riot. They're so different from american news. When I was there in the mid 90's, I couldn't believe they didn't show satellite pictures for the weather report. Instead, they showed what looked like felt cutouts for rain over a felt cutout of the British Isles. What a goof!

Following in the Dark - tentative chapter divisions and titles

1. In the Beginning
2. The Mother of all experiences
3. Alone with him
4. Darkness pulls you
5. Darkness Descends
6. Following in the Dark
7. You can't see in the Dark
8. You can't hear in the Dark
9. You can't move in the Dark
10. Darkness has no pain
11. Alone in the Dark
12. In the Darkness all is revealed
13. Entombment
14. Between the Darkness and the Light
15. Out in the Light
16. The Darkness hides all
17. The Stranger in the Light
18. Light hurts
19. Light lets you move
20. Light lets you hear
21. Light lets you see
22. Leading in the Light
23. Light lifts you up
24. Light invites you
25. At one with him again
26. The start of something new
27. Another beginning

These chapter titles are so structured, and I've never done that with my stories before. Usually I just write and write, and then afterwards step back to see what I've done.

Not this time. This story is structured like a pyramid. You go up, get to the top, and then descend in the way you went up, so the chapters for the ascent and descent mirror each other.

I don't know why I made it so complicated, but it makes sense somehow to structure the story this way.

But who knows? I could change it all next week.

I went to the library last night to do a writing session, and oh my god, it was so hard. I don't why I just can't sit down and write. I think I'm a little down because I'm not sleeping well, and when I don't sleep well my whole world feels off.

It's not like I even sleep that much either, but I need my 6.5 hours of sleep to feel good and I'm not getting it. Not sure what's wrong other than I'm having disturbing dreams.

I didn't think I dreamed very much, but I've been dreaming 2-3 dreams a night. They're all very disturbing, and I wake up in a sweat. I go right back to sleep, but it's the waking up that's disturbing my sleep.

I usually sleep like the dead, and have slept through parties, roommates, etc. But not these last two weeks.

Since I couldn't write, I decided to work on my structure for the novel, "Following in the Dark". I was able to do that, and I now have 27 tentative title chapters. OY! That's a lot huh?

I didn't even think of having chapter titles, but I'm reading "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier and he gave each chapter a title. I thought it was so cool, that I decided to do the same thing for my novel.

These are just tentative chapters divisions and titles. 27 chapters might be too many, and I think I could even whittle down the chapters to 15 or even 13 by just combining what I already have. But I'll decide that later. This is just a first pass at dividing the story into chatpers.

I'll post them separately.

Sayings of Zen to start your day with a smile

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much
leave me the hell alone.

2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire.

3. Its always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

4. Sex is like air. It's not important unless you aren't getting any.

5. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

6. No one is listening until you fart.

7. Always remember you're unique. Just like everyone else.

8. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

9. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.

10. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

11. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

12. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

13. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

14. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

15. Some days you are the bug; some days you are a windshield.

16. Don't worry; it only seems kinky the first time.

17. Good judgment comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment

18. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

19. A closed mouth gathers no foot

20. Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

21. There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.

22. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

23. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

24. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

25. We are born naked, wet, and hungry, and get slapped on our ass...then things get worse.

26. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

27. There is a fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

28. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

29. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday.. . around age 11.

30. Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

31. THE MOST WASTED DAY OF ALL IS ONE IN WHICH WE HAVE NOT LAUGHED!

32. Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown.

33. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to use the Net and he won't bother you for weeks.

34. You can demonstrate a program for a corporate executive, but you can't make him computer literate.

35. Well-written software is its own heaven; poorly-written software is its own hell.

36. The more beautiful the rose the deeper cuts its thorns.

37. There’s nothing wrong with a one-track mind, so long as its on the right track.

38. If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water.

39. It is better to practice a little than talk a lot.

40. In a hundred-mile march, ninety is about the halfway point.

I'm bad. I just think this walking Mr. Hippie Lettuce Leaf is so darn funny. I stole it from fbombcompany.com. He's so cute.

Here's an interesting website to check out, Sumerian Artifacts, because sometimes I just can't take the crazy political freakishness in this place called the city and county of San Francisco, which is located in the messed up country called the California Republic.

At least the supervisor, Jake McGoldrick, from my former neighbourhood voted for it. I definitely need to move back to my old neighbourhood!

I'm so upset about the San Francisco Board of Supervisors not passing Care not Cash, I just sent a slammogram to my neighbourhood Supervisor.

I told her she should be recalled, and that I will not vote for her in reelection or for any other public office she chooses to run for in the future.

Everyone who votes in San Francisco should do the same thing. Recall the supervisors who didn't vote for Care Not Cash!

Talking about recall. I think the voters of San Francisco should recall each supervisor who didn't vote for Care not Cash, Proposition N.

Over 60% of the voters in San Francisco voted for it. Getting that kind of voting majority in any issue, yes or no, in San Francisco politics is next to impossible, talk about waiting till hell freezes over.

And now it gets voted down by our neighbourhood board of supervisors. Recall those idiots!

The only upside to this issue is hopefully it will guarantee the election of Gavin Newsome as mayor of San Francisco. We may have lost this battle, but WE WILL WIN THE WAR!

The radio talkshows I listen to in the SF Bay Area are going nuts over Wesley Clark. Everyone seems to love him, although everyone does caution their enthusiasm saying that he has problems.

One talkshow host said that Clark is short-tempered and doesn't suffer fools. Hmmmm... maybe the government needs some of this though. He'd be just like Rumsy, and I adore Donald Rumsfeld!

Thanks to Daniel at The Wall of Sleep, here's Wesley Clark's bio - General Wesley K. Clark, US Army.

The guy definitely fastracked his way to the top. All I can is interesting. Maybe we'll see a "I'm just like Ike" campaign strategy developing.

The man definitely knows his war stuff, and his insightful comments on the war on Iraq were fantastic.

But there are two issues at stake here:

1) America's military commitment in foreign countries which includes Iraq, Afghanistan and everywhere else.

2) The economy. The LA Times has a great article here on our countrie's looming government fiscal crisis, Federal Budget Disaster Seen, but Won't Be Heard.

The Shrub nation has decided to just sit and do nothing, and wait for the company to heat up to create more jobs thereby increasing revenue not only for the states but for the federal government as well.

It's not just that the US is spending a lot of money, which we are, it's also that the tax revenue for both the federal and state governments have gone down dramatically.

If the economy heats back up, then some but not all of the deficits at both the federal and state level will go down, which is always a good thing. The federal deficit can then be pared down by judicious cutting of extra spending and not the badly needed programs that truly help those who cannot take care of themselves.

Here's a thought. If illegal immigrants want all these rights like driver's licenses, wage protection, etc, which all cost the state and federal governments money, then illegal immigrants should pay taxes to help fund their "so called rights".

You want to use the federal and state services, then you need to pay for them. The US is not a welfare state for its own people, so why should it be one for illegal immigrants?