Random: March 2005 Archives

I work in downtown San Francisco, in an office with a crammed (and sometimes smelly) refrigerator in a small kitchen on a floor that can only be reached by elevator. I don't like microwaved leftovers, and let's face it, I'm somewhat lazy.

So I end up buying lunch a lot.

At first, I kept going to the same old places in the two nearby food courts, and the noodle place next door. But many of those places were just O.K. One of my favorite salad places went out of business. Two lunch places gave me food poisoning. Is this how they repay me for my patronage?

Thank goodness, my options have increased lately. Here's some of the places I've been to.

Arabi's (Rincon Center). Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food — hummus, falafel, etc. They also have this great combo salad plate that I order a lot. If I feel like I haven't been getting enough veggies lately, I go here. They're very friendly, too, and the prices are pretty good.

Yank Sing 2 Go (Rincon Center). This one is kind of a mixed bag. They are run by the main Yank Sing restaurant, whose dim sum is so fabulous, but the quality is just not as good. The exception is the won ton soup, which they serve on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Fluffy shrimp won tons in a clear broth with a few scallions. So simple, and so good. But not as cheap as it should be. I also sometimes get the Yank Sing Light, which consists of not-bad chicken salad and four plump potstickers. (One time I got there too late, and they'd run out of potstickers. They had to substitute some siu mai and one of those peanut-and-pork dumplings. Made me want to eat lunch late more often.)

So... you can only eat at the same two places for so long. Luckily, the Ferry  Building came along! Unluckily, the places there are not cheap...

But they are good.

Lulu's. Sandwiches aren't bad, house-made potato chips are wonderful. I also like the beet salad.

Taylor's Refresher. They have good fries and I'd be addicted to their Ahi tuna burger... but at $12 a pop (which does not include fries), I can resist. Really good place but way, way overpriced. Especially when the San Francisco Seafood Company is just down the way in the same building. (Is it soft-shell crab sandwich season again yet?)

Delica-RF1. Weird name, great place. It's a Japanese deli. I got hooked on their Bento box lunches, which consist of a fried item (shrimp or scallop cakes usually) and three salads. They also had a wonderful squash soup for a while with little bits of fried taro on top. Again, not cheap. 

Mistral. They have a "meat-and-two-sides" deal. I've gotten some good fish and  brussel sprouts there. A friend tells me you can get a bunch of sides on their own for really cheap. Haven't tried that yet.

Out The Door. My new addiction, this place is the take-out division of Slanted Door. Very high-end Vietnamese food with prices to match, but I got addicted to their won-ton soup with noodles...  they also have tasty daikon cake and spring rolls, but everything is much more expensive than it would be in Chinatown. I haven't even gotten to try their rice porridge yet, partly because I got stuck on the won-ton soup, and partly because I found porridge at...

Tomo's Cafe (50 First Street). An ex-coworker just turned me on to this place. They have sushi with brown rice, which is a rarity. They have enormous noodle bowls. They have fresh and tasty spring rolls (the non-fried kind) with lots of mint in them. And they have chicken-and-ginger rice porridge — for less than half the price of Out The Door. And boy, was it good.

Other places...

I used to go to Sushi GoGo at Montgomery BART a lot, when Michael worked near there. I haven't gone there much lately, but it's good, cheap, and the people that work there are really nice.

Teriyaki House (I think?) on Spear.  Not as cheap as GoGo, but still reasonable, and tasty. Lots of interesting rolls and veggie options.

Bocadillo's (on Montgomery near Columbus). A bit of a walk, but worth it. Tapas and the eponymous Spanish sandwiches that should be widely available here, but aren't. Cute place, excellent food.

This concludes this installment of food pr0n. You may now go about your business. Is it dinnertime yet?

The American version of The Office is...

...actually really, really good.

Whoah.

 

Where did they go right? 

The San Francisco Chronicle's "Two Cents" feature today has comments from people responding to the question, "Have you ever participated in the decision to remove life support?" Every blogger, reporter, and politician out there has weighed in on this subject. It's worth reading this piece for its first-person accounts by those who have actually wrestled with this problem firsthand and might actually know whereof they speak! Interestingly, there are a handful of accounts of people who decided not to "pull the plug" and the patients recovering seemingly miraculously. Sometimes, it's a matter of following your gut, I suppose.

(Apropos of nothing, is that the Peter Beagle in there among the two-centers?) 

 I found this man's blog through DailyKos today. And I'm very disturbed. OTOH, how often do you get to encounter a Constitutional Law professor who thinks we should allow torture 'cause it's fun?

