Wamu & Karma; Slant Rhyme or Bad Coincidence?

I just wanted to get something out here after the Wamu failure. I was near-sightedly invested in Wamu and my shares were wiped out, which made me very very very sad. Thursday night the FDIC takeover and JP Morgan sale were announced and my stomach twisted up and plummeted down an abyss. Ok, dramatics are over now. The next day I made a couple deposits at my local wamu and it was business as usual. On my way back to San Francisco, I had forgotten my wallet and needed toll fare so I stopped at another unfamiliar wamu and haggled with the teller jovially, to please give me $100 despite not having any identification, she asked me several security questions and after making several notes on my account relented and gave me the money, which I primarily needed to pay the $4 toll (but I figured why not take out 100 while i'm at it). I'm glad everything has worked out seamlessly for depositors despite my being wiped out as a shareholder. I also wanted to say that there was a Sikh private bank security guard sitting at the entrance of the East Bay wamu I visited without ID and when I walked in to fill out my deposit slip I noticed he was fervently, to himself, reciting and singing in a low tone a constant religious hymn. Woohoo.

Nap's - The Best Bar in the Mission, So Far

We went to Nap's on Thursday, total fluke, wasn't even supposed to be out that late. A regular and his friend (Barry/Bear) the bartender M-Th were outside checking out the action on the street and enticing customers to check the bar out that night (business was slow that night thanks to parties at the flanking bars El Rio and another place where there was a UC Berkeley sponsored party). The regular said he'd buy our first round of drinks, we were confused, but realized he was totally sincere. The bartender, bear/barry, also provided us with several rounds of drinks/shots. I didn't even know these guys! Talk about good luck and good company. Barry/Bear, we'll call him Bar from now on, made great conversation about the history of the mission as he'd been there his whole 45 years of living. His preferred drink was jack daniels shots and I also had my first shot of fernet's luxorda (sp?) whereas at most bars I'm usually drinking fernet's branca...

There was also a 5 car accident that invovled a drunk driver and a taxi among others, such as parked cars, on mission street in front of Nap's it was interesting to see all the police activities.

Sometimes Recycling is Not a Good Thing

The day before yesterday I returned to the Google SF office after a long hiatus to have lunch with an old co-worker. The views of the Bay Bridge and Embarcadero were spectacular even from the 4th floor dining hall at the new Google offices. Of course, at the end of our meal, we bussed our own trays and separated trash into the 2 or 3 containers that are ubiquitous at Google: organic waste, inorganic waste, and plastic/aluminum recycling. It's awesome that Google does this, my post here has nothing to do with Google's recycling program. When I left the offices and walked down Spear towards Justin Herman Plaza to meet my friend, Keenan, for a basque and chat I noticed my inspiration for this post.

An older homeless woman was carting her belongings down Spear away from Market Street right around the One Market building. All along that sidewalk there are nouveau-stylish trashcan-cum-cigarette-repository where you can trash your cigarette butts in a small sea of black sand. Despite my horrifically embellished description of these trash cans, you know what I'm talking about, you've seen these around the mall, downtown, etc. This woman proceeds to the trashcan, my immediate hunch is to dumpster dive for recyclables: cans, discarded-but-edible-food, trashed keepsakes, whatever. However, she instead carefully searches among the discarded cigarette butts, looking for one perhaps discarded a little prematurely, a longer, less crinkled cancer stick. With her trusty lighter by her side, she finds the best of the lot and lights the discarded cigarette up. Put simply, a harmful case of recycling/reusing.

Palin Bristol Bush McCain Christian Conservatives Evangelicals AND Abstinence

At the end of the day [yes I'm using a hated office phrase] I do not care too much about young bristol palin getting pregnant out of wedlock. However, I do take major offense to the hypocrisy I see perpetrated by the same god-fearing Christians who denounce proper sex-ed in favor of abstinence or abstinence only programs. As a sidenote, I'm also wary of federal funds going towards faith-based programs, abstinence related or otherwise. Both Palin and McCain have supported Bush administration abstinence programs. I'm continually hearing supporters quoted as saying: "we support abstinence, but teens will be teens" or "young love cannot be contained". If at the end of the day "teens will be teens" regardless of how they've been educated or how christian or evangelical or religious their households might be, I think it's safe to say they'd be better off learning about safe-sex rather than the christian virtues of virginity and abstinence before the sacred rite of marraige.

There's still a dearth of liberal ranting over the hypocrisy I'm discussing here, but I found the following:

Head Scratcher
The Silver Ring Thing Abstinence Program
Church groups will be vital partners in getting ready for a Flu Pandemic (I just threw that in there for good measure)

And as a very honest disclaimer since I really never post about religion here: regardless of my own religious persuasion, I DO NOT denounce religions in general and I believe that if individuals can find a moral compass, drive and purpose through religion that excludes aspects of hate, intolerence, and biggotry, in my opinion that individual's religiosity is a great blessing. However, it's very hard for me to sympathize with those people whose religious views neccisarily preclude the validity of other practices and beliefs which may also lead to purposeful and moral living and whose religious views engender hate, fear, intolerence of "the other".

Marching Powder

My friend heard about our Bolivia story and loaned me Marching Powder a true story of friendship, cocaine, and South America's strangest jail. It was printed in 2003 and chronicles the life of San Pedro inmate Thomas McFadden, english tour guide at Bolivia's san pedro penetenciario. The scariest thing for me right now is that the harsh realities contained within just the first three pages of the book are NOT surprising to me based on our recent experiences in South America. Maybe someday we'll write a 10 page short essay as our own personal addendum to this book.

Take the BBC Photo Tour of the prison...