BLOG

It didn't sound like much when I first heard about it. Someone calls you and then hangs up immediately before you pick up. You see the number and call them back. At least, this is what would happen in the US. This is a place where people have never-ending minutes on their cellphones and always find some way to pay their mobile bill, even if it is $500 like I overheard some idiot kid saying his was.       But, in Africa, things take on a different meaning. Everyone apparently has a cellphone, just not the money to use them. So, this "beeping" method is used and for those that I know who have lived there, it's a massive pain to deal with. My friend, Kim goes in to a greater amount of detail. You see, if you're white and your number gets out, you'll get flooded with calls as an expat living there. Read his article for all the grittiness.       This is also have some economic repercussions which Reuters has covered as well. While I'm of the opinion that cellphones are a pretty unnecessary technology, in a countries where landlines are few and far between, they're one of the few ways that people seem to be able to stay in contact with one another. So, at some point they'll have to figure out some way to deal with this flood of junk on their network. Maybe making text messages free or next to free? I will have more of a firsthand experience of this when I get to Africa next year.

I'm an American and also a gadget fiend. I love every new-fangled thing that comes out and the first thought that usually goes through my head is, "Where can I get it?" Lately though, I've started to have a new line of thinking when I see sparkling objects which is, "Do I really need it?" This was the case with my iPod, where I realized that the one I have is good enough and I really don't need the new iPod Touch.       Initially this may seem a move against anti-consumerism, which it is, but at the same time, it's a move against waste. Do you remember how much packaging there was with the last gizmo you bought? So, part of what I'm trying to do is avoid creating new waste, but there is an additional depth to this in thinking about the waste that we already have. What do you do when your cellphone dies? How about a blender? Or maybe even an entire computer? After all, in 2005, about 1.5 million to 1.9 million tons of used and unwanted electronics were discarded (source).       There are some places that have sprung up lately to deal with this waste. In San Francisco we have a few, seeing as how we have many computers being tossed all the time. Even still, I feel that there is more than can be done and it means taking things in to your own hands.       Two years ago, I bought a Logitech MX5000 mouse. It's a nifty little cordless mouse that fit my large hands well. Naturally, given the inherent obsolescence built in to many products these days, it died recently. Most people's first reaction would be to dump it in the trash and get a new. This is bad. This mouse is deadly and also worth something. First off there is that battery in there. Then there is a lot of wire. Of course there is a good deal of plastic as well. So, what did I do with all of this?       The first thing I did was rip it apart. I took out the battery and dropped that off at a recycling center. Then, I ripped apart the power supply and stripped out the wire. Copper is quite a precious commodity these days and all the wire wrapped up in power converters (that power brick you plug in) is worth stripping out. Then there was the plastic. I was stumped and I had to regrettable toss that. We really need to lobby for housings on devices to be made of reusable materials...       This was just a small thing and it meant that I didn't toss out useful and toxic things in to some nearby landfill by stripping it down. Ripping apart and sorting your old electrics can have even more of an impact when they're bigger like say, a toaster oven. As you can read in that article, I had even greater luck reducing this dead device to nearly only recyclable materials.       All of this isn't just for geeks like me though. You can do it yourself. Just get a couple of tools like a basic screwdriver set and a pair of pliers. You can then rip things that are truly dead apart with the greatest glee and try and stop the amount of waste on this planet. Recycling doesn't stop with putting cans in those blue bins...

