I looked at a house across the street from the César Chávez Elementary School in the sunny Mission district today. I love the way they like to decorate everything in the Mission. I like to decorate stuff too.







The raised beds are part of a program at the school known as "Natural Perspectives."

Funded by the Center for Ecoliteracy since 1996, Natural Perspectives works toward an integrated curriculum at the school, while it gives students a hands-on way to learn science in a natural setting.

I would definitely have to brush up on my Spanish if I moved there.

Pot clinics just keep growing

There are 44 McDonald's in all of Manhattan -- more than any location in the world -- and we have 37 marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco

Now there's an interesting statistic for you.


Might seem unrelated, but this is from the same article:

Birds of a feather: Biologist Mark Rauzon argues that those $550,000 perches for double crested cormorants on the new Bay Bridge eastern span represent taxpayer money well spent.

Rauzon, who designed the "corm condos,'' tells us that without the replacement perches that we told you about last Sunday, the old Bay Bridge cormorants might choose to relocate to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, where a cormorant colony is already perched.

But no matter what we might think, the fact is the birds are covered by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act -- which requires nesting birds get new perches.

I'm on a serious New Pornographers kick right now. Since everybody already has every MP3 under the sun - making mix CD's obsolete - here's a short playlist instead.

The Electric Version     "Electric Version"
From Blown Speakers     "Electric Version"
All For Swinging You Around     "Electric Version"
The Mary Martin Show     "Mass Romantic"


From Blown Speakers

When the contact high from the real life adventures wear off,
you find, in the tiny moments that bomb, your old files rain down from the sky.
And would they fall down, like cymbal crashes, would the alarm bell sound?
Would your eyelashes keep all this in time? If not, I won't mind...

it can be impractical.

So can you tell me why in every version of the events shown here,
there's another season that crawls by like years, from blown speakers clear?

It came out magical.

Just a contact high, one in every mood I've ever declined to fight, one in every single exchange you might find. From blown speakers, time came out magical.

It came out magical, out from blown speakers.

Some well-known and lesser-known reasons to visit San Francisco.

Golden Gate Park

A few highlights
Conservatory of Flowers
Since 1879, locals and visitors have marveled at San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers, the oldest glass-and-wood Victorian greenhouse in the Western Hemisphere and home to more than 10,000 plants from around the globe.

Japanese Tea Garden
Many people's favorite part of the park, this was originally built as part of the sprawling Midwinter Fair. Begun by an Australian in 1894, this intricate and private (depending on the season) complex of paths, ponds and a teahouse features native Japanese and Chinese plants. Also hidden throughout its five acres are beautiful sculptures and bridges. Makato Hagiwara, a Japanese gardener whose family took over the garden from 1895 to 1942, also invented the fortune cookie.

Map of the Park Notice how it ends right across the street from the Pacific Ocean. Very handy after biking/rambling through the park all day. Also, many great picnic spots and photo opportunities.


Japantown & environs

Cherry Blossom Festival April 16-24

Fun shopping for electronic gadgets, anime, video games, Asian art, anything made in Japan. I like to check out the origami papers and pick out some mystery groceries for a picnic later.

Origami Papers new arrivals monthly. 1,000 sheet 3" mini assortment only $3.75. New Books coming in March: Baby-gami (wrapping methods for baby), Naughty Origami .

Also home of San Francisco's Jazzhttp://www.sfgate.com/traveler/guide/sf/neighborhoods/wa.shtml scene:

The Jazz scene on Fillmore began to define the area, with greats like Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday frequently playing clubs in the neighborhood.

Coming Soon:

The Haight, home of hippiedom

The Castro

And many more. That's enough for today though. Check ~Fav Five~ for updates.


BONUS: Handy Street Festival & Seasonal Events Guide

Spring
Summer
Fall
Winter

I love alamedalink! (Parental Advisory: Partial Nudity)

It's actually just some PHP trickery that displays whatever you type into the URL as the last word. But anybody who would like to endorse the site this way, please feel free!

