Life in General Archives

20 May 2007Get Me a Lady Lawyer
Before I headed out to the airport this morning, I made a little humanitarian mission. Last week I received a letter that should have gone to my same address on 57th street, but the handwriting wasn't shit hot, so it...
17 January 2007So Damn Cold
The year is not even three weeks old, but we've had nothing but sunshine, except for one day with a little rain in 2007. I want it rain so it snows in Tahoe, but who can complain about sunshine,...
30 December 2006Alex & Andrew
23 December 2006Quake Swarm or the Big One Cometh
Following on the little 3.7 tremor of the other night that sent the cats into kniption fits, we had another 3.7 last night followed by what seemed to be a larger quake just a few moments ago. The cats seems...
11 December 2006Karma Calling*
So I never confronted the manager who gave me the gift card with the missing money. I was never going to. I just thought it was funny. I decided I was going to spend the money and I was going...
06 November 2006New Favorite Bumper Sticker
"The Rapture is not an Exit Strategy"...
20 April 2006Hitting Home
Joyce Vincent had been dead for more than two years when her body was eventually discovered in January this year. She was surrounded by unopened Christmas presents. The television was still on and so was the heating. Housing officers came...
13 April 2006When it Rains it Pours
I found out this morning that the average rainfall in San Francisco for April is about 1.5 inches. So far this month, less than half through, we've gotten 4 inches of rain. That's a lot of rain. I'm not complaining...
21 March 2006Sweet Bliss
Could there be anything finer than floating alone at sunset in an Olympic-sized pool heated by geothermal power to a 101 degrees? Probably. Definitely. But it was pretty damn good and I highly recommend it if you get a chance....
01 March 2006Earthquake!
We just had a little earthquake here. The place, this building, which is like a warehouse, starting shaking. There was an audible BANG! and the lights were swinging. Nothing damaged and no one hurt, but pretty freaky all the same.....
02 February 2006Maybe There is a God
I received this letter from the San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic in the mail earlier this week: Plate: CA5KEX274 We have received your inquiry regarding the parking citation listed below. We have reviewed your claim and found it...
27 January 2006Short Walk Home
I don't know why, (It's not a particularly nice day. It's been raining. It's overcast. A little on coolish side. I) maybe I needed the fresh air after my visit to the dentist this morning, but I decided for the...
09 January 2006Going, Going, No Further Advances..SOLD
On Sunday, I did something that I've wanted to do for ages, but never got around to. I went to a live auction. It was an estate auction at Clars in Berkeley of all sorts of objects ranging from oil...
01 January 2006Soggy New Year
It's been a very wet late December and early January (so far). We haven't gotten any real torrential rain. It's just been more of a constant drip with cobalt gray skies more reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest than the Bay...
23 November 2005Too Bad, So Sad, Bye Bye
Looks like I left Alameda in the nick of time. When I came home yesterday there was a jury summons in my mail box....
22 November 2005New Specs
After years of suffering with my Peace Corps replacement glasses (even with a missing nose piece for the last two weeks), I've finally got new frames courtesy of my health insurance and few hundred bucks. I'm now the proud...
14 November 2005One Man's Garbage...
I went yard/estate sale shopping around Berkeley and to a flea market in Concord to pick up a few things for the house. I haven't done anything like this in years. It was really fun and I scored some great...
31 August 2005Nasty, Nasty Katrina
My heart goes out to all the poor people down in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama who got caught up in the Hurricane Katrina disaster. And I do mean poor. There are two thing that are astonishing to me as I...
13 August 2005Gift of Peace
Here's a shot of my sister, her husband Paris and their boy Mateo who was a champ at his baby naming yesterday. In front about 20 people gathered at my sister's place in Richmond, there was no crying, no tantrums,...
01 August 2005Birthday Plans
My birthday is coming up later this week. My manager is giving me the day off. Now I just need to figure out what I'm going do....
04 July 2005Middle America Starts Here
I went with some friends to see fireworks in the little town of San Ramon, about 30 minutes east and south of Oakland. It's like another world over there. It's so white. It's so suburban. Miles of SUVs and minivans....
01 July 2005Price Adjustment
I bought a few shirts at Banana Republic the other day. When I was in line to pay I overheard the cashier telling the person in front of me that if something they bought gets marked down in the future,...
19 June 2005My Father's Day
On Father's Day, I was walking down the beach sidewalk in Alameda with my sister and her newborn, Mateo. People coming the other way, walking, jogging, cycling, were wishing me a happy father's day. Isn't it what people assume about...
02 June 2005Bored in the City
I'm sitting here in a computer classroom in the city (SF) in the middle of the second day of my training for Adobe InDesign. I really have no idea what I'm doing here. My boss sent me to this class,...
