Great video

If this doesn't make you laugh then there's something wrong with you.

last nights storm

Yesterday and last night the rain was coming down so hard and there were periodic bouts of thunder and hail, but most impressive was the wind. Tree branches were strewn all over the city, even a lamp post near my house was haphazardly laying on the sidewalk after having been blown over. It was so eerie to see the lights still lit up as it lay up-rooted on the sidewalk and sectioned off with a police do not cross tape as if it were an urban homicide.
When I woke up this morning to walk the dog there I saw the wind had thrown debris from trees, pieces of buildings and other normally fixed objects all over the streets with as much care as one flicks away an unwanted scab off their finger tip. What stood out most to me were the dozens of umbrellas I saw that lay like carnage on a battlefield. They clearly were not meant to survive what they encountered and it looked like most would never have volunteered or allowed their spring releasing mechanism to open fully if they knew where they'd end up and how they'd look afterwards.

There boots were made for walking

Today is rainy and really windy. When i took my dog for a walk this morning he ran back inside after a few minutes as if he was saying "fuck that."

I think he had the right idea.

I have to go to work though. In theory I could take the day off but it seems like a pretty silly feeling to succumb to, 'its cold and i'd like to cozy up and do nothing today.' i might trust the feeling more if i didn't have it almost everyday, even on nice days.
So I'm sitting on the bus going to work in the rain and writing this boring blog entry on my phone. The book I'm reading about building a popular site says that these personal entries are not a good theme for a successful site. After all, who would want to read entries like this all the time? Good thing this blog isn't popular;).

our little cabin

I wanted to post a few pics of the place Amy and I stayed in over the weekend.

confessions of a BART fartist

I just discovered the Best of Craigslist page which consists of reader voted posts from any category taken from anywhere in the country (world?).
Any way, there are many funny ones in there and I recommend it for some good ol voyeuristic fun.

You've never seen humus like this

Amy and i are up north in the ancient city of aco. This photo is of one of the country's most notorious humus spots and it is always packed like nobody's business. The name of the place is Humus Said and requires waiting about 30 minutes in a line out the door of the restaurant that spills onto the street. The line is so packed and chaotic that it can be a tense 30 minutes. Plus, if you're not on your guard it could easily turn into 40 minutes by not noticing some opportunistic locals that shamelessly force their way in front of you. By the time you're seated however there is a general feeling of relief and camaraderie with all the other patrons who know that good things come to those who wait.
Not many places that are hyped up as much as this spot can live up to the expectation but in this case it is well worth it. I didn't know humus could taste like this. Wow. Not bad for 14 shekel (about $3.50). It was one of many great things Amy and I experienced on this trip.

Don't know who to vote for?

This is a great site that can help you by telling you what candidates are most like the political views you hold.
You just take a short quiz and then Presto! It tells you by % which candidates are perfect for you and why!
check out http://glassbooth.org/

happiness- a study

For the last few years I've been particularly interested and concerned with what I have at best been able to call, "the problem of abundance" or "plagued by choice." I came to the conclusion that in spite of all the freedoms, luxuries and options most Americans have today they are by and large not as happy as people from other places.
Not only that, but I also noticed that there is almost a conversely true principle that people from much poorer places I'd been were much happier. I also noticed the affect that America had on the children of immigrants that I noticed to be very happy and after growing up in all the freedoms, luxuries and options that the US offered these children were often filled with the same angst and emptiness that I could easily recognize in myself and everyone else. So what is it about? I can't necessarily say what its about for everyone but for me its in part about feeling like I'm supposed to be great and well off and happy all the time and if I'm not it means I'm a failure. Its like somehow I couldn't take advantage of this world of opportunity at my feet.
I've really had to do a lot of growth and therapy to get over issues like this. I think that there is a lot of merit in just living and trying to be good. Be good to the people around you. Be good at what you do. Its all the new agey stuff of living with intent and purpose that you can hear all over the place now, but I believe part of the reason we're hearing more of it is because we've drifted so far from that in our pursuit of happiness and success.
I just read an interesting article from the economist about this topic that I recommend.
Here's how the article starts off, "THE World Database of Happiness, in Rotterdam, collects all the available information about what makes people happy and why. According to the research, married, extroverted optimists are happier than single, pessimistic introverts, and Republicans are happier than Democrats. Nurses enjoy life more than bankers, and it helps to be religious, sexually active and a college graduate with a short commute to work. The wealthy experience more mirth than the poor, but not much. Most people say they are happy, but perhaps that is because they are expected to be." click here for the article.

