Southerner. Woman. Berkeleyite. Mutt.

Central valley starbucks

2009-12-31T18:25:55Z

The starbuck's Batista asks for my name, writes it on the cup ...

Then they call for Gary, and Gary is written on the cup. She saw my face. Do I LOOK like a Gary???

What type of bike should I buy?

2009-12-29T18:29:40Z

Lightweight commuter for tooling around the city?

The Defenders (2009)

2009-06-01T17:21:36Z

What happened to your lonely soul.

2009-04-28T21:34:39Z

I heard of Douglas before I met him. The girls in the labs were a-twitter about Professor Radke's cute new graduate assistant. So naturally, in order to substantiate their claims only, I had to see this guy for myself. My reconnaissance found a tall broad-shouldered and exceedingly handsome man with some terrific arms. He had the added bonus of a smooth, melodic British accent and a dry languid wit that made everything he said sound so intellectual and funny at the same time. My report back to the girls was that yes, the new guy was intelligent, beautiful, looked just like some classical Greek sculpture, and thus I wholeheartedly agreed he was an excellent eye candy addition to Wurster Hall. I am not sure which one of us took the sculpture analysis one step further and came up with the nickname "Greek God", but I continued to use the acronym "GG" as my nickname for Douglas for many years. His attempts to decipher what it meant became so self-debasing (Grotesque Gargoyle, etc) that I finally had to admit what GG stood for just to stop his delusion that it meant something terrible about him. His response was simply "Oh?" Not an "of course" kind of "oh" with that mix of satisfaction beautiful people get because they are so used to being admired, rather, more like a "Where is the hidden camera? Where is Alan Funt?" kind of "oh", like it was impossible from him to believe he would ever been given such a flattering nickname. I had to scribble down "humble" along with his other attributes.

Douglas was more than good looks, he was a good friend. In my presence he was playful, lighthearted and wholly and biasedly on my side during any my endeavors or complications with others. He was quick to slice down my perceived enemies; to this day when I feel I need some invisible backup I say aloud "slimy profiteering bastards!" imitating his crisp indignant accent for the full effect. He was thoughtful and encouraging when I needed it, and made me laugh with his witty emails deep in wild metaphors and polysyllabics. How could he be such a cheerleader for me but not himself? I don't know. Yet I can't remember any hint of coldness or contempt in him, only unmitigated kindness towards me. I have many fond memories and I will hold on to them fiercely knowing they are my last with him. I will protect my little pockets of this happy friendship and press them between the leaves of a book, put it high up there so I can take it out and page through them when I'm in so need of his loyal bolstering support again. I'm going to remember it all this way. Douglas, I'm going to remember you this way.

Where is the good in goodbye?

2009-04-27T05:04:33Z

RIP Dr. Douglas A.

Your heart is full of unwashed socks with moldy purple spots

2009-02-21T20:50:44Z

Ruby: Mama, can I ask a question?
Me: Always.
Ruby: If pink is for girl babies, and blue for boy babies, is purple for hermaphrodites?
Me: More violet than purple I believe.
Ruby: OK.

Enneagra

2009-02-03T05:24:35Z

A woman in my bookclub is very into the Enneagram test. I took a prelim with her and she said I was a 5. Took one online and it says I am a 5. Now excuse me while I go be alert, insightful, and curious somewhere.

Guess I'm a 5.

Main Type	Overall Self

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

Enneagram Test Results

Type 1	Perfectionism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	58%
Type 2	Helpfulness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	46%
Type 3	Image Focus	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	42%
Type 4	Hypersensitivity	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	34%
Type 5	Detachment	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	78%
Type 6	Anxiety	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	62%
Type 7	Adventurousness	\|\|\|\|\|\|	30%
Type 8	Aggressiveness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	38%
Type 9	Calmness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	54%

Your main type is 5
Your variant is self pres

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

saladbar @ 2009-02-02T14:15:00

2009-02-02T22:15:23Z

I'm still thinking "Luna Bowling" is a great name.

saladbar @ 2009-02-02T09:18:00

2009-02-02T17:38:12Z

DH: I ran up this hill during Bay to Breakers

Me: As Peter Pan.

DH: No, I was the Green Arrow - everyone thought I was Peter Pan.

Me: You must have looked gay.

Ruby: This year just go as Wendy.

saladbar @ 2009-01-31T11:38:00

2009-01-31T19:40:58Z

Me: I am responsible for picking out a book for my bookclub Monday.
Ruby: What about Diary of a Wimpy Kid?
Me: I need a MATURE book, these are MATURE people.
Ruby: But you read it and liked it.
Me: But if you haven't noticed, I can be immature.
Ruby: We've ALL noticed that mom.

I'm Still Standing, yeah yeah yeah

2008-11-08T02:23:39Z

I ran the Nike Marathon almost 3 weeks ago, and unlike my first marathon where I a wrote up a race report immediately, I haven't had much desire to write up my Nike report. Not that it went bad, it went very well. I just haven't been in a writing mood (I've been too obsessed with the election).

