I'm back!

After discussing my blog with Brie at work, I've decided that I still have lots to say. Stay tuned. More to come.

Sensible planning

I was quite happy to read about the sensible addition of a pissoir to the new Dolores Park in a letter sent to the house by the San Francisco Planning Department.

Sure, this was announced a few months back (even the NYT mentioned it), but it's news to me!

It is exciting that our elected officials are taking a pragmatic approach at urination. I mean, men already pee all over the park, so why not build facilities that will be used on busy days. Currently the toilet situation at DP is inadequate at best. The men's room has a urinal that fills completely with water and one stall. There are a few port-a-potties around the park, but those are an eye-sore and unisex, which means queues on busy park days.


Dutch pissoir in Amsterdam

Having a blog is a lot of work

I started this blog before Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. This was before it was easy to share pictures and updates from the palm of my hand. I had to take pictures with a digital camera (remember scanning?), upload them to my hard drive and then upload them to the blog. Since I'm not a very good writer (or maybe it's I just don't have the patience to articulate my thoughts through the magic of prose), I chose to let the pictures do the talking. Afterall, a picture is worth a thousand words, is it not?

Now days, I can use Instagram to share pictures to my community and even email my parents with a few clicks on my iPhone. No longer do I have to sit down and think of fun comments and share the story behind the picture.

Why am I saying all of this? Well, because if I want to start blogging again, I am going to have to write about things of substance (not to be confused with substance abuse).

Any ideas on what I should blog about?

More QQ'ing from BYU fans

Doug Robinson, columnist from the Deseret News, is still sour that the Pac10 chose BYU's instate rival, Utah, over the Cougars.

The Cougars came with what most would consider baggage: They won't play on Sunday, which would create headaches for the Pac-10 TV contract, and their honor code and conservative living don't fit in with the liberal Pac-10 crowd. Otherwise, BYU should be as attractive as Notre Dame, another religious school that is repeatedly courted by BCS conferences.

He hit the nail right on its head. BYU is not a good fit with the rest of the Pac-10. It is a religious school that openly discriminates against gays and doesn't allow it's students to play on Sunday. That does not fit with the likes of the University of California and the other 7 public universities. The two private schools in the Pac-10, Stanford and USC, are private, non-sectarian research universities.

Bottom line: BYU fans can scream till they are blue in the face, but they will never be part of the Pac-10.

Something's Brewing down in Arizona

Republican Governor, Jan Brewer, has until Saturday to act on arguably the nation's toughest legislation against illegal immigration. Both sides of the debate have really been protesting furiously over the past few weeks, and there is no question that this a hot-button issue during an important election year.

The media has been covering this like crazy, but I want to know why nobody has brought up one very important fact:

Is Jan Brewer actually Terence Stamp as Bernadette from "Priscilla Queen of the Desert"?

Noonan on Palin

I rarely agree with what Peggy Noonan has to say, but she really is quite eloquent when it comes to Sarah Palin.

"In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it. She wasn't thoughtful enough to know she wasn't thoughtful enough. Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. "I'm not wired that way," "I'm not a quitter," "I'm standing up for our values." I'm, I'm, I'm.

In another age it might not have been terrible, but here and now it was actually rather horrifying."

I think she literally is talking about her disco stick!

First, let's start out with the fact that I am completely in love with Lady GaGa. I thought that I was too old to get all starry eyed over a pop diva, but I guess at age 32 I still can fall in love (like I did with Madonna, Kylie, Cher, et al).

Over the past few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the Lady Gaga's song "Love Game", specifically, what is this disco stick that she sings of? The easy answer would be a penis, right? But why would Lady GaGa lower herself to such a simple metaphor for the male genetalia. Besides, I'd like to think of her as one big lezzzzzzzz. Oh you know you want to see her eat out Katie Perry's snatch just as much as the next person. But that still doesn't answer the question as to what this disco stick really is.

The good people over at BuzzFeed were wondering the same thing, and came to the same conclusion. What does she use this disco stick for? Is this how she harnesses her power? Is it magical? Does she use it to make muffins with? I think I'm going to make my own disco stick and see what kind of trouble I can get into with it.

I <3 Umami

I can always rely on my father to fill my inbox with about 4 - 5 emails a day. They are 99% forwards or webclippings of articles that he feels I would appreciate. The topics cover the whole spectrum, from MLB Baseball to cooking to family genealogy.