Why would my humanity be diminished by participating in the killing of a monster (he had sexually abused and then murdered at least about 20 children), or even by deliberately inflicting pain on him? It seems to me that this is the reaction to a natural, understandable, and laudable human impulse to avenge (even if in a ridiculously inadequate way) the abuse and death of so many innocents. Why shouldn't one say that our humanity is diminished if this monster is allowed to live on, or even to die a painless death, when his victims and their families endured unimaginable pain?

 

I'll tell you why, dumbass. When you go into attack mode, it releases all kinds of nasty chemicals into your bloodstream and rewires your brain. Soldiers who have fought wars overseas have a great deal of trouble leaving those wars behind. Part of them is still primed for violence. It has nothing to do with how much the bad guy deserves it; it is profoundly destructive to the one committing violence.

Oh, and then there's the part about if you figure out later that you ripped the wrong person into little tiny bloody pieces, there's no "oops" and no taking it back.

I can't believe I live in the same country with this prick. He makes that Ward Churchill guy look like Albert Einstein. 

I'm jumping the gun here, but my friend Leila's cat Luna was being particularly cuuuuute... so I had to share.

Awwww.

This one was made for a friend who is a caterer. The photo isn't that great but the objects I made are a cleaver, a frying pan with eggs and bacon in it, and a three-pronged fork. I got the beads at— marvelous place — Long's Drugs over on Pleasant Valley. Their art aisle rocks.

A couple of recent discussions with friends about dating in general and online dating in particular led me to look up the "Rules" ladies. For those who missed the 1990s, The Rules was something of a publishing phenomenon, claiming to show women the surefire way to snag a man, through such revolutionary and avant-garde methods such waiting for him to call and pretending to be busy all the time.

Well, it would appear that they've updated their message for the cyber-age. Here are the new Rules (same as the old Rules). My comments are in italics.

All rules are based on three premises: A man must initially feel a spark for a woman; the man must pursue the woman; and all men love a challenge.

Here are their "Rules For Online Dating;"

1. Don't answer men's ads or email them first. - Answering a man's ad is to pursue a man; it's no different from approaching a man at a party or a bar, calling him, and asking him out. He knows you like him and the party is over. If he does end up dating you, you'll never know if he's dating you because it's easy and convenient for him or because he's really crazy about you. But wouldn't it work the other way around? Shouldn't guys be afraid that their women are just going out with them because it's easy? Maybe I'd better check with my husband and see if he married me just because it was easy and convenient and not because he's really crazy about me. After all, I did invite him over to my house for dinner when we first starting going out...
   
   
2. Create a good screen name. Yeah, good idea. - Pick one that is not boring but not too sexy, not too ho-hum but not too marriage minded. How about Iaminterestedinmeetingsomeone Imreallycoolandwhosdesperate notmenosireebob! Do not go to the other extreme either and attract a man who is just interested in sex. So bigolehooters is right out, then. Strive for something in the middle. Be descriptive.
   Good examples:
   BlondBeauty50
   PetiteBrunette34
   If those were good examples, I'd hate to see bad ones. Sorry, those are just crying out for tons of messages from guys with names like SlickWilly123 saying things like "What's your bra size?"
   
   
3. Less is more when writing your ad. - When answering the questionaires an online Web site requires, give the impression that you just threw some answers down with a cute picture on your way to the gym or work. Yeah, convey the impression that you don't give a shit. While you're at it, leave a few typos in your post. Guys dig that. After all you are very busy. Shades of Bridget Jones. And, do not answer questions that you would not answer on a first date. Fair enough. But some people volunteer information on a first date that you'd wish they'd keep to themselves! Mistakes: Women who say they are looking for love or marriage or who are willing to relocate; women who post more than one ad on the same web site (desperate); women who post three or four photos in the same ad;eWomen who write long answers that have a Hallmark touch to them. OK, I can see not offering to move, and posting more than one ad on a site is ludicrous. I agree that posting too many pictures is probably counterproductive and that writing a cheesy message is worse. But a profile is a chance to summarize yourself briefly. If you want to get married, why disguise that fact and risk getting together with someone who doesn't believe in marriage? And by the way, people who don't believe in getting married should probably say that too.
   
   
4. Post a smiling photo. - Men don't focus on what you write as long as they like your photo. Don't worry your pretty little head about all them big words! Don't use anything too provocative.
   For the women who don't want someone to know about their new hobby: get over it and put up your picture, it's really not a big deal. Ads with pictures get more responses. This is true for men and women. On the other hand, I think women get cyberstalked more than men do!
   
