Fish Sticks and Green Jello

A friend send me an email asking for help spreading the word on this issue. I figured adding it to my blog would at least help somewhat. Some of the following meeting places may not be in your area but you can find out more info via the website if this is an issue that interests you. There's an FAQ explaining what this is about in more detail on the site. I did a very quick Google search for any opposition sites on this issue and didn't find much. If you have an opposing viewpoint or links to clear/concise websites opposing it please post your thoughts and info in the comments section.

Here's the following email I got from my friend Lulu, keep in mind that there are no online petitions for this issue. You'll need to print out the pdf and carefully read the instructions on how to collect signatures.

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From Lulu:

They need petitions signed to get this on the ballot- you can sign up by e-mail to get petition forms and have friends, family, coworkers, etc. sign them.

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October 31, 2007

Join the Californians for Humane Farms Campaign!

Join the campaign to protect California's farm animals!

Your help is needed to put a measure on the 2008 ballot that would outlaw the cruel confinement of veal calves, egg-laying hens, and breeding pigs. This important measure will phase out the use of the gestation crate for pigs, the battery cage for egg-laying hens and prevent the use of the veal crate for male calves.

We have only five short months to qualify this initiative for the November 2008 ballot. If thousands of volunteers join the effort to collect 650,000 signatures, we can secure a place for this precedent-setting measure on the ballot!

Please attend a special campaign event near you starting on November 5. Joining me will be our special guests Mike Markarian, The HSUS's Executive Vice President, and Gene Baur, Founder of Farm Sanctuary. We'll share how you can become a crucial member of the team of volunteers that will put this precedent-setting measure on the ballot.

Santa Monica
Monday, November 5
6:00-9:00 p.m.

Westside Pavilion Mall
Community Room B
10800 West Pico Blvd. #312
Los Angeles, CA 90064

Ventura
Wednesday, November 7
6:00-9:00 p.m.
Century Downtown Theatre
555 East Main Street
Ventura, CA 93001

Marina Del Rey
Friday, November 9
6:30-9:30 p.m.
If you are interested in attending this event, please RSVP to director@humanecalifornia.org for address and directions

Pomona/Claremont
Saturday, November 10
11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
Western University
309 E. Second Street
Pomona, CA 91766

Mission Viejo
Sunday, November 11
9:30, 11:30 a.m. services
Tapestry Unitarian Universalist Congregation
25801 Obrero Drive
Mission Viejo, CA 92691

I look forward to seeing you at one of these special events. If you are not able to attend, we still want you involved! Please contact director@humanecalifornia.org for more information or sign up to be a volunteer. If you are already a volunteer, thank you! Please help spread the word about this important effort.

Thank you for helping farm animals in California!

Sincerely,

Wayne Pacelle
President & CEO
The Humane Society of the United States

P.S. Please make sure to check out the campaign web site at HumaneCalifornia.org.

Labels: current events, friends, politics

Finally new photos and a new post!

My Birthday bash this year was at Cha Cha Cha for the dinner portion then we headed on over to the Argus to see Colin and co. spin. Bizhan took a lot of these photos and Mark added his set as well. I think they're pretty awesome pics!

Enjoy!

Flickr Birthday Bash Set


Here's my current all time fave pic of Jason and I at the Argus.

Labels: birthday, friends, jason, me

Dave kept telling me his baby was the cutest baby in the whole wide world. I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, everyone says that'. But then I spent the day with him and he's right, he really is the cutest baby in the whole wide world! He's also HUGE. 5 months old and 20lbs already. He likes to eat a lot. Anna was telling me how much work he is but how it's worth it. I want one. :) If my friend Nate is reading this he's going to try and give me crap about how my clock is ticking. Lies!

Dave says JD has 'wild eyes' in this picture. I still think it's cute. I look kinda tired in this picture though.



You can find more pics on Dave's myspace page located here. If you view his comments you can find a pretty hilarious picture of Dave and myself at the Junior Prom. It was the 80's... give us a break!

Labels: friends, myspace

Last month my friend David and I went to Medjool as part of our attempt to go to nice restaurants in SF then review them for fun. So far we've made it out once because I had to flake on our second outing which was supposed to be to the Slanted Door. I definitely plan on doing this again though.

Here are our first reviews.

David's Review:
As I entered Medjool on that pleasant Wednesday night my first imporession was that the place was empty. Not entirely surprising because it was the middle of the week, but it was a little disconcerting that almost no one was there at 8pm which, I believe, is the prime time of dining. You can tell that the venue is probably a lot busier and frenetic during the weekend evenings when the almost cavernous space is likely filled with club goers drinking and talking at the bar and people there to catch some light tapas style dining with friends. I believe there is a dance floor there but right now I'm too lazy to look on their web page and see. The design of the is decidedly colorful with contemporary with clean lines and the space definitely looks like it could accomodate it.