Original       I started writing this article in English with simple words. The reason that I wrote it this was is to see what happens when I process it through the BabelFish system, which is a system that I like very much because it allows me to read many languages that I do not completely understand. There are problems though, because the language that is created is very literal. At times, it seems like a substitution of words. Still, it is the best system that we have currently. So, let us begin this test.              English to French       J'ai commencé à écrire cet article en anglais avec des mots simples. La raison pour laquelle je lui ai écrit ceci était doit voir ce qui se produit quand je le traite par le système de BabelFish, qui est un système que j'aime beaucoup parce qu'il me permet de lire beaucoup de langues que je ne comprends pas complètement. Il y a des problèmes cependant, parce que la langue qui est créée est très littérale. Parfois, elle semble comme une substitution des mots. Toujours, c'est le meilleur système que nous avons actuellement. Ainsi, laissez-nous commencent cet essai.              French to German       Ich habe begonnen, diesen Artikel in Englisch mit einfachen Wörtern zu schreiben. Der Grund, aus dem ich ihm dies geschrieben habe, war muß sehen, was sich produziert, wenn ich es durch das System von BabelFish behandele, das ein System ist, das ich viel mag, weil er mir erlaubt, viele Sprachen zu lesen, die ich nicht gänzlich begreife. Es gibt Probleme jedoch, weil die Sprache, die entsteht, sehr wörtlich ist. Manchmal scheint sie als eine Substitution der Wörter. Immer ist es das beste System, das wir momentan haben. Somit lassen wir beginnen diesen Versuch.              German to English       I began to write this article in English with simple words. The reason, for which I had written it this, was must see, what produces itself, if I treat it by the system of BabelFish, which is a system, which I like much, because he permits me to read many languages which I do not completely understand. There are problems however, because the language, which develops, is very literal. Sometimes it seems as a substitution of the words. It is always the best system, which we have momentarily. Thus we let this attempt begin.              English to Russian       Я начал писать эту статью на английском языке с просто словами. Причиной, для которой я написал ему это, было сусло видит, производит, если я обрабатываю его системой BabelFish, то которое будет системой, которому, котор я люблю много, потому что он позволяет меня прочитать много языков которые я вполне не понимаю. Будут проблемы однако, потому что язык, который превращается, очень буквален. Иногда он кажется как замещение слов. Будет всегда самой лучшей системой, которую мы имеем однократно. Таким образом мы препятствовали этой попытке начать.              Russian to English       4 it began to write this article in the English with simply the words. The reason, for which I wrote to it this, it was must it sees, it produces, if I process by its system BabelFish, then which will be system, to which, I is which I love much, because it makes it possible me to read many languages which 4 I do not completely understand. There will be problems however, because the language, which is converted, is very literal. Sometimes it seems as the substitution of words. It will be the always best system, which we have once. Thus we prevented this attempt to begin.              English to Greek       4 άρχισε να γράφει αυτό το άρθρο στους Αγγλους με απλά τις λέξεις. Ο λόγος, για τον οποίο έγραψα σε το αυτό, αυτό ήταν πρέπει αυτό βλέπει, παράγει, εάν επεξεργάζομαι από το σύστημά του BabelFish, κατόπιν που θα είναι σύστημα, στο οποίο, το ι είναι ποια αγάπη ι πολύ, επειδή το καθιστά πιθανό εγώ για να διαβάσει πολλές γλώσσες που 4 εγώ δεν καταλαβαίνουν εντελώς. Θα υπάρξουν προβλήματα εντούτοις, επειδή η γλώσσα, που μετατρέπεται, είναι πολύ κυριολεκτική. Μερικές φορές φαίνεται ως αντικατάσταση των λέξεων. Θα είναι το πάντα καλύτερο σύστημα, το οποίο έχουμε μιά φορά. Κατά συνέπεια αποτρέψαμε αυτήν την προσπάθεια να αρχίσουμε.              Greek to English       4 it began to write this article in the English with simply the words. The reason, for which I wrote in the this, this was should this sees, it produces, if I process from the system his BabelFish, then that will be system, in which, the I are who love I very, because him render likely I in order to it reads a lot of languages that 4 I do not understand completely. Will exist problems nevertheless, because the language, that is changed, is very litteral. Sometimes it appears as replacement of words. It will be the always better system, which we have a time. Accordingly we detered this effort to begin.              English to Dutch       4 het begon dit artikel in de Engelsen met de woorden eenvoudig te schrijven. Indien de reden, waarom ik in dit schreef, dit was dit ziet, produceert het, als ik van het systeem zijn BabelFish verwerk, dan dat zal zijn systeem, waarin, I is wie liefde I zeer, omdat hem waarschijnlijke I teruggeeft het heel wat talen leest geen die 4 ik volledig begrijpen. Problemen niettemin zal bestaan, omdat de taal, die wordt veranderd, zeer litteral is. Soms verschijnt het als vervanging van woorden. Het zal het altijd betere systeem zijn, dat wij een tijd hebben. Dienovereenkomstig schrokken wij deze inspanning af te beginnen.              Dutch to French       4 il a commencé à écrire simplement cet article dans les Anglais avec les mots . Si la raison pourquoi me a écrit dans ceci, a été ceci ceee voit, il produit, si je suis du système BabelFish traite, alors cela son système dans laquelle, I être qui l'amour I très, parce qu'il ne lui rend pas probable I beaucoup langues lit qui 4 je comprends entièrement. Les problèmes n'existeront néanmoins pas, parce que la langue qui est changée, très litteral est. Il paraît parfois comme remplacement des mots. Lui le système toujours meilleur qui nous avons le temps sera. Nous avons eu peur en conséquence cet effort fini commencer.              French to English       4 it started to simply write this article in the English with the words. If the reason why wrote to me in this, were this ceee sees, it produces, if I am BabelFish system milked, then that its system in which, I being which it love I very, because it does not return probable I to him much languages reads which 4 I entirely include/understand. The problems will not exist nevertheless, because the language which is changed, very litteral is. It appears sometimes like replacement of the words. He it always better system which we have time will be. We were consequently afraid this effort finished starting.              English to Spanish       4 que comenzó a escribir simplemente este artículo en el inglés con las palabras. Si la razón por la que me escribió en esto, era este ceee considera, él produce, si soy el sistema de BabelFish ordeñado, después que su sistema en el cual, I que es que el amor I muy, porque no vuelve probable I a él mucho las idiomas lee cuál 4 I enteramente include/understand. Los problemas no existirán sin embargo, porque es la lengua se cambia que, muy litteral. Aparece a veces como el reemplazo de las palabras. Él él un sistema siempre mejor que tengamos tiempo será. Estábamos por lo tanto asustados el este comenzar acabado esfuerzo.              Spanish to English       4 that began to simply write this article in the English with the words. If the reason by that it wrote to me in this, were this ceee considers, he produces, if I am the system of milked BabelFish, after its system in which, I that is that love I very, because include/understand does not return probable I to him the languages reads which 4 Is much entirely. The problems will not exist nevertheless, because it is the language changes that, very litteral. It appears sometimes like the replacement of the words. He he a system always better than we have time will be. Therefore we were scared the east to begin finished effort.                     And I think that's enough. It gives you something of a taste of what people see on either end and even though folks aren't running stuff through multiple times, it still gets pretty garbled. Someday, we'll hopefully get our Universal Translators as well as the flying car.

