The logic of thieving
It was a sad day when I walked in to this particular "sometimes office" and discovered that my laptop, backpack, and iPod had all been swiped by a thief who had made his way in to the building and took off with a fine selection of laptops. Thieving appears to be what everyone is in to these days. My mother-in-law had here laptop stolen sometime back after a previous break in had stolen other items. #1 Fan had her camera pickpocketed in Chile. And then of course there were my sublettors from a few months ago who stole an amazing assortment of my stuff, including my clothing, although civil proceedings are pending, so I won't get in to that anymore.
To some degree, I assume we have more of this to look forward to as the newer generations are being told that they're basically entitled to whatever they want and they have no concept of ownership due to their parents buying them everything. Ah, the millenials, I look forward to you. Of course, this only applies to my sublettors. The rest of the thieving in my life of late has come from plain old opportunists. They saw something they could take and they took it. In the case of my laptop, being that it was four years old, it probably wasn't the most worthwhile thing there was and I'm still rather bummed about that as it saw me through three continents and 15 or so countries. Kind of sad to lose such a stalwart traveling partner.
Naturally the thief logic is that you can afford to replace whatever they take because if you couldn't, you wouldn't have it in the first place. If it's not that logic, then it's something else that allows them to justify taking it if they're not feeding some kind of addiction. And that's about all you can do about it is look on and shrug given that the police never find small stolen items and there just seems to be a growing and willing army of thieves out there to take whatever things you might have. It would be great if one of my suitcases, bread knife, cookie book, and multiple items of clothing would somehow turn out to not have been stolen, but I don't in any way have my breath being held and am looking more towards replacing what is now missed, somewhere down the line when I can actually afford it.
25 07 2010 0 comments
Tags: us america
California is happier
It wasn't that I chose California implicitly to live it, but more the fact that I was born here. As to why I've stayed to date, the infographics tell that part of the story. All part of a larger article from here.
20 07 2010 0 comments
Tags: california, us america
The gallery opening
I'm sure that centuries ago, a "gallery opening" was something much more akin to an artist unveiling some expensive work for their wealthy patron and his friends. Somehow there has been a devolution of this process to the point where the gallery opening is all about having a bunch of trendy people pop in, munch on some finger food from Costco and (if alcohol is provided) sip on something cheap from Trader Joe's.
Suffice to say, I hate the gallery opening. Naturally, this is drawn from the childhood trauma in having attended endless (easily more than a hundred) openings at the behest of my parents. As a kid, these suck given that you're just sitting around wondering why the hell anyone cares about this crap on this wall that you've seen your parents making for the last six months. Mainly you're just hoping that some other kid shows up, equally bored as you so that you can sit in the parking lot and try and trump each others' boredom stories or throw rocks at something.
I've realized that as an adult, gallery openings are actually far, far worse given that you often end up going to them of your own free will. I have to say that in general, the progression of art in the US is dead and it is so proven by the fact that most any piece in a modern gallery will require either a) a dissertation next to it explaining the artistic meaning or b) the actual artist next to it to explain the artistic meaning. This is not fun and it barely qualifies as art; more like guided tours.
And of course there is The Scene which I've actually never known a single person to be part of. I don't really know who these The Scene people are and despite knowing a ton of artists, none of them are in The Scene. I suspect that The Scene is some kind of roving band hipster miscreants that drift from opening to opening, meandering in the obscurity of it all, foraging on cheap wine and crackers, and procreating amongst themselves to raise a new, even more obscure generation of The Scene.
18 07 2010 0 comments
Tags: art, san francisco
Fuck the sequel, bring on the 3D-quel
It's always the same age-old question: what do you name your second movie in a series? That's an easy one with something like Alien as you get your Aliens for a title. It's also pretty simple to just put a "revenge" or a "return" in the title and presto, you've got your sequel ready to go. But what--if the great lords of cinematic budgeting allow it--do you call the third movie in a series? That was tough and it usually just rehashed some kind of sequel title that ended up being pretty lame or you stuck a III at the end and called it done.
This my friends has all changed with the move to having 3D films. Now, "triquels" are simply given a 3D at the end and shabam, 'nuff said. Movie companies are loving this crap as it's revitalizing franchises that were otherwise thought dead when a good title couldn't be thought of after a rather lackluster sequel. Ah James Cameron, bless you and your Avatar moving for bringing this new option to us.
15 07 2010 0 comments
Tags: film, language
You can say, 'Tribute to Spain' if you want
I came across this sign at the Nob Hill Grille on Hyde & Pine a day or two ago and really, with Paul the octopus predicting that Spain will win the World Cup tomorrow, there is nothing wrong with saying that you've planned a menu around Spain's holy animal. Nothing wrong with that at all... as long as you invite me to the piggy feast.
10 07 2010 0 comments
Tags: food, football, san francisco, spain
Sadly, we are still all dirty, dirty people
I saw this hand sanitizer at the Powell Street Station Bart. I find it ridiculous as you don't actually touch anything when you take our Bay Area metro system and it seems ridiculous that you would need to disinfect just for the sake of disinfecting. To emphasize how ridiculous this is, a co-worker at a recent "sometimes office" made some offhand remark asking if I was going in to surgery given how much I cleaned my hands after using the bathroom. Sadly, most people don't understand that a heavy hand cleaning--with soap--will do more than any of this damned hand sanitizer ever will.
09 07 2010 2 comments
Tags: bart, hygiene, us america