   
5. Wait 24 hours to respond. O.K., hate to say but I'd probably end up doing that myself.
   
   
6. Don't answer on weekends or holidays Ditto.
   
   
7. Write light and breezy Emails. - Do not respond to a man who sends his profile or photo only. If an email comes with no photo, respond "Would love to see a photo. Thanks." That's it; nothing else. If he refuses to send a picture, there is a reason. When he does send the picture, if you like it, answer with a: "Thanks!" no "Nice abs" or "Cute Pic". Don't tell him that you read his ad. Do not respond to anything that was in the ad, such as i.e. my brother is also an accountant. What? No "Nice buttocks?!" What if they have a really cool tattoo or unusual piercing?
   
   
8. Never Email a man a second time if he neglected to respond to your Email. If you get an angry Email that says he wants more than three lines in an email from you, press DELETE and refer to rule #13. Yeah, angry emails that early on = troubled soul you don't want to deal with. But on the first point, emails do get lost sometimes, so I don't see what's wrong with writing one more time.
   
   
9. For the first three months, don't initiate an Email, only respond. if he sends you jokes and "did I tell you how cute you are?" notes, do not respond. Wait for third one and only then write back. Apart from the horrible grammar here ("wait for third one"?) if I was writing to some guy for three months a) I'd be really annoyed if he never emailed back and b) I'd wonder why the heck we didn't just meet in person.
   
   
10. Block yourself from Instant Messages. From everybody? Or just random weird guys on the Internet?
    
    
11. Don't volunteer your phone number first. Yeah, numbers should be exchanged at the same time. Or women should get the number first. Safety concerns, you know...
    
    
12. If he doesn't ask you out within four Emails, Delete/Next Yeah. Meet in person sooner than later, so as not to drag things out.
    
    
13. Screen out Mr. Wrong Well, DUH. Now how does one do THAT, Mrs. and Mrs. Einstein?
    
    
14. Don't waste your time on time-wasters More priceless pearls of wisdom!
    
    
15. Don't force the relationship from Email to phone Now that's just DUMB. You can't tell a thing about a person from emails except he is a good (or bad) writer. If they don't want to talk on the phone to you, something's not right.
    
    
16. Put safety first Again with the universe-shattering brilliance!
    
    
17. Don't ad-interrogate on dates  "So do you REALLY like Pina Colatas? And getting caught in the rain? Are you as into champagne as you said you are? YOU LIED TO ME YOU SON-OF-BITCH!"

OK so that's that. It's amazing people end up getting together at all, if you ask me. For your further edification and reading pleasure, there's this article in Wired:

Last year, Janet Lever, a sociologist at California State University at Los Angeles, conducted a survey on cybersex and romance. "(We found that) a lot of people used the dating sites who never wanted to meet anyone," she says. "Women especially had to learn how to distinguish between guys looking for flirty and dirty talk from the men who wanted to meet. And it turns out that an almost equal number of people met someone through erotic chat rooms."

I can attest to the fact that erotic chat rooms and online dating sites are not as far apart as one might expect. Hooking up with someone from an adult chat room did tend to presuppose that we would have sex, while dating someone from online personals was not as much of a sure thing.

But overall, the combination of verbal foreplay and actual sex follows similar patterns regardless of where you start...

 I guess nothing ever really changes. Humans are humans, even with technological enhancement.

From ABC today:

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho Mar 9, 2005 — A teenager has agreed to admit to three counts of disturbing the peace after anonymously sending semen-frosted brownies to a fellow student. The recipient shared the treat with two other teens, police said.

They said the 17-year-old Coeur d'Alene High School student was upset after a prank in which the other student put peanut butter in his cheese sandwich days before. He told a school resource officer that "he hated peanut butter and it made him more mad than he could explain," according to the police report.

The teen later told School Resource Officer Jeff Walther that he got the idea of putting his semen on the brownies from the movie "National Lampoon's Van Wilder," in which characters send pastries filled with dog semen to a fraternity house.

 

I was reading the website of Amy Rigby, one of my favorite singers (and if you haven't heard her yet, hie thee to the music store or to one of the fine online purveyors of sound. I was amused, if somewhat chagrined, by her comments on her UK tour.

"Because there’s always cause for renewed cynicism when the itinerary includes places like Leicester.  This is quite a large city with a very diverse population, and I know I’ve played a decent show here before.  But this particular night was doomed, with the venue being switched at the last moment to an awful black basement and an opening band that made me feel completely uncomfortable with their lack of humor and camaraderie, so determined were they to put on a good showing for a supposed record label that was coming to see them.  Plus, they sucked.  I was close to suicidal by the time I got back to the hotel where Hazel had wisely spent the evening.  Next morning I walked through the rainy streets and felt a little better, mostly because I knew we were heading to Scotland."