The other day, he sent me an article titled, "Is MSG Making a Comeback? After Years of Demonization, MSG Remains Ubiquitous as a Flavor Enhancer". It's a fun little read for those of you who grew up with a little shaker of "Ajinomoto" in your kitchen. (My parents were against having it in the house, even though we probably consumed enough of on a regular basis.)

I'm a fan of MSG and I'm not afraid to admit it. I won't eat at a Chinese restaurant near my house that has a huge sign out front that says, "Absolutely No MSG". Please. The reason why I eat Chinese food is for the MSG!

Color Splashed

A few months ago my friend David asked me if I wanted to meet the host of HGTV's "Color Splash", David Bromstad, and possibly be on TV. Never to let an opportunity like that pass, I said yes saved the date on my calendar. For those of you who don't know, David Bromstad is the openly gay hottie designer on cable television.

On the big day, fellow Star-F*cker, Sam jumped in my car and we drove up to Corte Madera to be on the live taping of Color Splash in West Elm. I was pleasantly surprised to find only a few other people, which gave me time to chat with David and ask him for his advice on decorating a room. After the taping, I got his autograph and probably made a complete fool out of myself since I was gushing like a 12 year old girl.

My episode of Color Splash aired this past weekend and I was amazed at how many of my friends watch it. I don't think the "Fusing Contemporary and Tribal" episode is available on HGTV.com yet.




David even said my name on tv.

The March to Spring

Beware the Ides of March, for they are upon us. Winter is slowly retreating back, and giving way to the longer days and warmer weather of spring. The birds are singing and the flowers are blooming. Thanks to Day Light Savings, we now arrive home in the evening a little happier (although waking up is a real bitch), which gives us more time to do that last bit of work around the house or enjoy a margarita with Trader Joe's Margarita Mix, which retails for just $2.99 here in San Francisco.

This has been a tough winter. Hopefully with the snow melting and the bears coming out of their dens comes happy fun times.

random thoughts

So tonight, I taped the UCLA-Washington game. It was on this afternoon on the "Comcast Sports Bay Area" channel, which I think is such a joke. Back when I lived in Seattle, Fox Sports Northwest used to own the airwaves on Saturday and Sunday doing the live broadcast of collegiate sports. But I digress...

The Huskies and visiting Bruins battled it out on the hardwood in one of the oldest NCAA basektball venues in the country. I have to do my homework on Hec Ed Pavilion (you can call it Bank of America Arena or for the old skool, Sea First Arena) but I think good ole Hec Ed is one of the most historic.

My Point. For my Pac-10 Friends out there, I wonder .... if you didn't go to your school, what Pac-10 school would you choose and why. I'm talking runner up, 1st runnerup and 3rd ...

Email me. thekeau@gmail.com

My trip to EA

Yesterday I took CalTrain down to Redwood City to visit my friend Mark at work. He's an animator for Electronic Arts (EA). I had been looking forward to going down to visit him because I've always been a big video game fan and I also think it's neat to check out where your friends work at. We spend so much time at the office yet very few of the people close to us get to experience any of that.

My trip down to Redwood City took about 50 minutes since I had to take two forms of transit to get there. I found the CalTrain depot to be rather pleasant (although getting there took awhile since there's no direct route from my house to the station) and the ride down the peninsula was scenic and comfortable. My roundtrip ticket (1 day 2-zone pass) on CalTrain set me back $8.

Upon arrival at the Belmont Station, Mark picked me up and drove me the 2.4 miles to EA's campus which sits on reclaimed land and the old site of the Marine World Theme Park, which moved to Vallejo in 1986. The main lobby was impressive which wasn't surprising since EA makes some huge titles. Mark gave me a tour of the division that he works in, which was really cool and then we had enjoyed bbq at the EA cafe. Mark then gave me a tour of the rest of EA's campus, which included a maze that he said you can see on Google Maps! How cool is that? I ended the day by playing the new Sims game that he's been working on, which is set to be released next month. I got dropped back off at the CalTrain station and took the northbound train back to the city.

I enjoyed my trip down to Redwood City and EA, but I have to admit that I really wanted to play video games when I got home!




CalTrain Station in San Francisco.


The entrance to EA's campus.


Video games set up in the lobby.


Mark!