This message brought to you by the alamedalink chamber of boobsterism...uh boosterism!

Yahoo Tests Blend of Blogging, Networking

We heard from people that they have a strong desire to stay close to the people who are important to them, but at the same time they didn't want to feel like they were exposing themselves online," said Julie Herendeen, Yahoo's vice president of network products.

Although many critics continue to dismiss blogs as mostly prosaic rambling, 27 percent of online adults in the United States read them and another 7 percent write them, according to a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Article about the BBC online "Sex ID" test

...a groundbreaking experiment designed by a team of top psychologists to determine one's "brain sex." In sum, whether one thinks like a woman or a man. After 20 minutes of spatial puzzles, word associations and facial-cue quizzes, I received my result: I think like an average woman.

I got the same result. Not sure why, but that surprises me. The test takes 4ever to take, but it's kind of interesting.

In other news, the double-dipping dater [inlink]twisted,169[/inlink] emailed me the proposed lineup for this Friday. He'll have to fend for himself this week since I'll be hanging with (e:j3sse) then.

Progression of a school play:


(My niece front right) Good sport


Fading fast


Get me the HELL out of here!

I can so identify with that.

And...

Dress up at home:


Halloween costume from 2002[inlink]twisted,2[/inlink] lives on.


Now that's fun.

p.s. - speaking of Halloween costume fun, my sister just told me my nephew, inspired by their visit to the weather museum, made his own weather museum using his volcano and tornado costumes, and making a tsunami out of his blue comforter. He also demonstrated earthquake-proof building techniques with his building blocks. She wanted to give me a heads-up on likely costume requests next year, and said he's also developed a fixation on the Titanic. Dear God anything but that.

Ok, I'm over it already - thanks to the healing power of group therapy (I really should hit the "donate" button every time I post something longer than 1000 words - a sure sign I'll regret it later), and of course the unerring advice of Dr. Lurve [inlink]ajay,291[/inlink] and confidential support from various other (e:peeps).

I don't mind getting tossed back with or without explanation. But give me some hint before dragging me along as chum on your next fishing expedition. Maybe I'm just more sensitive about it having sweated over telling my music buddy I just saw us as platonic buds. Turns out we have a mutual friend in this class I just ditched, and she met my music bud through a local dating service. She's this really cool Irish chick, and the way she put it, she had to tell him she "didn't fancy him." I wish to hell I could pull off a phrase like that.

What do you make of this?

A couple weeks ago I ended up with a spare ticket to Mission of Burma when my music buddy came down with the flu. So I posted on craigslist (under "platonic, women for men" for those of you into the nuances of CL search categories) looking for someone to take the other ticket. Since this story is all about nuances, I'll just copy the exact wording here so you can judge the rest for yourself.

Mission of Burma at Bimbo's Tonight - w4m
I've got two tickets for Mission of Burma tonight and my friend can't go. Anybody interested in buying the second ticket and possibly hanging out at the show? Otherwise I'll be selling it at the door. Sorry this isn't more enticing - just feeling practical at the moment. Although I would love to meet someone with similar musical interests - alt 80s, Franz Ferdinand, Postal Service / Death Cab for Cutie... you know, like that.

So I get a couple responses but end up selling the ticket at the door and going alone anyway. BUT, a few days later, I get another response from this guy who I just went out with for the second time last night (forget I ever used the word "date" in the title - you decide). His email:

If you are not too busy sorting out your craigslist responses, let's hang out without any pressure but meeting a somebody new. How was the Mission of Burma show? They were amazing last year at the Fillmore. By chance would you be interested in meeting for some other live music sometime? My 50-60 hour week leaves me only a couple nights free to make the most out of it which usually is checking out the local music scene. Whenever our schedules mesh maybe we can meet and check out some cool bars with live music along Polk Street. If one is terrible, there are a bunch of other venues we could move on to like the Hemlock, Edinburgh Castle, Kimo's or Red Devil Lounge which is all within walking distance. On Mondays, the Red Devil Lounge has an art, film and music show.