Below, in the illustrated example that has become a stable on this site, you see a rough map of the my nearly four month excursion. You can see an even bigger version of this as well as a textual breakdown here. That is a good summary of all the wine drinking there, since it links to all the respective articles for the region.       Of course... this is just The Balkans. There was Venice, Catalonia, Paris, and brief hops through London that I doubt I'll get to mapping. My friend, Dinko had a fun idea of mapping this out in Flash or something to make one of those maps like you would see in the Indiana Jones movies. I loved that and someday I might actually do it. But for now, what you see is what you get.       Happy readings over on the wine site I link to above if you haven't see that before.

I know there are a lot of blogs out there that will promote other sites on a regular basis and I do it as well sometimes, but really, not that much. I have no blogroll and my links section only has a few sites listed in there. It's not that I find the practice useless, it's more that I am extremely picky in the sites that I like or feel worthy to recommend to others.       This is what brings me to Airline Meals.net. This site is nothing more than a collection of meals on airplanes, a lot like my Praving Gallery is a collection of crappy (yet admirable) ways to fix things. But I respect this site and I like it as it celebrates the glory and the folly of dining in the clouds.       We've all had crappy meals on flights (and if you haven't you don't fly much) and I enjoy the fact that I can see how some really good meals look (like those on Air France) and commiserate on the really bad ones, such as my most recent flight back to the US on Virgin Atlantic. It does appear that they're revamping the site a bit currently, so I'm curious how the new one will add up with its 19,000 or so pictures of food on trays.

