March 24th, 2008
A mildly amusing blog “Stuff White People Like” has recently filed San Francisco as one of those stereotypically white people’s things.
Let’s see– B and I fit quite a bit of the cliche. We recently moved here because it’s pretty, near the water, has great food and wine, and is in fact diverse. So far, so good. In fact, we’re such recent transplants that it’s easy for me to see the rest of the stereotypical San Francisco things from the outside and I am agreeing with most. Passionate hate and disgust towards LA? Check. Inferiority complex when compared to Manhattan? Big check. In fact, I would add another thing that seems funny to me when people from SF compare themselves to New York. While they do keep referring to their city as “a small town” or “the village” when putting it side-to-side with the Big Apple, they run for the hills and go complain to their representatives when somebody tries to build up and “manhattenize” the Bay area.
While I am not going to refute other, less funny, parts of the White People’s post, I want to add some of my own.
First of all: nice weather! Where else do you get to show off your Aldo loafers and Zara tweed jacket 12 months a year? Not close behind: pot that seems to be all but legal here. I sometimes can get a contact high by just walking to work on the street. One more: the protests! San Francisco (and Berkley for that matter) would not be the same without mostly white college students protesting something almost every day of the year, from trying to stop the carrying of the Olympic Torch through the city to Bike Plan Injunction, And finally: the Craigslist. The city loves it long time. They even post CEO positions on there.
Categories: Random/Funny |
2 Comments
January 29th, 2008
ENFJ
ENFJs are lively and enthusiastic facilitators who apply warmth and vision to helping people and meeting their needs. They are aware of people’s aspirations and develop plans of action to make those aspirations into reality. They like organization and closure. They are at their best facilitating situations that require interpersonal sensitivity. ENFJs are tolerant and appreciative of others, seeking involvement with them in life’s tasks. They are able communicators who are liberal in showing appreciation for others.
Sounds like me?
Sounds like a complete opposite of B?
You’d better believe it 
The good news is that our relationship can be described as “tribesmen”. Much better than “contrast” or “novelty”, I guess.
PS. Now all of you on Facebook, go complete that test so I can see if I have more “enigma” or “contrast” relationships!
Categories: Random/Funny |
No Comments
December 19th, 2007
Via SFist
Categories: Random/Funny |
1 Comment
December 11th, 2007
What an evening I am having! First I got a letter from my Blood bank telling me that they had a laptop stolen that contained their donors’ names, blood types, and social security numbers! Baaah! So much for giving away pint after pint of my blood for the good of the society.
Later on in the night, after a day full of watching Sonya and taking her outside repeatedly, the beast outwitted me by running off into the dark corner of the stairs, pooping, and immediately consuming the entire poo session. I reacted within 30 seconds of the pooping process which was already too late and my finger down her throat returned nothing but stink. A panicked call to my husband comforted me; according to B, this is just a second chance at digestion for a puppy
Life goes on.
Categories: Puppies!, Random/Funny |
1 Comment
October 10th, 2007
This morning someone very close has forsaken me. We have been together for almost two years. The relationship has been intense: we keep in touch several times a day every day. I would even check up on them from abroad while traveling. You might even say I have developed an unhealthy dependency — but it didn’t really matter because we were always there for each other and never got bored. Then, all of a sudden, without a warning or explanation, we went our separate ways. There were no parting words, no apologies. For a little while, I pretended that it was not happening, that the magic would just come back. No such luck. It has been almost a full day alone and my stress level is going through the roof, I am feeling vulnerable, disoriented, and very helpless. And yet, despite the sense of loss and betrayal, I still hope that we can mend things between us. Call me a dreamer but I keep looking for what I have lost wishing that we can pick up where we left off, get together like nothing has happened, and move on with our lives and our special friendship.
This morning my Gmail account stopped receiving incoming messages.
Categories: Random/Funny |
1 Comment
July 9th, 2007
Kinko’s is an unlikely object of praises but get this: they made my life easier today through technology. Shocking, I know.