Upon being seated we were presented with the wine list and immediately had a bit of sticker shock. I don't remember there being many choices below $10 per glass and the prices went up from there quickly. I'm no somolier, but they did seem to have a decent selection from which to choose. My glass of wine (either the Chardonnay amista or Nero d'Avola, I can't recall which) was robust and flavorful, but again the price soured my enjoyment of it a bit.

We enjoyed several courses which I again feel were slightly overpriced.
Nothing sensational, especially for the amount paid. The hangar steak was cooked to perfection but they decided that it would be better smothered in a sauce that tasted suspiciously like A1. The whole point of hangar steak is that it's a rather fatty cut and has flavor on its own merit. Oh well. Next was some tuna tartare with some sort of chili sauce. The presentation was nice, but again it was nothing special. Onto the 3 scallops which were memorable only because I enjoy scallops. Luckily they didn't bludgeon them with sauce. The chocolate pot de creme was tasty as a dessert.

The service all night basically sucked. I hate to point a finger at our waitress but I'm going to. When the place is this dead it shouldn't be such a chore to flag someone down or to remember our order correctly. At least when it was remembered the food was delivered to the table quickly enough.

All in all we dropped over $80 for a rather unexceptional experience. I think this place was designed as a meeting place for the young professional semi-hipster set with a lot of disposable income. Even if we had gone on a Friday or Saturday and the place had been hopping I don't think I would have found it terribly enjoyable, but that's just me. Spending that much before the night has even begun is kind of silly, especially when the same amount of cash could have purchased a far more enjoyable and memorable experience elsewhere. Don't get me started on the fact that they didn't have paper towels in the bathroom. YUCK. I give this place 6 out of a possible 10 stars.

Anyway, until the next time, bon apetit.

My Review:
((I'll add mine soon!))

There are a few photos up on flickr located here.

Labels: friends, restaurants

I finally tossed up the batch of goofy Anon Salon pics from last month's event. Anon Salon never ceases to be FUN! I'm still in the process of working on moving all of my photos from Ofoto over to Flickr. Total pain for sure.

My friend Thomas turns 40 this Saturday and we're all loading up on a party bus that's going to drive around from club to club in SF. This will be my first party bus experience so I'm semi-looking forward to it. My only concern is that someone gets over-partied on the bus and hurls or something. Yuck. Since I'm taking my camera out more these days I'll be sure to put up some photos of that event as well.

We went to WonderCon last weekend. I will post a little something about that later. I made my friend Johnny walk around and sneak photos of B-list celebrities which I'll also post up on flickr later.

In the meantime check out the Anon Salon photos here.

And lastly here's a picture I really like. :)

Labels: friends, relationships

I need to start carrying my camera around more. Actually I need to buy a smaller camera to carry around. We used to take photos all the time when we went out. Not so much anymore. Ian has his camera on hand last Friday night. This is a nice shot of Jordan and I trying to do a semi-prom photo pose. I haven't seen Jordan in ages but everytime I do see him he's at the 540 Club!



My hair has been looking extra purpley lately. Gina (my hairdresser) must have done some killer bleach job last time I was in there to get that much color out of it. I actually added some deep purple last Monday to it to bring the brightness down a bit. I can only take so much purple sometimes. Hard to believe, I know. Looks killer in the photos though.

You can see the rest of the photos here.

That reminds me, I need to move all of my old photos from Ofoto to Flickr. I'll do that over the next week. I have so many photo albums on there! I don't want to lose them.

Labels: friends

Here's a photo Ian took of us with his camera phone at Theo's Bday party on the 13th. He posted it on my myspace page. I've known Ian for probably 8 or more years now. We go WAY back. I'm including a shot of us from '00 outside the 500 club in SF. See if you can pick us out of the photo!

Labels: friends

So I said I would keep up on my blogging and I mean it! I thought I'd put an update here for everyone wondering if I'd dropped off again. Tonight is the company Xmas party which I can't go to. Why, because I've been out sick all week from work. I knew I would be out sick this week since I had scheduled to have something done and it required me to be home to recover. It's been a sore, painful week but I'm recovering. Hopefully Monday I won't be hobbling around too much at work. I have to fly out to Virginia on Wednesday as well so flying like this should be delightful. I should be considerably better by then I hope. I'll still be sore though, that's how planes are.

In preparation for the plane flight I picked up a medium sized expandable pillow from REI along with a lightweight travel blanket in 'tree frog' green and a black wheeled tote bag. I can't be carrying things across an airport so rolling whatever I need to take with me on the plane around will be a huge help.

