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Yeah, it's kinda stupid and a silly rivalry, but seeing as how I'm on campus a lot these days, it's hard to ignore it. That's right, the Cal Stanford game is today. My boys in blue are pretty much set to win it, but you never know with college football. All that I do know is the prank that I took a picture of to the right is a helluva lot better than the stupid "Fuck Stanfurd" shirts that everyone wears. Number One English Literature Department in the country and that's all that be imagined? Sad... At least t-shirts are always fun to put on statues, although not as much fun as sliding a pumpkin over the top of the Campanile Spire for Halloween.

As I'm headed out of town this weekend, I had to go down to my local, lovely, Amtrak office to pick up some train tickets. Many people might be thinking, "Amtrak, in San Francisco? Where does the train go over the water?" The big trick is that it doesn't and the only trains that come to SF are the Bart and Caltrain. So, as that is the case and you actually take a bus to connect with Emeryville, the station just sits there on the Embarcadero, looking rather forelorn. Well, it's really not that bad since they have a view of the Bay, Bay Bridge, and the Ferry Building. It's a pretty logical spot given that there are so many connections right here. Even with all these lovely surroundings though, the people at the counter flat out suck.       I've waited in lines at UC Berkeley where I'm ignored and just stand there while someone needs to finish up their coffee break or finish up their 10 minutes conversation about some reality TV show they saw the night before. I've waited at the DMV where people can't quite figure things out and this great equalizer of American life makes us all have to bide our time. But I've never had it be the case where I'm talking to the ticket agent and she looks over at the woman next to hear and starts talking about what she's going to do after work. I just sat there, dumfounded in the fact that in her pea-sized mind, I was suddenly not there. I can't even figure out how such a lack of caring can come about. This isn't even not giving a damn. This is puttin' it to you with a chisel that you don't matter.       In general, I've never found those that work in this office to be too pleasant, but this was the first case where if the agent could get away with it, she would have dropped a fridge on my toe just... well, just because. I guess I gots to get used to it because this stuff happens and I thought I had, but man, she hit one right over the fence and into the water with this shot. Back to ordering on the web again for me.

There are times when the whackos of Berkeley give me a real lift in life. Such was the case last week.       I see this guy in the picture on the right riding the Bart and getting off at the Downtown Berkeley station, which is where I got off. I thought nothing of him; just an eccentric. I went to my class and thought nothing else of it.       During the duration of my class he either: found, was given, or dug up, a frozen turkey from somewhere. It wasn't with him when he got off the Bart, but when I was walking back, there he was walking around with the damned thing cradled in his arms going, "Blah blah blah. Blargh!" I kid you not. That really was what the guy was saying.       I didn't have time to bust out my 100-300 lens to get a closer shot of him, but I feel this one shot that I did get made life worth living.

Here's a nice topical story for a Friday the 13th and a week of lame. It all started two days ago when I finished up with my Croatian class at Berkeley and headed down to the Bart to take my trusty blue and silver steed back to the City.       As is often the case with the Bart, somewhere, someone sneezed and it tossed the whole system in to a delay. Naturally, my first reaction was, "Awesome..." Being bored and having my camera on me as I always do, I started to take random pictures of whatever was around and trying to do artistic things while I waited.       Just as I was starting to pack it up since me train was getting there, a Bart Cop walks up to me and asks,       "Excuse me, what are you doing?"       "Uh... waiting for a train."       "Well, you know why I'm asking you, right?"       Because I'm a 6'3" white guy with an American Apparel sweater on who is obviously up to no good while he waits for a train to SF?       "No, not really."       "Well, you were taking some photos, right?"       "Yeah. So?"       "Do you mind if I take a look at what you shot?"       Yeah I do actually because that constitutes an illegal search without a warrant and unless you actually suspect me of doing something nefarious and want to arrest me, fuck off.       "I guess so, sure."       I reached in to my bag slowly and pulled my camera back out, flipping through the shots that I took.       "Oh, okay, so they're just pretty stuff?"       Some would venture to call it an artform assnard       "Yeah, pretty much."       "Okay. You realize why I was asking, right?"       "No, I don't."       "Oh, well, it just raises red flags."       The last I checked, your preferential crap system didn't profile white guys who are clearly leaving a college class as being a terrorist, but hey, what do I know, I just do "pretty stuff".       "Uh, sure, I guess."       "Okay, glad you understand."       To be honest, I knew what he was getting at all along. My brother was a skateboarder and had to deal with crap from the popo for years. I just find it sad that our current state of society has gotten to the point where someone taking pictures is suspicious. I mean seriously, I've got $2000 of camera and lenses and I'm going to take strategic photos of the effin' Downtown Berkeley Bart station?!! These guys have or have not watched too much Mission Impossible and James Bond. If someone was going to be sneaky, they'd use a camera phone or something small like that, not a Canon Digital Rebel XT with eight inches of glass off the front of it. Let's all just sit back a moment and remember that the 9/11 terrorists used boxcutters and the overall idiocy of America to pull off their hell. That's what we need to "never forget". And it appears I will return to my guerilla photography again...

Here's an age old question: If a dirty deranged hippie craps in the woods of Berkeley, does anyone see it? Yes, yes they do because he craps in the god damned redwood grove at the west entrance to campus!       I didn't think anything of the fact that when I first saw this guy he was taking a wizz behind one of the large redwoods that are there. Of course, I thought about it more as I walked away and realized there were scads of bathrooms throughout that were gleaming white and available for use. So... what was up with that?       All right, nothing more thought about it until yesterday when I was walking up the path through the trees and was greeted by said guy with his pants around his ankles, squatting, and taking care of a Number Two. Okay, WTF?!! Squirrels play there! And, and... That's digustingly ridiculous. The worst part being that if anyone ever reported the guy, some wool-sock-with-Birkenstock wearing moron would try and stop anything from happening to him because he's just a harmless soul in a turbulent world or something like that. Sure, that's true... and he's crapping on my school!!! If a frat guy did that, he'd get expelled. Don't get me wrong, I think it's just to do that to a frat guy, but we can't have a different level of punishment for meatheads as we do for skanky hippies living in the "forest". Let me add that "forest" in this case is a grove of trees about maybe... an acre in size.

Ah man. I'm really feeling my age these days. While I don't mind getting older and the fact that people seem to take you a bit more seriously, being around people a lot younger than you kinda sucks. There's so much you want to tell them, but you realize they just gotta find it out on their own. Such things as drinking beer, wine, and tequila in the same night being a bad combination are just one of those hard-learned nuggets in life.       Why is this coming up now? Well, having made it through my first week at Berkeley it was a thought that was fresh in my head. My Croatian class that I'm taking out there has kids, literally kids in it. There are 19, 18, and even 17 year olds in this thing with me. When you're 29, you can't brush it off and you just gotta realize that they are indeed a helluva lot younger than you and yes, it's weird being in class with people who weren't even born when you started Junior High.       What have I learned from being around the younger generation? Two things. Young undergraduate girls definitely look young and this is not something I admire. I'd much rather date a girl who is and looks my age. I've realized that guys who cruise the colleges and pick up the 19 year olds are just screwed up. The other thing that I learned was that the younger generation is indeed getting dumber. I guess I should actually say that they're losing their common sense in our overly-nuturing society more than losing true intelligence, but it's hard to tell. For instance, stopping in the middle of a doorway is just kinda dumb, as is trying to ride your bike in the hallways. Also dumb is for college girls to talk to any guy over the age of 25. Yet, it seems the ability to buy alcohol is such an allure... One last thing, pas nije čovjek and I really mean that.