amazing article

Ok, you guys might not think its amazing but I read this article about why popular things become popular such as Brittany Spears, Harry Potter, or the Blair Witch Project and the way that social communities (ie the world we live in) influences this. Who would have thought the article touches on crazy parallel universes and other mind boggling ideas to rattle around in your noggin. I hope you have as much fun with it as I did. Read it all the way through, its worth it.
Here's an excerpt "Conventional marketing wisdom holds that predicting success in cultural markets is mostly a matter of anticipating the preferences of the millions of individual people who participate in them. From this common-sense observation, it follows that if the experts could only figure out what it was about, say, the music, songwriting and packaging of Norah Jones that appealed to so many fans, they ought to be able to replicate it at will. And indeed that’s pretty much what they try to do. That they fail so frequently implies either that they aren’t studying their own successes carefully enough or that they are not paying sufficiently close attention to the changing preferences of their audience."

What's really important

I am reading a book on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) right now. Basically that is what people trying to make money online are concerned about because it can help increase your site's rankings on search engines like google and that, plain and simply, is worth $ these days. The author, Aaron Wall, is from Oakland, CA (yeah Oakland!) and included this quote at the end of his opening "tips" section. I found it very topical though and I appreciated that he took the time to share this:

"I also want to share a quote with you from Weaving the Web by one my favorite web
personalities, and the man who created the Web, Tim Berners-Lee:

People have sometimes asked me whether I am upset that I have not
made a lot of money from the Web. In fact, I made some quite
conscious decisions about which way to take my life. These I would
not change - though I am making no comment on what I might do in
the future. What does distress me, though, is how important a
question it seems to be to some. This happens mostly in America,
not Europe. What is maddening is the terrible notion that a person’s
value depends on how important and financially successful they are,
and that that is measured in terms of money. That suggests
disrespect for the researchers across the globe developing ideas for
the next leaps in science and technology. Core in my upbringing was
a value system that put monetary gain well in its place, behind things
like doing what I really want to do. To use net worth as a criterion by
which to judge people is to set our children’s’ sights on cash rather
than on things that will actually make them happy."

My little camper

This is shimshon sleeping last night. I shoved the camera in his face to get a live action shot of doggie bliss.

Amy's great dinner

Amy made the best stuffed egg plant ever. :)

catching up

So much to blog about. Where do I start? I've painted again. I was on a bit of a break and then I painted 4 more. Some I like, some not so much. Its really fun to paint though and I love it when I make something beautiful. I was painting in the park near my house over the weekend. I took my dog shimshon and set up my paints and brushes in the sun and sent to work. I was a bit self conscious because I wasn't so impressed with the painting I was doing. Nonetheless, I finished it and came home. Once home I did 3 more and I was happier with those.

What else? it's been fucking cold here. good lord! I guess it is the time of year for that after all but damn. There isn't a lot to do when its so cold. You don't really go on walks or hang outside. Almost everyday I retreat home to cook dinner, maybe watch a movie and that's it. I feel a bit like a hibernating bear waiting for spring. Its been so cold I haven't surfed since in about a month. There haven't been waves which is the only thing that consoles me. Its just to cold. I'm fine in the wetsuit, but my head and feet and hands would be so cold.

Work is going great. I finally feel both like I'm getting to the point I'd wanted to within the career and the company. I really like my job and the industry and I haven't been this happy professionally in a long time. I've been there 6 months and I only now feel like I'm starting to become a professional in the field and that excites me because I know I still have so much more to learn. I'm grateful to be excited about work.