A receipt of the past

I put on a coat for an interview the other day. Apparently, it's one that I hadn't worn for some time as when I reached in to the pocket, I found a receipt from December 17, 2004. For those who prefer to shy away from math, that's 5 1/2 years ago. Had it been from the grocery store, that would have been rather banal, but as it was, it was from Trader Vic's. For those who are more recent to San Francisco, this spot is no longer around. It was on the edge of the Loin and supposedly the place where the Mai Tai was invented, although that is up for debate.

The specific night that I was there is one that I only somewhat remember as it was after the Christmas party for San Francisco Magazine where I was the IT Manager at the time. The party was actually a lunch party at the Culinary Academy (also not there anymore) where I had a couple glasses of wine. Being an idiot with a second-rate girlfriend at the time who didn't drink (have upgraded since), I was completely ready to go along to get more drinks afterwards. This then involved a colleague proceeding to " break me" by talking me in to one drink after another to the point where I couldn't even talk at the bar when going up for the next round.

Amazingly, I was not bounced or cut off. Not amazingly, the bartender was happy to let me pay the bill and add in a 40% tip on drinks that had not been bought. Thankfully, the colleague who had "beat his liver in to submission years ago" saw this perversion of billage and went up to fix it which explains why I actually found two receipts in my pocket.

Being hungover for two days after that night and berated as to why drinking was so stupid by the second-rate girlfriend at the time, I wondered why I had left this receipt in my pocket. Was there something about the night that was a key to my future success? Was this a sign of things to come? Was there a coded message in this to my future 2010 self? Have I been watching too much Lost? Unfortunately, much like the series finale of Lost, this night out sucked and I am just surprised to see that this jacket not only still fit me, but also hadn't been worn in six years. Goodbye receipt. Thanks for reminding me of vomit, crappy, syrupy Mai Tais, and a quiet lad from Wales having to tell the cab driver at the bar where I lived.

29 05 2010      11 comments

Tags: restaurants, san francisco, stupidity

That pretty much sums up the times

I admit it. I play the lottery. Yeah, it's stupid. Yeah, it's a waste of two dollars a week. Yeah, I could spend that $104 on one really nice dinner a year. But, it's something I've done on and off for the last 15 years and as far as dumb vices go, I rate it pretty low. Plus, I'm a sucker for the "what if..." factor that they prey upon all us suckers with.

Lately, as the economy is truly way deep down, stuck up on the second bend of the crapper, it appears that I'm not the only person getting a hit of Lottocaine twice a week. Right after the draw, they post the numbers on the website. This in turn means that you see the image below for about two hours after the draw. There really isn't anything wrong with the website except for the fact that a couple million people are hitting it at once. Obviously, "what if..." has devolved in to "dammit please..." these days. Not a good sign. Not at all.

17 09 2009      0 comments

Tags: economy, errors, stupidity, us america

Berkeley Suceeds How Only Berkeley Can

For those who are unaware, I attended UC Berkeley and graduated with a fine, fine degree in English Literature that I now never use. I lived in Berkeley up on the North Side of Campus and liked being there a good deal at first. It was a welcome change from my small, ignorant hometown. Of course, after a few years, I got pretty burned out on the whole "Berkeley Thing", which is to say that while people consider themselves extreme left and fighting for the good causes, they're actually just as ignorant as people in my hometown. Berkeley is to Liberals and Socialists of the US what Oklahoma is to the Conservatives. It is a blight that doesn't represent those of us from the left who actually think about the issues at hand. Needless to say, I moved out the day after I handed in my final paper and a month before I even got my diploma. I just couldn't take it anymore.

Well, it appears that there is a gleaming beacon to Berkeley ignorance in the form of a statue they've set up alongside the major, major freeway of 80 North. The statue depicts the biggest protest elements that define Berkeley, which are:

- Mario Savio: A guy who headed up the Free Speech Movement in order to impress his girlfriend that he later married and then divorced.

- People's Park: The university had the land ready to build student housing that (when I attended Berkeley) was vastly needed. Some nitwit actually died trying to defend this park, which even the Wikipedia article mentions is a haven for the homeless. Crime in the four block radius around the park is also the highest in Berkeley now. Why? Because all the hippies that fought for the park have since forgotten about it except to mention it as my mom does in stating what it symbolized.

- Berkeley Tree Protesters I love this group more than the others. They decided to protest the university cutting down old growth oak trees to make way for a new athletic stadium. Now, I'm against this as much as anyone else, but at the smae time, it's the university's land and they can do what they want. It doesn't warrant sitting up in a tree and literally throwing your shit at those who try to remove you. They stayed up there for over a year. Their intent was to force the university to make it in to a park. Huh, seems like we've heard that one before and they were only about a 15 minute walk from the other park that a previous generation decided needed to be created and forgot about. Thankfully, this time around the protesters lost.

So, to salute all of this, Berkeley decided that a sculpture that costs about $200,000 would be a good way to do it. I think to any sane person, this seems ludicrous. Readers on the Chronicle's website felt that way and a couple of my favorite comments on the article I link to at the beginning are:

They should have commissioned a giant statue of 'the Naked Guy' smoking a joint while collecting unemployment.

It's ironic how Berkeley and its ilk can go on about poverty, inequality and social injustice, then turn around and erect a big expensive monument to themselves. Seems a bit self-absorbed.

So, all I ask if you do as I do and flip off this testament to Berkeley's arrogance each and every time you drive by. Oh, by the way, the statue itself is a piece of junk, made out of fiberglass, so if you have any more nefarious thoughts in what you can do towards it...

16 10 2008      0 comments

Tags: berkeley, hubris, politics, protests, stupidity