Nike Marathon is very different from my first marathon the California International. I don't know why I expected it to be similar. The CIM had only 6000 participants and was a marathon-only event. Nike had 20000 with a mix of marathoners, half-marathoners and walkers. At CIM I lined up in the back to get that psychological boost in passing runners as I ran all those miles. With Nike (though I can do 11/min mile for 26.2 miles) I lined up around the 12-14 minute mile mark (not the last, but enough to try that trick again) not expecting walls of walkers from Mile 0. I'm not sure why the walkers didn't line up at the last group, whatever the case I spend the first 8 miles trying to get around rows of walkers by jumping curbs and barriers.

Other than that frustration I will say Nike was extremely organized. You can't beat the scenery in San Francisco. There were lots of water stops, changing areas, and handsome men in tuxes to hand you your hard-earned medal. However my friends (thanks to fuzzyradar and tigercub for coming MILES and across states to cheer me on) didn't get the shuttle to the cheering places as promised for $15 at bus pass -- only from the beginning point to the end point. That sucked, but with so many runners I doubt they could have found me anyway.

I trained well for the hills, they went well (though again so many people walked the hill). It is an exhausting thing to do, run all those miles. At mile 22 I really wanted to punch everyone that said "GO TEAM" (and I was a happy participant of Team in Training last year, but if you are not with TNT at Nike you do feel like the cat at a Dog Fancy convention). However it is fair to say at mile 22 I probably was grumpy enough to punch anyone.

I was able to get a PR (4:51) with a harder marathon (CIM is net downhill! YEAH, Nike, I believe, has the second hardest hill in a marathon). And I felt perfectly fine and fit after I finished. No real soreness the next day. I should be thrilled that I got through training and the marathon without so much of a stiff muscle.

I won't run the Nike marathon again, but will put in for their half marathon lottery next year. I have to choose my runner up marathon for next year if I don't get into New York City Marathon (my dream). Either local or the Mardi Gras Marathon (my homestate, though I am kind of pissed at Louisiana right now).

But yea, I am still wishing I could just go faster. During my off time I am going to concentrate on interval training.

Re-open Proposition 8 for California

2008-11-06T16:10:40Z

This is for California residents only. I know online petitions are not that useful, but I feel I have to do SOMETHING.

Please forward to friends/family if you do not currently reside in CA.

http://www.petitiononline.com/seg5130/petition.html

This election has proven both how far we've come regarding civil rights in this country, and how far we still have to go.

OMG

2008-11-05T05:14:08Z

saladbar @ 2008-11-04T21:05:00

2008-11-05T05:05:49Z

A Right Only Woman

2008-11-01T02:40:09Z

Once I met a woman in a Berkeley Tai Chi class who was from Georgia. Sometimes I make instant friends with misplaced Southerners here. She told me she was divorcing her husband of ten years, but they never had kids so she felt that the split would not be a hard one. And she told me when she drove she never, ever, took left turns. She was scared of crossing two or more lanes of traffic.

The last day of our class everyone decided to go to a Thai restaurant. I rode with my new southern friend in her truck to the restaurant. And she never took a left turn. We'd go right, right and right again if she had to turn left. I pretended it wasn't weird ("Oh yea, sometimes those cars scare me too ..."). Right right right. We were the last to get to the restaurant.

Because Obama pals around with terriers

2008-10-16T16:36:24Z

If you download Livestation you can listen to Al Jazeera, BBC World Service, France 24, Russia Today (in English), NASA TV, etc online. Get another perspective than your basic Fox, CNN, etc!

Works on PC, Macs and Linux.

saladbar @ 2008-10-15T12:20:00

2008-10-15T17:33:03Z

Now testing from googletalk.

saladbar @ 2008-10-15T10:04:00

2008-10-15T15:16:32Z

TESTIN UNO DOS TRES QUATRO

saladbar @ 2008-10-10T10:40:00

2008-10-10T17:41:14Z

The George Bush movie trailer

2008-10-01T18:46:40Z

Event photography sucks.

2008-09-23T17:26:26Z

You can only buy ONE photo package, never a variety. If they let me close enough I cna do my own.

saladbar @ 2008-09-08T21:35:00

2008-09-09T04:35:49Z

Nothing interesting to say so it is MEME TIME

2008-09-01T06:06:01Z

ganked from oharlene

Your result for The Director Who Films Your Life Test...

Francis Ford Coppola

Your film will be 68% romantic, 29% comedy, 34% complex plot, and a $ 40 million budget.

Filmography: The Conversation, The Godfather (and Pt. 2 and Pt. 3), Apocolypse Now, Peggy Sue Got Married, Jack, etc. He even used his clout after The Godfather to get George Lucas' classic American Graffiti made. But then he notoriously went WAY overbudget with Apocolypse Now which sort of maimed his career since. He's been doing a lot of small films lately which may give your life story an inside track. A high-budget simple romantic drama is best in the hands of this modern master filmmaker.

Take The Director Who Films Your Life Test at HelloQuizzy

(weird)

Lily keeping the beach safe from birds

2008-09-01T00:52:24Z

I must remind myself of this.

2008-08-31T17:29:09Z

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours. - Wayne Dyer