Tuesday Morning

• Jackass Joe Lieberman has been un-invited to weekly Democratic meetings. Next step is being kicked out of the caucus entirely!
• Sarah Palin is a big fat liar and her church says they can "Pray Away the Gay".
• The 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called on the Huskies at the end of the game against BYU last Saturday really upset me and I'm sure just about anyone who watches football has some strong opinion about it. The bottom line is, the refs made the call based on the rules. I think the rules for unsportsmanlike conduct are too overreaching and too stringent.
  
• American Idol runner-up, David Archuleta, has a new single out and I'm trying to figure out who exactly he has a crush on.

Kickoff Weekend 2008-09

I am a college football maniac and I have really been looking forward to this weekend's non-stop College football extravaganza. For the past two seasons, I have been out of the country during football season so I this year's season has been highly anticipated. This year, I get to enjoy it on a flatscreen in HD with DVR (I <3 acronyms).

Unfortunately, my much beloved Washington Huskies got their asses kicked at Oregon. It's not exactly the way I want to start the season. Next up is BYU who is picked by the MSM to be the BCS Cinderella story. Everyone loves an underdog, even if that underdog Morman.

I'm watching Tennessee at UCLA right now on a 4 hour tape delay, which is awesome. I was able to have people over on a Monday holiday, then go out for some fun and then come home to watch the game in HD. Live is good.

UCLA Fight Fight Fight!

Gossip Girl

Yuck. I just threw up a little in my mouth.

In Search of Lo Pan & Aunty Lindo

Last month Joe came to visit me here in SF and we took a day trip to Chinatown to find two of our favorite people in the whole world.

We started off looking for Gracie Law's office, which we knew was somewhere in Chinatown. If we found Gracie, I'm sure she could have led us to Egg Shen's place, where he could help us prepare for the battle against Lo Pan. Unfortunately, we were unable to find Gracie's office, so we decided to save our chi and see if we could find Aunty Lindo and maybe play a game of mahjong. We roamed the streets of Chinatown, weaving between the tourists and exploring back alleys, but we were unable to find Aunty Lindo. The closest we came was Waverly street. I wonder if Aunty Lindo named her daughter after this very street?


Joe preparing for his battle against Lo Pan.


Joe has best quality heart.

8 More days to Kick-off

College football fans, your time is almost here! In just over one-week, the college football season kicks-off.

It's time to dust off your favorite school-spirited gear and practice your fight song and cheers.

My Washington Huskies open the season with a bang at the University of Oregon. Nothing would make me happier than a big Husky victory over the much hated Ducks. Washington is a 13 point underdog, but it's the first game of the season and anything can happen! Go Huskies!

Rachael Maddow to host her own show on MSNBC

I am very excited for the addition of Rachael Maddow to the MSNBC prime-time line-up. She has been an outstanding contributor and fill-in for Keith Olbermann, but now I get to enjoy her 5 nights a week.

Apparently, her hiring has caused quite a stir. Glenn Greenwald on Salon.com comments:

"The reaction to Maddow's show highlights just how suffocatingly narrow, and right-wing, the spectrum of mainstream political discourse in America is. Hiring Michael Savage, Joe Scarborough and Tucker Carlson to host their own shows didn't jeopardize NBC's news brand, just as giving Glenn Beck -- Glenn Beck -- his own show didn't jeopardize CNN's. Most mainstream political and media figures even continue to insist that Fox is a legitimate news organization because Brit Hume confines his overt right-wing talking points to the Sunday show. But the presence of a liberal on MSNBC instantaneously destroys traditional principles of Journalism."

Friday Morning News

• Hallmark is now offering same-sex marriage cards. Great news! That means I can now go there the next time I'm going to a Lesbian, Jewish-Buddhist, mixed-race wedding!

• A Delta Airline Jet in Florida had to delay its landing due to walking-catfish on the runway. I think they should have let the jet landed and had a catfish fry that afternoon.

• The drama continues in Berkeley with the season home opener right around the corner. These people in the trees are nuts, but I have to admit that I love their nicknames. "Dumpster Muffin"? Really?

• Local boy Bryan Clay won the gold in the Decathlon. He's also half black and half Japanese. I think I'm in love.

• Tour buses have been dropping off crowds of gawking visitors to The Castro and it's been causing quite a stir in the neighborhood. You can't get married without someone taking your picture!
  

To my friend Coach

To my friend Coach,

I apologize for the lack-luster performance of my blog.

I have been distracted recently and have neglected to express my experiences here on my little spot in the internets.

I will try my best to keep you informed, because from what I understand, an honest writer is a productive one.