There was a decent stretch of time when I would jump as gleefully as I could (which is more of a hop really) whenever a new budget airline route would open up. It meant that that was just one more place that I could get to cheaply. And it was with boundless joy once Easyjet and Ryanair started flying to places that I love, like Croatia.       But then, realization started to set in. For one, schedules rarely matched up with the longer-haul airlines. Sure, they were great getting to the destination, but returning was always an issue due to morning departures. This translates in to a mandatory one night stay in rather expensive cities like London or Frankfurt. A $150 hotel (if you're lucky) stay in London immediately makes any $40 ticket, a lot more expensive.       Then there were the nasty ways that budget airlines make their money. If you read that article, you'll quickly see that a carrier like Ryanair is the same if not more expensive that any other carrier. There are items afoot to change this practice. But, these carriers will undoubtedly find ways to squeeze more out of their passengers, such as how Easyjet now charges an extra fee for priority boarding so that you can get that seat by the emergency exit that you always dreamed of for the hour and a half flight from London to Barcelona.       Beyond all of this, I've found that there is a profound and unfortunate set of social changes that these budget airlines bring in, in that they change local economies and bring in bad tourists who are searching for beach, booze, brothels or all of the above. As for the economies, it is undebatable that if you open up an airport in a somewhat to very desirable location, then people will come and with them, money will follow. This article paints this in a very favorable light, but it is extremely stilted and downright offensive to me. I know from friends and firsthand experience in Europe that the arrival of budget airlines is no reason to be dancing in the streets. The first problem is the noise and pollution that air traffic creates. An airport like the one for Dubrovnik is quite far from town and in a very quiet setting, albeit no more. With passenger jets flying overhead, those living in Čilipi get a constant reminder as to the placement of this Communist transit point. Then of course there is the added traffic that a sudden boost of budget airline flights brings. While a place like Barcelona has good public transportation out to the airport, a place like Rijeka, Croatia does not where the airport is on a nearby island. These two lane roads that lead to the airports get packed with added traffic from taxis, tour buses, and everyone else that heads to the airport to pick up the tourists.       If planes were silent, public transportation a non-issue, and the world an otherwise perfect for air flight, there is the issue of the people that fly on budget airlines. They are for the most part, no one you would want to be stuck in an elevator with let alone share your hometown. The biggest group that are the most notorious are the Lager Lads from the UK who will hop on a budget flight to wherever and spend an extended weekend getting drunk and trying to get sex. Obviously the Lager Lad exists in all countries to some degree and it is those kinds of guys who fly to Split, Croatia, go out to the island of Hvar, pay twice what I pay for a martini in San Francisco, try to grope the local girls, and get beat up by the local guys.       But lets say that the Lad never comes to your town for some reason. At the very best, budget airlines still bring the very worst tourist. They are carting loads of people who want to pay next to nothing for a flight. While there is the off chance that these might be college students looking to research the migration of bears through the forests of Romania for their graduate thesis, it is much more th case that you're going to get one of a few types:              - Aforementioned Lager Lads (or Lasses)       - Beach Tourists       - Cheap/Student/Hippy Tourists              Trust me, you don't want any of these people in a town. A friend in Dubrovnik, Croatia says that all the new flights have brought in are a lot of drunks who leave a lot of garbage. Friends say the same thing that live on the islands of Korčula and Hvar. Prague has become full of these people. I saw this firsthand in these locations as well as in Istria, Venice, Barcelona, and Paris. Of course, the bigger a city, the less you feel these people. But somewhere like Tallinn, Estonia, all you get are these people because they go there with the single purpose of gettin' a bit rowdy.       So, what does all this ultimately mean and what do you do to stop this? Essentially, if you travel, don't take budget flights. They're crappy, not the much cheaper (and maybe more expensive) than a "real" airline, and full of all the people I've mentioned. If you live in an area where a budget carrier is going to start service, protest like hell. Don't let that carrot of immediate money being waved in front of you, fool you. The long term costs of this type of tourist pollution are quite disastrous. And of course, once it's there, how are you going to get rid of it? These companies are like pigeons, going wherever some foolish person has decided to toss out some welcoming crumbs.