Let me explain. I am organizing training at work for which I need to combine 10 documents into a nice lil’ package and make 16 copies of it. Since I have a luxury of pre-approved budget, I did not have to spend my day copying, printing, unjamming the printer, running for more paper, realizing I printed odd pages instead of even ones, re-printing, collating, punching, re-punching in the right spot, running to Target for binders, and healing 17 paper cuts. Instead, I used Kinko’s Print Online.
The idea is simple: you upload your files, you set some printing and binding preferences, preview the results, punch in the payment information and then pick up the job at a store or have it mailed to you. The genius here is not the idea itself but the execution– the interface is not so impossibly cumbersome that you give up after 20 minutes of trying, the webpage is stable enough that it does not crash on you, and it does not take a psychic to figure out the features and navigation. It even works in Firefox. Pretty low expectations, huh? Years of using custom software made me this way, baby! Have you ever tried to view your medical chart online? Or sign up for a yoga class on your gym’s website? Or try to key in a discount code at a tires store’s page and then recalculate the price? That’s right– most of the time the experience is so infuriating that it’s just easier to pick up the phone and just call the damn place. Only some bigger players (amazon.com etc.) got the whole online shopping experience right; even now a lot of smaller businesses seem have online shopping/ordering not to generate business but because they feel they should put something out there.
My only complain/suggestion for improvement is that the price difference between options (color vs black and white, binding vs. coiling) doesn’t show up on the page till the very end of ordering process, so if you want to change something you need to page back several times and then go all the way again to re-price (no information is lost, it’s just 3 more mouse clicks than I am willing to commit to).
The bottom line: instead of hours dedicated to managing printer and a three-hole puncher, I spent no more than 15 minutes online placing my order and didn’t want to smash my screen by the end. Maybe there’s hope for the internets after all!
UPDATE 07/10/07 : Got a nice email from Kinko’s in the morning alerting me that the order is done (8 hours before the requested time.) Stuff packed neatly in the box, credit card already processed, just sign the slip and go. Fabulous!
Categories: Random/Funny |
1 Comment
July 3rd, 2007
Unless you’re finely in tune with the International Olympic Committee’s shenanigans, you probably don’t know that this week in Guatemala a decision will be announced on the host of 2014 Winter Olympics.
The motherland is in the running with a Southern resort city of Sochi as a contender. You heard it right– a city on a southern border of Russia with winter temperatures rarely falling past freezing point wants to host Winter Olympics. Yes, the Caucasus mountains are right nearby but most of the areas that can be used for slopes happen to be in a nature reserve. No problem for the willing! The grandiose proposal aims to cut down trees in the reserve and demolish people’s houses to build the Olympic village.
In light of this potential controversy, Russian greens decided to protest in Moscow. Since the motherland is not exactly huge on freedom of speech, they had to obtain a permit first. The asked for a protest permit for 15 (!) people and described the goal of their action as “call President Putin to stop the destruction of Sochi National Park and Caucasus Nature Preserve”– almost surprisingly, a persmission was granted.
As planned, the protesters, mostly college students, showed up on the Triumph Square and four of them proceeded to pretend to ski across it. They were then going to award a gold metal to the “skier” wearing Putin’s mask. No shouting, no beating anybody, no setting things on fire. You probably know where this is all going by now– yep, Putin mask was thrown off the face and the “athletes” themselves tossed into a police truck. The rest of the protesters enjoyed just a few extra minutes of walking around with their posters– a representative of administration has appeared and signed an annulment of the protest permit.
PS. I feel a need to start offsetting the negative coverage I am giving my own country on this blog (which is caused by my strong disagreement with the government.) Next up is something about the most beautiful city in the world– my hometown
UPDATE: Sochi did in fact get elected to host the 2014 Olympics. Let’s see how it all unfolds.
Categories: Politics, Random/Funny |
No Comments
May 10th, 2007
It’s a Thursday and you’re in need of some random links!
First, has it ever bother you that the keypad on the calculator is different from the one on the phone? The bounty of internet offers several explanations (here and here.)
Second, here’s some further proof of some serious head illness in the recording industry– fingerprint collection and 30 day waiting period?!?!? One would think you’re buying a handgun– nope, just trying to sell some used CDs. This alone makes me want to go and pirate some stuff.
Categories: RIAA, Random/Funny |
No Comments