28 May 2005Belly Dancer of the Year
The Belly Dancer of the Year Pageant is happening this weekend and I was asked by my ex-girlfriend to do some pro bono work and design the program and a few promo materials. I've never really done anything like this....
23 April 2005Staying Home
Last night was the first Friday night since the first week of the season that I slept in my own bed. I've either been skiing or traveling almost every weekend this year, so it was really nice to change things...
20 February 2005I'm Afraid You'll Have To Spend Some Time In Your Room
It's pissing down rain outside and I feel trapped. I'm basicially killing time watching one of my favorite movies, The Spanish Prisoner, which is on IFC. I did come down to LA to see Michelle and I'm glad I did,...
19 February 2005Seeing Michelle Off
MY COUSIN MICHELLE WITH MY NEPHEW MATEOThe reason I'm in LA this weekend was to see my cousin Michelle who's got a terminal case of ovarian cancer. She arrived at the house a few hours after I got there. There...
28 January 2005Big Dilema
My brother is in town for the weekend. I'm going to have lunch with him and my siter in a few minutes here. It's been a while since I've seen him--he came out to Vail for a few days of...
01 January 2005Happy New Year!
Can you believe it? 2005 already. Seems like these last 5 years have gone by in a blur. If the amount of snow that is falling in the Sierras is any indication, this is going to be a great year....
26 December 2004My First Christmas
Ok, well it wasn't really my first Christmas. I did celebrate it one year when I lived in Australia, but it wasn't same since it was in the middle of the summer and I had to hang out with my...
15 December 2004Welcome to the World, Mateo
Just after 4pm yesterday afternoon at Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco, Mateo A. Cintron Deshong arrived (well ahead of schedule and possibly under budget) making Marni and Paris (my sister and her husband) the happiest people in the Bay Area....
14 December 2004Senior Transitions
My cousin Bradley is working to get ahead of the curve of America's aging population. He's started a business, Senior Transitions, that helps seniors locate ideal communities to sunset their lives. It's a great idea not just because he can...
14 December 2004New Addition En Route
My sister's water broke last night and it looks like I might be an uncle before the night is out. Pretty damn exciting!...
30 November 2004The Weather...Frightful
Who uses that word "frightful" anymore? You can't use it for anything but winter weather because of that stupid song. Anyway, Jennifer and I were out shopping for her Christmas tree last night. It was cold. Probably in the low...
25 November 2004Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandmother's House...
Well, not really because grandmother has passed on, but you get the point. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! FOUR DAYS OFF!! Whoooo-Hoooo! (well, not really either because I have to shoot a race in the SF on Sunday.)...
01 November 2004Day Lights Savings Time Blues
Am I the only who thinks it really sucks when it gets dark at 530? It's bad enough that I have spend 8 hours a day chained to a chair in a cube, but to leave the office and drive...
31 October 2004Pumpkin-flation
I was shocked, shocked I tell when I got to the front of the line of at the local pumpkin patch to find out that the mishapen pumpkin that we plucked from the ever dwindling stock was going to cost...
11 September 2004Opportunity Costs Suck
I can't remember much of what I learned in college. The eight years seems like a blur from a distant lifetime. But something I will never forget is the concept of "opportunity cost". For those of you who didn't take...
06 September 2004Idle No More
Well, it's finally happened. I've put down my camera and taken up the web producing thing again. Yes, a real job. A good thing to announce on Labor Day, right? I'm going to be working at Chiron in Emeryville. My...
04 August 2004So They Say It's Your Birthday
I didn't do much to celebrate my birthday. I did have dinner with my sister at an Indian restaurant in Albany, just north of Berkeley. I hadn't seen her since her wedding last year, so it was nice to touch...
08 July 2004Just an Exhibition, Not a Competion, Please No Wagering
I grew up in the city. There were county fairs, of course, but they were so far away and in such a horribly hot and smoggy place (Pomona) that I never once went. And what's a County Fair when you...
04 July 20044th of July Dud
Tonight about 8:45, when the sun was setting and darkness started to fall on Walnut Creek, we drove up into the mountains west of here to Grizzly Peak in the heights above Oakland and Berkeley to (try to) watch the...
13 June 2004Little Lost Drivers License
My DL is missing, and it's a real pain in the ass. I've been avoiding getting the damn thing replaced, hoping, in vain it seems, that it's going to show itself eventially. Meanwhile I've been going around with my passport...
04 June 2004Our Long National Nightmare Is Finally Over
For the last several months I've been fighting a seemingly never ending battle with the California Deparment of Motor Vehicles over the title to my last car, a 1999 Midnight Blue Saab 9-3, which had been an absolute dream to...