Fiat Lux

Here goes ... into the blog beyond....

Four years ago this weekend, my husband and I took a last minute trip down to Washington DC, to see some sights and visit a college buddy of mine. We knew we were about to move to San Francisco and figured that it would be our last chance to spend some time in DC for a while. It was.

I found myself thinking about that trip quite a bit over this Labor Day weekend. So much has happened, so many things have changed. I didn't even think we'd still be living in California by now. I certainly didn't expect to have changed careers again. You can thank the dot-com implosion for both of those.

What next? Who knows. But I think that I'd like to blog the journey.

Ah, California, land of the recall. It's still unreal to me that only a year after we elected a governor we're going to choose whether or not to un-elect him. Not that Grey Davis is the world's greatest governor, but he IS the duly elected man for the job and this recall is setting a terrible precedent.

Look at the small Sonoma town of Rohnert Park It seems that the City Council there decided to work with an Indian tribe in regards to their plan to build a new casino just outside the town limits. Rohnert Park residents who don't want to live near a casino have now launched a drive to recall the entire City Council. I suspect this is only the first in a long line of recall efforts.

Breaking news: Mike Richter to retire. One of the great goaltenders in the game. How long until his number (35) gets hoisted to the rafters in Madison Square Garden?

Addendum:

Mike Richter retires not only as the greatest goalie in Rangers history but arguably as the greatest U.S.-born netminder:

- 301-258-73 record with a 2.89 goals-against average in 666 career games
- 41-33 with a 2.68 GAA in the postseason
- 301 victories is Rangers franchise record
- Won Stanley Cup in 1994, stopping Pavel Bure penalty shot along the way
- Three-time All-Star, named All-Star MVP in 1994
- Netminder for 1988, 1998 and 2002 U.S. Olympic teams, won silver medal in '02.
- MVP of the 1996 World Cup
- Led league with franchise-record 42 wins in 1994.
- Will become just the third Ranger, joining Rod Gilbert and Eddie Giacomin, to have his number retired - that in a pregame ceremony on Feb. 4, 2004

An older article from The Register (a favorite news site) got called to my attention today. RFID, which hasn't gotten much attention to date, is poised to become a serious threat to personal privacy over the next few years. The potential for RFID to make the lives of retail businesspeople easier is vast - and as one of them, I can't say that that's a bad thing. I just got 60 cases of shoes - more than 1,500 pounds of product - delivered to my store in the past 2 days. Comparing the contents of each case to the printed manifest of what's supposed to be there is a pain in the butt. If I could just wave a scanner over all the boxes and get an exact inventory readout that I could upload to the computer, I'd be thrilled.

However, something is going to have to be done to allow consumers to remove or disable RFID chips once products have left the store, just like we can remove the sales tags and security devices today. The potential for abuse is just way too vast for there to be any wiggle room on this one. "Once you buy your RFID-tagged jeans at The Gap with RFID-tagged money, walk out of the store wearing RFID-tagged shoes, and get into your car with its RFID-tagged tires, you could be tracked anywhere you travel." says The Register, and it's not a pretty picture.

A rare Saturday off. Scott and I went to a favorite local diner for breakfast and then I headed downtown to help out the SF4Dean team. Governor Howard Dean was in SF today to address health care workers SEIU Local 250. That event was not open to the general public, but the governor was scheduled to give a brief speech afterwards to Dean enthusiasts in adjoining Yerba Buena Garden - a rare patch of green on Mission Street.

I had decided to spend the extra $ for parking and drove down. This turned out to be a good idea, as immediately I met up with Dianne, the volunteer coordinator, who had parked a few cars away from me. I helped her carry some stuff up to the meeting spot and spent the next 2 hours standing behind a makeshift Dean table, greeting volunteers and suporters, handing out stickers, clipboards and flyers, telling people what the schedule was, and generally trying to be helpful. The table migrated down the block to Yerba Buena after the SEIU speech began and again when the exact location for the speech was determined.

Around 4:00 PM, Dean made his appearance and I climbed a convenient light pole to wave an American flag a supporter had dropped off and got a nice view of Dean and the crowd. Dean gave a short version of his stump speech and the crowd was very receptive. I'm a poor judge of crowds but my guess is 150-200 people were there.

My parents were active and enthisuastic Democrats when I was a kid, and politics is something I've cared about and tried to stay informed on pretty much my entire life. That said, this was the first time I've actually been a volunteer at a political event. I hope my schedule will allow it to not be the last. I had a great time, but more important, I hope that in a small way I did some good for a candidate I want to see in the White House.

