remembering: barackstar

4 years ago, I was jazzed about the enthusiasm surrounding the democratic candidate. I don't know that we have that enthusiasm this time around, but I think we ought to bring it back:

One of the most ridiculous criticisms I hear about Senator Obama is his seeming "rock star" status.

Watching the Democratic Convention tonight, seeing people yell and scream at and for a politician, it seemed not odd or superficial, but deserved and graciously accepted.

Really, so many people yell and scream for unremarkable people-- Disney starlets, popular criminals with music careers, and pretty women with little more skill than the ability to look nice in stilettos. Why shouldn't we treat amazing individuals committing themselves to serving our great country and bettering the conditions of its people with the enthusiasm and energy that we treat celebrities with? Good politics is much cooler than superficial pop music.

So what if people are treating Barack Obama like a rock star? Good. If people would care more about politics than who Lindsay Lohan is dating, we'd have a much richer popular culture.

The hype surrounding Obama is deserved. There is substance behind that hype. How exciting is the prospect of Obama as President Elect in November?

YES WE CAN.

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Thank God I am an American. What a privileged Life to have and an amazing country deserving of such passion as is apparent at the Democratic Convention.

you could, like, make this for valentine's day

One of the things I made for Superbowl Sunday was a treat that I've made before in a different form. When I originally made this incredibly easy no-bake cheesecake recipe, I thought it would make a great snack.

Indeed it did:


Everyone was in love with these and my neighbor told me I should market them to Trader Joe's. Instead, I am just going to show you how ridiculously easy it is and suggest you try it sometime.

1. Simply make the above-linked recipe (it is SO easy: lemon juice, sugar, whipped heavy cream, and cream cheese mixed... that's all.).

2. Shove it in a cookie press/frosting-do and then shove it in the fridge.

3. Squish it onto some graham crackers.

4. Drizzle some chocolate shell on it (the stuff that hardens when it's cold).

5. Stick it back in the fridge.

It's ready when you are.




Boom. I am awesome.

cafe brioche

vegan breakfast :)




Cafe Brioche in Palo Alto.

Judahlicious

I just moved. I’ve lived 3 different places in SF now, all of which are in the Outer Sunset. I love my ‘hood, what can I say?



Anywho, I picked up a pretty awesome smoothie and waffle at Judahlicious for breakfast. My partner and I each ordered a waffle, which was quite the mistake. The waffles were ginormous and dense. I couldn’t even finish half. Someone should tell the folks at Judahlicious to make it half the size and charge 2/3 the price. For serious.

herbivore, pt. whatever

So first off: no picture. I left my phone at home like a… forgetful person.

I had my best brunch yet at Herbivore: their sausage biscuit and gravy. It came with potatoes (which I covered in hot sauce) and a salad, which was delicious. It was spinach, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and half an avocado. I’m getting fat and I don’t care.

I also ordered their tempeh bacon, which was pretty crap. I haven’t had bacon in a really long time, but I’m pretty sure that it was nothing like bacon. It also just wasn’t very good… it was dry and covered in a sticky, burnt-ish something-or-other. Liquid smoke? I dunno. In any case, I will never order that again.

Thank you.

life

Both of my father’s parents passed away recently—within a month of each other. 2011 so far has held a variety of challenges for me, the evidence of which is literally on my face (my hormones go nuts when I am stressed enough).

When my grandfather passed, it felt like a funeral. There was mourning and joy with family. When my grandmother passed, we hadn’t finished mourning and I hadn’t finished dealing with the other very serious problems that had risen in my life. I felt so numb in so many ways. It was as if those moments when I could actually break into my emotions and feel tears on my face were salvation. While in some ways, the numbness held me together in ways that I might not have been together otherwise, I felt like it also exhausted me. I felt broken and exasperated. The situation was surreal—there I was in my grandmother’s house without my grandmother. Family was there and the home was more or less the way it was when she lived in it, but her presence was gone and it made the whole situation feel like it wasn’t happening.

At her viewing, I heard so many people say that her face looked peaceful and finally pain free. To me, her face was not her face. My grandmother’s face was not her own without the characteristic twinkle in her eye. Even in moments when my grandmother was in tears, no one could take that defiant sparkle of life from her.

I suppose that’s what death is.

It makes me sad to think that my grandmother will never get to see me start my family or be a part of that process. I grew up with 2 great grandmothers and a great grandfather until I was 4. My children will likely only have one great grandparent. It makes me sad in a way that I never could have anticipated.

Sitting in the sanctuary for my grandmother’s service, I asked God for peace. I haven’t done that in a while; I try to “lift my self up by my bootstraps” in most situations. I don’t like to ask God for things often, but I did that day. As I felt that peace come in and give me strength for the rest of the day, I was reminded how that strength is always there, waiting for my need.