Sounds good to me, so we plan to get something to eat and see Every Move A Picture at the Rickshaw Stop last Friday. I maybe jump the gun by telling him about my journal (on west, never on east) and when he sees I went to the Sci-Fi movie thing in Boston he emails me that he won two tickets for "It Came From Outer Space" in 3D at the Red Vic and wondered if I wanted to fit that in between dinner and the show. Sounding better all the time.

So we do all that and it was really fun. Met a bunch of his friends at the Rickshaw stop and I can see why he's looking for somebody to hang out with since they're all paired off. Turns out he met them all through craigslist.

The next day I email him saying, "Hey Ed. That was fun last night. Thanks. -Lisa." He responds:

Hi L-

Anytime. I'm heading to the Bottom of the Hill tonight for Polkacide if you can handle more ear stress. The show is only $5 and starts at 10pm. Otherwise there's always more shows approaching.

-E

I decline, but make a mental note that we apparently are now on a first initial basis.

On Monday he emails me saying, "If you're free later this week, here's some shows I'm thinking of checking out" with links to shows on Thurs, Fri and Sat. I was already booked to see the Futureheads on Thursday and some friends are having a party in Alameda Saturday (tonight) after the all-day class I think I'm about to blow-off. So I tell him I'd be up for the Friday show if he decides to go to that. He tells me where he'll be Thursday night if the Futureheads get out early and I want to join him, and says "For Friday, I'll see who's interested in catching The Creature From the Black Lagoon in 3D, food and Birdmonster."

On Friday we switch it to a different band but otherwise the evening starts as planned. We grab a comfy spot in the bench seating section at the Red Vic. I ask him if anybody else is coming for the movie, he says no but a friend might be coming for dinner and the show.

After the movie I stop for cash and he phones the friend to talk her through how to get to us. He doesn't say much about the friend, but I thought he referred to her as "Karen" - one of the friends I met the previous Friday. Turns out he said "Erin" but I'm not thinking much of it at this point.

She's about 30 minutes away so he looks at me for the ok as he tells her we'll be at Amoeba Records until she gets there. I'm thinking this couldn't get any better in the basic compatibility department.

We hit the racks at Amoeba and each come out with 1/2 dozen discs and start heading down to Ben & Jerry's which is where it turns out we're meeting "Erin not Karen." At this point I know it's not Karen, but I don't know if it's Aaron or Erin and I'm still not thinking much of it. (Sorry for the big build up - I'll just tell you right now this wasn't a set-up for a 3-way or anything like that. At least not so far. So if you're looking for a big pay-off you can stop reading right now.)

So Erin and Ed meet for the first time and introductions are made all around. I'm still not sure who posted for what, but it turns out this is another craigslist conquest. (Ok, "conquest" is editorializing, but it sounds good. Take it with a grain of salt.)

Finally at this point I'm thinking, "what the hell is going on?" and also rethinking my earlier wardrobe adjustment in deference to decorum in light of Erin's more provocative choice for this first encounter.

For the record, I would say a strict reading of all negotiations up to this point certainly did not implicitly or explicitly exclude whatever was going on. Still, I was left feeling out of the loop to say the least.

Here's my take on it.

1) I think he should have told me in advance someone he was meeting for the first time would be joining us. I mean, that goes without saying, right? If it was someone he knew and had an established relationship with, that would be different.

2) Backpedaling to this wasn't a date in the first place, I still think it's fair to say we were deciding if it was heading in that direction. (You'll have to take my judgment on that since this is already way too long to start explaining what makes me think that.) In my opinion, you make that decision before bringing another dating candidate into the picture. Or, make darn sure the other person is ok with an open casting call, and any other open activities you have in mind.

So I'm wondering whether I'm 1) overreacting, 2) going too easy on the guy, or 3) nailed it. Just for point of reference I'd like to nail it. Granted the whole craigslist scene in the Bay area may be worlds apart from Buffalo. I'm still trying to figure that one out myself.

Ok, I think I've thoroughly exhausted this topic.