I missed another Xmas party on Friday as well so I've only made it to one this year which was Shawn and Libby's. I'll be in Virginia for 9 days visting my family and continuing to use the time to recover and lay low. New Year's Eve will be low key for me this year for health reasons and the New Year will hopefully be a good one.

So in terms of an update... not to be too vague but the thing I mentioned in my last big blog post that I was working on for the last month fell through. Really disappointing to say the least and a huge time suck. I hope that the work I did on that wasn't all in vain. I felt like I put a lot into it and I hope that it somehow pays off for me in the future. I'm still depressed about it to say the least but it's for the best I'm sure. The physical thing I posted about... that's going on right now and I'm getting better, yay! Things at work have been hectic while I've been gone I heard and I feel badly that I'm not there working on things but I will be next week for part of it at least. The holidays are a tough time. The year is coming to an end and I feel a bit blue and worried about life and the future right now. I hope that this next year is better than the last. I say this every year and sometimes it is better but in different ways. Maybe I'm hoping that something really spectacular will happen. Who knows. I do plan on working hard, taking classes, working out and other things so we'll see how that all goes for me.

I was invited to do New Orleans in February again with the gang and Jeremy and I had said we'd go. I'm starting to think I may not though for financial reasons. It wouldn't require me missing any work really but I just don't feel like putting out that kind of money right now and I don't know if I'm up to doing New Orleans, eating, drinking and spending money so soon after xmas. Probably not. Maybe next trip. I used to dream about going to New Orleans all the time. Two trips later and I'm kind of blah on the whole thing. I'm just not in that frame of mind I guess.

Okay back to laying on the couch or propped up on pillows in bed reading a book.

Movies I watched this week while out sick:
* King Kong (the new one): Nicely done but just too long, I found myself skipping ahead in parts. Plus I hate it when King Kong dies and for some reason Naomi Watts annoyed me in this.
* Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest: Nice special effects, amusing and entertaining for dvd fare but it seemed long as well (maybe it was just me being sick this week who knows) and of course it just leads right into the third movie with no resolution, yay marketing.
* Poseidon: The original was way better. This was pretty lightweight Hollywood action fare. It was pretty cheesy in terms of realism and they changed the ending. All in all it wasn't as stressful or hectic as the first one at all. Blah.
* Freedomland: This was pretty lame too. It was on tv so I just tuned in. It was totally obvious how the story was going to pan out and I'm not sure I cared really.
* Syriana: I started watching this late but it was really good. It was also long and really complex. At times I wasn't exactly sure what was happening so I'd have to backtrack and re-watch some scenes but it was a good film. George Clooney was really good in it. The torture scenes were pretty scary.

Here's a photo of Jeremy and I from Shawn and Libby's xmas party.

Labels: friends, holidays, movies, travel

I found this new site called Etsy yesterday. I probably had seen it before but didn't really remember it since it's been so long since I crafted anything.

Etsy is a site that allows you to sell your DIY goods. It's a more homegrown storefront version of Fred Flare. Fred Flare sells stuff like this but they make it more commercial and they buy the goods and re-sell them.

Per Etsy's site: Fees -Sign up - free, your own shop - free, listing and item - 20 cents, selling - 3.5% fee. That's it. All listings get up to 5 images free of charge. Listings stay up for 4 months.

This makes me want to get back into crafting again very badly. I should start crafting earrings again. I already have quite a few made. I could probably put them up for sale for starters. It's a shame how you get sidetracked from doing things you really love. I blame World of Warcraft. While WoW is a fun game, it sure was a time suck. I was planning on playing the expansion but I'm not sure how it's going to all fall into place with the other things I'd like to do.

There are a couple of other things going on in my life right now that I probably can't actually blog about yet. One of them I've been working on for the last month and am still in limbo about. More on that later... possibly. Another one is coming up soon and involves something physical and the last thing which I can mention is some of the website stuff my stepbrother wants me to start working on for his manufacturing site. I really should get working on that asap. It's tough with a day job I'm trying to focus on right now too. I should be able to do both but sometimes my motivation isn't all there since it's the holiday season and all.

My cousin's email address was bouncing mail back a week ago which had me concerned. I tried emailing him just a bit ago and no bounce back yet. Obviously if I was more concerned I'd have called him by now. I'll try calling him tomorrow. This is an official reminder. Call Larry.

