Friday, May 9, 2008 Post comment
I have a pain in the ball of my left foot that's looking more and more like it will prevent me from riding AIDS/LifeCycle in three weeks. My doctor diagnosed it as a pinched nerve, a neuroma, and didn't really have anything to offer passed keep off it for a few days.
A few days later it was worse, waking me up at night and I can't walk on it without pain, let alone ride a bike from SF to LA.
I saw a physical therapist who recommended me to another podiatrist, who I'm seeing monday afternoon, but it won't come soon enough for me to ride this weekend. There's not much time left until the week-long AIDS/LifeCycle starts on June 1 and loosing another weekend of training doesn't give me much hope.
I've already checked into what happens if I can't ride. Your donations will still got to fight HIV/AIDS and everything I've raised will be credited to me next year when I can ride, but I've put so much time and work into this I don't want to just sit it out now.
Saturday, May 3, 2008 1 comment
(by Gooseberried)
My nephew Ben wanted to have his hair spiked up like mine.
It was dry and rough so I made him let me wash it first with my shampoo and conditioner (I brought my shampoo and conditioner with me even though I'm only staying a day, can't live without my product) and I expected him to pout and protest but he was into it.
He's happy with the hair.
- Perpetual Kid
Kitchy toys and gadgets, but I like that they have a category named "things that shoot".
Saturday, April 26, 2008 Post comment
Just starting to cross the Golden Gate Bridge this morning, two cyclists ahead of me going opposite directions collided. One was a fellow AIDS/LifeCycle rider taking part in today's Day on the Ride, which as the name implies has rest stops and a support crew to give new riders a feel for what seven days of this will be like.
This wasn't the first time I've been at the scene of an accident on the bridge and maybe the bright side to this was that I was there with my friends Dave and Gary to help. We've been training partners for years and became volunteer training ride leaders our second year on AIDS/LifeCycle.
When the riders went down, we jumped to help like it was instinct. As others made sure the injured girl wasn't moved, Gary assigned me to call AIDS/LifeCycle dispatch, Dave began calling Bridge dispatch, while he dialed 911. Medics were there within minutes, but the ambulance took a while longer and I ended up at the scene for 45 minutes until a vehicle arrived to pick up her friends and the bikes.
Since I'd become the contact person for dispatch (it felt strange to be calling an emergency line so often I was starting out with "It's Jamison again,...") and there was no reason for all of us to stay, I told Dave and Gary to ride on ahead.
I ended up the absolute last rider for the next ten miles and about another 45 minutes until I caught up with the tail end of the ride. Soon after I caught up with Dave and Gary who were taking it slow so I could catch up.
I lost any sense of pacing riding hard to catch up, and I'm a lot more exhausted and worn out than I should be for an 85 mile ride just a month away from the ride itself. I feel so un-prepared now, but I hope with a good night of sleep I'll feel fine tomorrow.
And the AIDS/LifeCycle being a seven day fundraiser, I need your donations of support to make this a success. My goal is to raise at least $6,000.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 Post comment
Today is Earth Day, but looking around the local news sites you wouldn’t be able to tell. SF Gate has a small link, though Macy’s is using their ad space to promote CFL light bulbs, and just one story on the Examiner home page about how far behind San Francisco is on it’s green vehicle fleet. The City web site doesn’t have a single thing about Earth Day.
I expected better of San Francisco. A $3 million tax incentive program for residents who install solar panels is stalled while the City is considered construction of a new fossil-fuel power plant, at a cost of a quarter million dollars and located in a neighborhood already suffering the negative health effects of the current power plants.
Can’t we do better than this?
Friday, April 11, 2008 1 comment
(by Zach)
Ok, first off, spoiler alert for the first episode of season 4, action stations! So this week it looks like we're going to learn who the last Cylon is, well the commercial promises "all will be revealed" at least. I'm going to take that too mean we learn who the twelfth and final human Cylon is and have some theories...
Who I don't think is a Cylon:
Gaius because he represents what man will to his fellow man in his own self-interest. We don't know if he feels any guilt for causing the near extinction of his own species, not once, but twice. Caprica Six would also be free of the guilt It would also ruin the whole thing with Six being inside his head while Caprica has a version of Baltar in hers as equal and opposite.
Bill Adama or Laura Roslyn because they are the mother and father figures and stand in opposition to Gaius because they've put the survival of the human ahead of their own lives. They both believe in the rule of law, they've also subverted the law when they believed they had to and the justified the means with the ends. It wasn't that long ago Bill had thrown the president in the brig and she tried to rig an election. Bill challenges us to be better, "it's not enough to survive, we never proved we deserved to" and while the president struggles with internal and external religious conflicts. All very human stuff.
Helo shows us that love can conquer. He found out she was a Cylon and pregnant at the same time shortly after her people launched a nuclear holocaust on his people. And now they're married with a baby girl.
D or Gaeta, cause really?
Cally for a couple reasons. Would ruin the drama if it turned out both she and the Chief are Cylons. He's now got a secret he can't tell her and makes him different from her.