I hope it can sustain me in the weeks to come.

because torturing humans is wrong, too

I find myself undecided about which actions are necessary responses to the abuses of our prior administration. Our current administration shouldn't dwell on the ugliness of the Bush/Cheney era. It's probably bad for the party to do so. The question in my mind is this: Can a concern for the integrity of Human Life be "dwelling?" No, that's not the question. Of course such a concern is not dwelling. I firmly believe that all Life is sacred and that none of us have the right to destroy or torture it. Beyond my gut feelings about this, the general consensus reached by those scholars who've chosen to take on the horrifying task of researching torture is that torture doesn't work. More often than it leads to productive information, it will lead to faulty information or none at all. How can we justify forms of cruel and unusual punishment when they don't even yield results?

Of course, there are many in our country who believe that whether or not we gain information by destroying people's bodies and dignity, they deserve to be tortured. We'll forget, for now, the fact that many detainees are probably innocent and were sold into confinement by corrupt individuals hungry for money (and we'll also forget that many who "hunger" are not hungering like Judas Iscariot, but more like impoverished people in countries with little room for upward mobility). Backspace. For many people, revenge justice is best served cold bloody.

Isn't that why our country still uses the death penalty? It's our frame of mind. Let's forget that incarcerating people for life is, ultimately, less of a financial strain on our prison system than death row. Let's forget the margin of error and the lives we've taken (we later find) unjustly. Let's forget all of that, because we really want to see those people die. It's not enough to put them where they cannot harm others. We want to expedite their journey to Hell, because as a Christian nation, we believe in Hell (if not in the sanctity of Life).

I guess where I really mean to go with this is to my own reality check. I think the reality is that if our country really did decide to prosecute those involved in the unlawful and abusive detainings and treatment of individuals, it would only ever be painted as political. After all, aren't most Arabs terrorists in the eyes of Americans? Muslims are all about taking over the world, subjugating women, and blowing themselves up, right? Who is going to take the sides of the Muslims in a war on terror? Everyone knows all Muslims are terrorists! They should be tortured! *sarcasm*

My, how I get distracted.

WHAT I MEAN TO SAY is that I think any pursuit of these issues will ultimately only be seen as political by the majority of Americans, who care little for the lives of those we've imprisoned and tortured. I think it will lead to Liberals losing ground and more Bush/Cheney-esque politics. I think it will hinder whatever other efforts we might like to make in the future. After all, what's done is done. Perhaps it's more important to let our government work on what we can change. Maybe our country is better off if we just let Dick Cheney and his minions run off and do what they may, because at least they're not in charge of much anymore.

Today I recommend the following: The Indelible Stain of the Black Sites.

Thank goodness I am not the president. I would probably cry all the time.

other blog

Hello.

I blog about religion at: Seeking Uncertainty

this is why people use google transit

Image is from http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/

So poo on 511.org. I tried to use it today to get somewhere and it by no means gave me enough time to walk from a bus stop to the BART station… its projected travel time? Ridick. The time it allotted wasn’t enough to walk to the BART station, let alone get there, purchase a ticket, and find and board the correct train.

So what did I have to do to get to my appointment on time? Take a cab.

So now: poo on my cab. I’m at SFO, haven’t made it to the BART station, and decide that I need to take a cab.

I told the cab driver the address.

“What?”

“[address].”

“What?”

I handed him my print-out with the address on it.

“[various cussing].”

It took this moron of a cab driver $4 worth of fare to enter the address into the GPS. He seriously, looking at the printed address, managed to enter it wrong 3 times before his 4th one was close enough that the GPS suggested the correct address. I swear to President Bush, he must have been completely illiterate, because it was like he was matching the letters as if they were pictures in some kind of matching game designed for pre-schoolers, like “Match the lower case with the upper case!” oh.my.goodness.

And he kept cussing the whole time. I’m sorry that my stylist isn’t at one of the standard hotels you’re used to, but you are a cab driver and I imagine that many people coming from an airport ask you to take them to personal residences. WTH. Besides, the address is only slightly off El Camino. I am really not the type of person to mind people cussing, but not to your customers! Especially for only asking to be taken to a main street that was 10 minutes away.

And even though this guy is using GPS, I had to give him directions at one point because he was trying to turn 2 blocks early. RAR!

So 511.org ruined my life. Or at least my morning. From now on, I’m entering my arrival time significantly sooner than I need to arrive there.

I lurve google directions, but SamTrans isn’t included in their system yet.

sea creatures

I just discovered this deep sea creature by the grace of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I swear to George Bush that it's really called a Piglet Squid.



It is just about the most adorable deep sea creature in the world. Or at least more adorable than that creepy jerk that they animated for Finding Nemo.



Who's having nightmares tonight? You.



Yeah, that thing is real. Google it, son.