It is often that I frequent my local Whole Foods market here in San Francisco. I love the food selection and the quality of the meat and produce. I love looking at Vegans make wrinkly faces as they walk by the meat counter and whisper to each other so that everyone can hear, "Man, we should have gone to the co-op." Yes, yes you should have.       But it's not just the fresh items that I like. It's also the canned and boxed things. It's the wall of granolas and the fact that Whole Foods has made me a granola muncher again after revolting against the coconut beet root grain whatever that my parents had me eat as a child. The aisles for grains are fantastic and worth spending time in, for everything is a tasty, healthy choice for the most part.       So, it was with great unhappiness that I found freakin' Cheerios there the other day. Now, these aren't Fruit Loops or anything, but they are 1) Made by the massive conglomerate, General Mills and 2) Able to be gotten anywhere, including my corner liquor store and 3) Not really all that healthy. So, why is Whole Foods carrying boxes of these cereals? Have they suddenly gone organic without any fanfare? No, I doubt that. So, it makes me wonder if this is a new tactic by Whole Foods to slowly sneak in these big brands to try and fool those lulled in to a false sense of health just because they shop there?       Yes, there are the yuppie soccer moms on the cellphones who just toss anything in to their cart and run to the checkout. But, from casual observance, it seems to me that Whole Foods customers are picky people who go there because it's better and because they read labels and look at ingredients. If they decide to start selling crap from the quasi-healthy national brands (albeit some health food brands are getting more national) then it won't be a shock if Whole Foods suddenly reports their first quarterly loss and in a holiday quarter nonetheless.

I'm sure you've experienced this when eating out and having to put your name in for a reservation with the host/hostess and you ask how much time it will be. "Oh. Eh..." and he/she does that full body shrug, "Maybe about 15 minutes or so." And like a sucker you put your name in.       I've eaten out enough to know that this 15 minutes is always a load of crap. Just tack on another 15 and you might get close to the time you'll be shuffled in for seating. And maybe not. They just seem to get a kick out telling people that it will be 15 minutes. It's like a power trip or something.       Such was the case the last time I ate at Dosa, which I have to first say that I love. Well, I love the service, wine list, and most importantly the food. The people who work at the podium always suck. I'm guessing they must be instructed to suck by someone, although I've talked to the owner and he's an incredibly friendly guy.       This last time though, I got the, "Just 15 minutes." line from the girl up front. Some space cleared up at the bar so my party and I wandered over there. It was then that I could see the little seating computer thing that the girl was using. It was interesting because we got there at 8:00. There was another group of three like us, who have arrived at 7:25 and she was still waiting to seat them. So, it makes me wonder how on earth she could tell me that it was going to be 15 minutes. Obviously, it was a 30 minutes, or as when I saw that group finally sat, a 45 minute wait.       It's nearly enough to make me 'X' (cheers, Len) Dosa off my restaurant going out list. I say nearly enough because I just love the food too much. I will have to at least try some other places, or go to places that take reservations because the whole show up and beg to be seated thing does suck just a wee tad. Maybe this will be better if they get around to opening up that second restaurant some day.

A little something my fellow indie filming renegades came up with when I let them at my camera for the summer.                            Moral of the story: only let your friends borrow your equipment when you know that you have stopped being creative, because they will generally put it to better use, since they need to return it to you someday.

Over the last weekend, I saw What Would Jesus Buy? at the SF Indie Documentary Festival that I hadn't realized opened the same night with the screening that I saw.       The film is mostly about Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping who are a group that are trying to get Americans to reduce or eliminate their rampant consumerism that has swallowed the country as a whole. So, one the one hand, the film covers the church group as they make their way across the US on something of a "revival tour". At the same time, it gets in to the evils and what we're doing when we keep spending as blindly as we are.       The film touches on a great many topics, which I feel are individually dealt with better in separate films, such as Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price which goes in to depth about the evil smiley face which is Walmart. So, if you're looking for any new light to be shown on the different elements of the film, you probably won't find it, except in following Reverend Billy. That part is a good character student and shows me a lot more about the guy, his wife, Savitri D., and his mission. Personally, I appreciate what they're doing, but when seeing him in a 10 second sound bite on the local news, I think that he just seems like a wacko and most people, like myself when I first saw him, just see him as an eccentric. This unfortunately loses his message. In one clip of the film, I think Savitri summed up the problem when they were prepping for a "sermon" in that she told him, "More message, less theatrics." or something to that effect.       The screening was a lot of fun though because Reverend Billy and Savitri were there after the screening to answer questions. Also there were Joan Baez and Larry Harvey, the founder of Burning Man. That kind of a thing is always fun to stumble upon and we had no idea that we were seeing the opening screening and so many would be in attendance. Very much worth the price of admission and supporting the Roxie.