Kara for much the same reasons but with Anders, minus a kid. I think they're setting this up so she will be accused of being a Cylon for a complete mind-frak on everyone: Anders is already freaked out, and now that Lee is not in the military they have to make him useful with a reason for being on Galactica and being either her defense attorney or the prosecutor, either of which will be awkward. Adama will probably feel he's been betrayed by a woman he considers his daughter, and/or his son, and/or President Roslyn depending on her roll in all of it.
So that leaves:
Lee. Who could possibly be more shocking to Adama, Roslyn or Kara? He's been a moral compass for the president and his father. Everyone has repeatedly placed their lives in his hands and he's come through. Last week Lee asked his father a question, if his brother Zak still alive, but turned out to be a Cylon would it change anything? Well, what if Adama was faced with his son being a Cylon? Anders asked Kara the same question of himself and she said she'd put a bullet through his brain. Would she feel that way if she found out Lee was a Cylon?
Wednesday, April 2, 2008 Post comment
The recently formed Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is looking to honor the America's 43rd with monument that suitably fits his accomplishments.
The commission aims to place on the following question on this November's ballot:
"Should the City and County of San Francisco rename the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility the George W. Bush Sewage Plant?"
Byrne didn't think this idea was appropriate as the facility does not dump raw sewage directly into the Pacific Ocean and in a way very contrary to the Bush Administration it first treats the sewage to make it safe.
Visit presidentialmemorial.org to find out how you can help make this honor Presisdent Bush's legacy this November.
- SF Home Depot is a no go (SF Gate)
Plans for a Home Depot in San Francisco have been shot down by the recession. It would have brought in a few jobs and some tax revenue, but was controversial because it would hurt local hardware stores and big box retail doesn’t fit well inside San Francisco neighborhoods.
Friday, March 28, 2008 Post comment
I've been taking advantage of the pool at my new gym to get back into swimming. Last night after work I got to try out the new goggles and swim suit I picked up the other day at Sports Basement. I'd only needed to replace my old goggles, but discovered the company which makes my favorite cycling shorts, Sugoi, also makes swim suits that are as perfect a fit for me as their cycling shorts.
Last week when I first got back into the pool, I was completely exhausted by what a few years ago I would have considered a warm up, but I felt a lot better after last night. More than anything my problem now is breathing. I haven't quite got the rhythm for when to take a breath and end up having to take one too many or one to few when I'm doing a flip turn.
I hope to be back to my old routine soon.
- Sign Up Forms Must Die (A List Apart)
There are a lot of great services on the internet, unfortunately there are a lot which first make you go through a sign up form and verify your e-mail address (so they know they have a real email address to spam) before you can even try out their product. Screw that.
- White People Like San Francisco (Stuff White People Like)
The continuing scientific study of white people looks at why white people like San Francisco. My favorite bit is, "No matter how much you have offended someone from San Francisco, you can always make them feel better by asking them how they feel about Southern California."
Thursday, March 20, 2008 Post comment
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the idling trucks at the Port of Oakland is spewing out diesel fumes, but a study released this week by the California Air Resources Board spells out just how bad it is. The SF Chronicle sums it up pretty well,
“The two-year public health inquiry covered a large swath of the Bay Area - an area of 3,800 square miles that is home to 3.1 million people. The residents had an elevated risk of cancer - nearly 1,200 additional cancers per million people due to long-term exposure to diesel particulate matter than people living elsewhere, the study reported in preliminary findings.”
Totally unacceptable and the Port of Oakland is looking to cut diesel emissions by 85% over the next decade or so. The Port is helping replacing some of the oldest and most polluting diesel trucks independent owner-operators who otherwise couldn’t afford it, and they are (or at least a couple years ago they were) looking at building a new rail link over Altamont to get rid of a lot of that traffic altogether. All those diesel trucks are also adding to the congestion on bay area freeways.
So this is great right? Well, this from another Chronicle story,
“Late Monday, 54 companies, including Gap Inc., Levi Strauss. J.C.
Penney and Target Corp., as well as trade associations, wrote Oakland
Mayor Ronald Dellums saying the proposals violate state and federal
law and impose an unfair burden on those moving goods by container.
“Litigation almost certainly would put the brakes on a timetable for pollution mitigation the port staff members say they would like to start as soon as possible because of health risks.”
These companies are killing people in West Oakland, and paying what it costs to not kill people would be a burden? Who should be suing who here? More stats courtesy the Chronicle,
“In 2005, county public health officials compiled state data revealing that West Oakland children ages 5 and under visited the emergency room for asthma at a rate nearly three times higher than children in Alameda County overall. Additionally, a study of death certificates dating to the 1960s showed that residents of West Oakland lived 10 years fewer than people living in the Oakland hills.”
This is not right and since these companies are not going to be responsible, you might want to help keep pressure on Senators Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi who took notice when the Cosco Busan hit the Bay Bridge shortly after leaving the Port of Oakland and spilt bunker fuel into the bay. Polluted air is no less a problem than polluted water.
- Dollarshort returns
My friend Mena has started blogging again, with a completely new, and very beautiful design. Welcome back!