Tuesday is Shawn and Libby's annual Christmas feed. I have to remember to pick up an ornament for it. They like people to bring them ornaments, it's a neat tradition. Also at the last Anon Salon (11/25) Shawn asked Libby to marry him! He got her a pretty nice ring I hear. I'll have to check it out in person. I met Shawn on a trip to New Orleans with a group of mutal friends in November of 2003. He had just started dating Libby shortly before he left on that trip. I remember meeting her when we got back. The early stages of dating. She's quite a bit younger than him and no one was sure how that would pan out really. They moved in together into a live/work loft he bought last year and the rest is now history. I'm really happy for them. They really compliment each other well and are quite a fun pair. They're lucky to have found each other. :)

Now if only I could get my act together and meet someone I actually LIKE that would be a start. I saw a doctor the other day that was asking me if I was going to have kids or not. I said considering I didn't have a boyfriend it wasn't going to be anytime soon. He said I had about five years left, maaaayyybe more but not advisable. Gee. Thanks. Thanks for the reminder! Tick.. Tock... Tick... Tock. New years resolution. Meet a guy I like (that like's me back) that's not a big loser. Check.

Oh one final thing. Today I took a really fat nap and I had the coolest flying dream. I've had them before and mine are usually pretty 'realistic' (as much as I know what flying might be like). I dreamt I was Supergirl, costume and all (haha) and I got to hang with Superman (Christopher Reeve superman not Brandon Routh superman). It was awesome. I had that whole sensation of shooting up into the sky with a big rush of wind and cold air around me and then that crazy stomach churning sensation of dropping rapidly, like a roller coaster ride... except I could stop before I hit the ground and float or fly off. I kept having this weird thought in my head, "What if my flying power gives out? I'll fall pretty far!". A weird fear I know but hey, it was a dream and since I'm not usually a 'flier' it seemed reasonable at the time.

Anyways it was a totally fun dream. I really didn't want to wake up but then my dog started growling at me to get up and feed him or let him out to pee, one or the other. He always does that. On the one hand it's REALLY annoying to get woken up in the middle of the night or mid-nap to have to go out into the cold to let the dog out. On the other hand pee soaked carpet is much more annoying so dog growling is ok. I'm lucky he's smart enough to let me know when he needs stuff otherwise we'd be in trouble because I'm not always on top of it.

I'm going to try to get feeds working on this blog. With a custom template the feeds are broken. I think it's missing some vital tags. I'll have to look into it more later. Okay back to bed for me. I have GOT to get back on a normal sleep schedule.

Labels: crafts, dog, dreams, friends, relationships, videogames, webdev

So I finally got around to trying this thing out. It's pretty slick. I got two vastly different results from slightly different photos. Keep in mind that I'm half caucasian and half asian when viewing these. I see the resemblances more in the first set of results. I bet that means that I identfiy with my white half more or something because even in the second set of photos the first person I thougth that photo might resemble was Hilary Duff. I did grow up with my dad from age 9 on so that might be part of it. Interesting...


These were the first set of results I got. Smiling, no teeth.




Here's a photo I don't really like. What's interesting to note though is the vast difference in look alike results I got. Almost all asians on this one! It's probably picking this up from the shape of my eyes in this photo.




AND......

Since Dave sent me such a perfect headshot photo I ran his too!! :D



You get to pick which 8 of say 10-12 you most look like. Dave's said he also looked 63% like Barry Pepper. I just didn't see much of a resemblance though so I didn't pick it. He also was pegged as a look-alike for Rajneesh. I had no clue who that was until I looked him up so I picked Jake Gyllenhaal instead. Better choice I think. :)



EDIT: The links to the myheritage.com site expired so I did the whole thing again, copied and posted them.

Labels: entertainment, friends, me

This year I spent T-Day over at Jason, Kari and Sabine's place. They're all living up in Sabine's flat off of Clement. There were a ton of folks there and as usual Kari made the most awesome Turkey ever. We also had asparagus, mashed potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, fried sweet potates, rolls, ham, pumpkin cheesecake, pie, jello, tofurkey, buttered/brown sugared baby carrots, stuffing and more? I can't recall. It was great though.

Here are a couple of pics from the ocassion. This was just a group of us, not counting the 10 (or so) other people in the front room. You can see tons more of the same photos in my flickr album too.


Back Row: Jeremy, Me, Kari, Kaiser (jason and kari's dog), Nate
Front Row: Sabine



Back Row: Toby (my dog), Me, Jeremy, Kari, Jason, Kaiser (jason and kari's dog)
Front Row: Chloe (jason and kari's dog)

Labels: friends, holidays

Junior David has arrived. I'm late posting this and Dave's been bugging me to do this so here you go!

Joel Daniel Stein (yes he's jewish) - 8lbs. 9oz born on 11/14 at... 4:05pm? I can't recall, I'm sure Dave can post a comment with the exact time. :) I've known Dave 19 years now and it's crazy to see him with a kid now. I feel really old now.

Hrm, who does he look more like? Dave or Anna? Hard to say from the photo. I have yet to meet him since he's been born but I got to feel him kick about a week before he made his debut. That was a first for me (thanks anna!). I'll see him in person really soon though. I promised I'd babysit too... that's if they'll trust me with their kid. ;)

Labels: friends