I've also started a Dean Team to do some fundraising for Governor Dean. Cash is tight in our house, so I can't put my money where my mouth is the way I'd like to. You're invited to help out.

I sacrificed a few hours of sleep last night to finish Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code". I have to say, when I finished, I kind of wished I'd gone to sleep instead. I won't say too much because I don't want to give away plot if you haven't read it, but given the generally excellent reviews the book has gotten, I felt that the ending was a real wimp-out.

Two years ago today was the worst day of my life.

God bless you, Kath, wherever you are.

I really didn't want to go to work today. The thought of being all chipper and sales-y on the 9/11 anniversary just felt wrong. Unfortunately, I was scheduled for closing shift, so after a quiet morning at home, off I went.

I had been hoping that it would be a quiet day, but I was wrong. As I walked through the mall, things were pretty normal. One store (Lucky Jeans) had an American flag out by the door but otherwise it was business as usual. We got pretty much a normal amount of traffic for a week day. I did some paperwork and stockroom work to try to avoid the sales floor. Eventually, out I went and I did my thing, but my heart just wasn't in it.

I know that here in the Bay Area, 2500 miles from New York City, most people didn't have the same visceral reaction to 9/11 as I did. It was bad for them, but not in the same deeply painful way as it was for someone like me, a native NYer who spent 3 years working across the street from the World Trade Center.

I kept wanting to ask the women who were strolling through the mall, "How can you just go about your normal lives today? Don't you know what day it is?" It seemed somehow wrong or disrespectful to be out shopping. It did occur to me that going about one's normal day is not necessarily bad. If nothing else, it says that the attacks didn't change how people live their daily lives. And that's a positive thing.

But for me, the wounds aren't healed enough yet. It's too soon for me to treat 9/11 like any other day. Maybe next year, or the year after that, I'll feel differently. But this year, I really wish I didn't have to be at work on 9/11.

So today I spent a few hours down at the SF SPCA doing my thing as a cat socializer. I've been volunteering for almost a year now. I was unemployed when I first began to volunteer, and I would head over to the shelter three or four times a week. Now that I have a job again, I only get there about 4 times a month.

During kitten season, I spend a lot of my time at the SPCA working with undersocialized (aka feral) kittens who need to get used to humans so they can make good pets. It's not always easy to work with kittens who really don't want to be held or handled. But the good thing is, if you get them young, they can do a complete behavioral turnaround in a short amount of time. It's really rewarding to see a kitten that used to be all hissy and scared climb all over you, purring and giving kitten kisses.

Not all the kittens are hard to work with. In between the ferals, I spent a chunk of time visiting with a Mom-cat and her litter of 6 kittens. They've all been weaned onto food but are staying with their mother until they're big enough to be adopted out. One of the kittens climbed up onto my shoulder, plopped down, and stayed there the entire time I was in the room. The Mom-cat took a nap. And the other 5 kittens decided I was the best toy they'd ever seen and decided to climb all over me, chew on my hands, my shoes, and my pants, and generally do all sorts of cute kittenish things. Aside from the fact that 2 of them smelled like poop, it was a ton of fun.

I don't take my camera to the shelter because I don't want the flash to upset the kitties, but I really wish I had a photo of the kitten on my shoulder. She was a sweetie. I hope she finds a good home.

It suddenly occurred to me tonight that if I'd had a camera in my phone, I might possibly have gotten a photo of the cute kitten on my shoulder at the SPCA on Sunday.

I was always one for pooh-poohing convergence devices. It took getting my hands on the oh-so-well-designed Treo to get me over my "PDAs and phones don't mix" kick and make me a major Treo enthusiast. So now I'm wondering whether the upcoming Treo 600 might get me over my disdain for cameras integrated into PDAs and phones.

Not that I can afford the Treo 600. But a gal can dream.....

IANAL, but this smells like an impeachable offense to me. I doubt it will happen though, since there aren't enough Democratic votes in Congress to get articles of impeachment through.

Thanks to The Left Coaster for the following:

March 18, 2003

GEORGE W. BUSH

But on 9/17, Bush says that:

"There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al-Qaida ties," the president said. But he also said, "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the Sept. 11" attacks.

The failure to find any imminent WMD threat has now negated Article 1 of the rationale Bush used above. Today he says he has no evidence that Saddam was involved in September 11(when on March 18 he says he did have such evidence), which then negates Article 2 of his legislatively-required justification for war as outlined under PL 107-243.

Went to do a shift at the SPCA this afternoon and got some sad news. The SPCA got hit by a Panleukopenia outbreak and 2 of the 6 kittens I spent some of my shift with on Sunday are dead.

Panleuk outbreaks are, sadly, not uncommon in animal shelters during kitten season and the SPCA team is working hard to minimize the impact. I feel awful and wish there was something more I could do to help.

jetBlue Airlines, for reasons passing understanding, violated their own privacy policy and handed passenger information lists over to a government contractor.

Why they blithely handed millions of passengers' names, addresses and phone numbers over without a subpoena to a private company that could do anything with that data passes understanding.

I'm not feeling inclined to be flying jetBlue again.

Update: Check out this website for more on jetBlue and their invasions of personal privacy.

The candidate I'm supporting for President of the USA, Howard Dean, is trying to do something that no other presidential candidate has done before. He intends to raise 5 million dollars in 10 days from average Americans - not special interest PACs or high-roller donors. Here's a regularly-updated view of how he's doing:

I've put both my money and my time where my mouth is on this issue. I urge you do to so as well. Please consider making a donation to Dean's campaign fund. We desperately need to get GW Bush and his cronies out of the White House in 2004.

Heard on the radio as I was driving home from work tonight.... the US occupation of Iraq was called "Compassionate Colonialism".

Unfortunately I don't know who originated the phrase, but I'll try to find out.

I don't have to be at the store until noon today, so I'm scanning the headlines today. And I found this howler of a quote on Yahoo!

Bush said he insulates himself from the "opinions" that seep into news coverage by getting his news from his own aides. He said he scans headlines, but rarely reads news stories.

"I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news," the president said. "And the best way to get the news is from objective sources, and the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world."

Am I the only person who finds it scary that the President of the United States can't be bothered to read the news personally and make his own judgements on what's happening and what's important?

Lots of political posts lately. It's that time of year, I guess. I TiVoed the CA Governor's debate since I wouldn't get home from work early enough to watch it. Scott and I plopped down on the couch with some Chinese takeout and watched.

IMHO, Camejo and McClintock actually came out the best of all of them; Hufffington's attacks on Bustamante and Schwarzenegger drove things off topic and divided those candidates' attention from their answers. By staying out of Huffington's firing line, the other 2 had the chance to actually answer some questions and talk about issues. Bustamante did do some talking about issues, but I also noticed that he ducked at least one question to go off on unrelated issues. Schwarzenegger did OK considering how much he was getting sniped by Huffington, who didn't miss a chance to attack.

I wateched the debate hoping I would figure out who to vote for but have not come to any firm conclusions. Here's where I am now:

-Huffington's a joke.
-McClintock is too right wing.
-Camejo is too left wing.
-I don't like Bustamante and his $4 million Indian casino donation shell games.
-Then there's Schwarzenegger - but I think he doesn't really grok how different running a state is from running a company and his inexperience will cause problems. Plus I have a hard time voting for any Republican knowing that a Republican governor will make things harder for the Democratic nominee in next years's election.

I suppose I could vote for one of the no-names, but I don't want to waste my vote either.

I'm heading back home to NYC to see family tomorrow, so today I got a little pampering at a nail salon over in Potrero Hill. A pal had told me that ManiPedi did good manicures & pedicures and she was definitely right. I sat in a big leather chair with heat and massage elements and relaxed while one gal worked on my feet and a guy (first time I've ever had a male nail technician!) did my hands. It was so comfortable I almost dozed off in the middle of it all.

ManiPedi had gotten written up in Lucky Magazine a few times. It's nice to see a good local place get some recognition.

Hubby & I flew home to spend the Jewish New Year with our respective families this weekend. One of the things that really sucks about living 2500 miles away from most of your family is how hard it is to get quality time with them. Try as you might, there's always someone you don't have time to see on your trip home. This time it was my sister. Nevertheless, in 72 hours, we managed to:

-Fly into Newark airport, pick up a really inexpensive rental car (thanks Hotwire!)
-Get lost in NJ as we tried to find our way to Staten Island and from there to Long Island.
-Spend an evening and a morning with Scott's mother, brother, wife, and our two wonderful nieces.
-Drive to Northern NJ for a Rosh Hashanna dinner with some of my dad's family
-Eat like a pig and then drive to Fairfield county CT to spend some time with my parents at their country house
-Spend a day in the country ducking the rain, running errands, and eating like a pig some more (featuring a rack of lamb and lots of homegrown veggies from Dad's garden).
-Drive into Manhattan on Monday for lunch with my grandmother (celebrity sighting: Chris Noth of the "Law & Order" franchise was 3 tables away. He's a hottie!) and some quick shopping at a few favorite stores for bagels and deli we can't get in SF.
-Finally, drive back to Newark and back to SF.