Flickr Memories: How Do You Cook Corndogs?

Cooking Corndogs, originally uploaded by Peder with a D.

I just spent a fair bit of time uploading a bunch of old pics to my Flickr account.  I encourage you to take a look and comment on any photos you find interesting!

It took a lot longer than I anticipated, but also gave me the chance to listen to the following great albums:

• MGMT, “Oracular Spectacular”
• Born Ruffians, “Red, Yellow & Blue”
• Kings of Leon, “Only By The Night”
• The Tough Alliance, “New Chance”
• The Notwist, “Neon Golden”

Good things come to those who wait.

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San Diego Beach House

Beach House, originally uploaded by Peder with a D.

I just learned that this photo had been short-listed for inclusion in the 6th edition of the Schmap San Diego Guide. Unfortunately I didn’t respond in time but it may still make the 7th edition. We’ll see.

This is also the first blog post I’ve made by sending a pic directly from my Flickr account, so here’s to synchronized web presences. Yay!

Reminiscing Cabs of Yore

I was clicking through some of the stats and incoming links associated with this blog and was reminded of this story, as told by my friend Brittney.  Just had to link to it to keep the memory alive through my own blog, as she’s done so well on hers.

“We all sat dumbfounded. Some guy hailed a cab then proceeded to rob banks and use it as his getaway car? This was not your average taxi driver chit chat.”

This was a great driver; he had some of the best taxi stories I ever heard.  Totally beats the story of my old roommate paying off a Shanghai cop who had pulled over his cab on the way to work.  This was crazy stuff, reminding me of the details that lead to this piece of fiction.

Thanks B for writing it down and capturing that jaw-dropping, eye-popping look into the life of a San Franciscan cabbie!

Read Brittney’s story here.

Moving to Minnesota

After a few months of deliberating, I’ve decided where I’d like to live:  Minneapolis.  I’m going home.
I’ve also thought a move to either San Francisco or San Diego would be good – and they would be – but financial and familial reasons make the Minny Apple the better choice.  I really do like it there and have wanted to live there since I was in high school.  But then I went to college in a small town and traveled throughout my 20s.  When I was 20, I spent 6 months in Germany.  When I was 22, I spent 2 years in Shanghai.  When I was 25, I spent 3 years in California.  (Update: When I was 29 I spent 6 months in Belize.) I’m ready to go home now.

I’ve been mentally preparing for this for a while now, and I’m glad to have been able to take some trips this summer to go abalone diving in Mendecino, beach partying in San Diego, outdoor funning in Tahoe, camping in Big Basin, beer festivalling in Monterey and music concerting in San Fran (coming soon to a weekend near you).  Check out my Flickr collection for some great shots from those excursions.  Many are also on Facebook in case we’re “friends.”

But, like any move, this one will be bittersweet.  First, I will be leaving many friends in California.  It’s always difficult to say goodbye.  It’s the worst part about traveling; the more people you meet and become close with, the more people you have to say goodbye to.  In particular, these last years in Monterey have been the hardest, as it’s a town with a transient population by nature (at least within my circles).  So, goodbye California friends.  That’s the bitter, the sweet is that I’ll have even more reasons to come back and visit San Fran, LA & Tahoe.  Not bad.

There will be some other things I’ll miss in Monterey and California:
•    Coastal weather – never too hot, never too cold
•    Driving back from Tahoe – waking up in the mountains, followed by evening swims in the bay
•    Local beers:  Sierra Nevada, Pyramid, Gordon Biersch, Dragon Slayer, English Ales and all the goodness from Mendocino county
•    The Silicon Valley spirit – innovative, collaborative
•    Biking to work
•    Golfing in January
•    Cali girls
•    Bonfires on the beach
•    The air of superiority we Californians take with us wherever we go
•    Surfing and abalone diving
•    Driving 90+ on the freeway, and being considered “with traffic”
•    The warm sunshine just on the other side of those hills there
•    Rowdy A’s fans – though I’m not sad to leave before they go to Fremont
•    AT&T/SBC/whatever park where the Giants play – badass venue

But there are a lot of things I’m looking forward to in the Midwest again:
•    Storms
•    More golf courses – and those that don’t cost >$200 to play
•    Local beers:  Summit, Leinenkugel’s, Schell, Glueck & Cold Spring
•    Music venues – would’ve found them in SF or San Diego too, so maybe this is just me glad to leave Monterey
•    Not dealing with the fascist cops in the 831
•    Minnie girls
•    Tons and tons of disc golf courses
•    Swimming in lakes, not needing a wetsuit and not sucking down salt water
•    Slightly less traffic than CA.  Slightly.
•    Seasons – yes, cold winters can suck, but they make spring so awesome. Plus, they’re not all that bad. For serious.
•    Having campfires when I go camping
•    The mist that comes off lakes in the late summer/autumn
•    Twins in the division race

I have a mohawk

I used to rock the faux-hawk, back when I wanted to be a cool Euro-style hipster.  But as of last night I have the real thing going.

Scott McClellan’s Book

In as much as I’ve been a critic of the Bush administration, this new book by former Press Secretary Scott McClellan feels mildly vindicating. I just listened to him on Countdown with Keith Olbermann giving a candid set of revelations about what he knew and when he knew it during his tenure with in the White House:

• The President admitted that he authorized Scooter Libbey’s leaking of Valerie Plame’s name
• Reported that the administration propagandized the rationale used to support military intervention in Iraq
• Said the press did not perform its duty in scrutinizing said rationale
• Admitted many people were “right” in their criticisms of Bush’s involvement in Iraq

Amidst the many unfortunate realities this nation has lived in over the past 7+ years, I carry a small sense of hope that has been strengthened. In this age of media and transparency, enough information was shared that many people were accurately critical of the Iraq war. I see transparency increasing, powered by this online set of media, that it will be increasingly difficult for future leaders to hide vital information from the nation. We knew it all along, that Bush and his administration was lying to us. Here’s hoping we have the courage to speak up next time we see it.

I’m headed off to buy this book now in the hour I have before the Lost season finale!

Update: I never actually got that book.  As I was headed out the door a blast from the past was knocking on it and I didn’t get a chance to head out that evening.  Nonetheless I’d still like to read this account.  In the meantime I did get Angler, the descriptive narrative of the Cheney vice presidency.  Equally informative, if not a hell of a lot spookier, the Cheney book is.  Which is probably a good way to compare Cheney to Bush, Jr. in general …

30th Birthday Piñata

Happy Birthday early this week to Miriam.  Nothing can stop her, especially not no stinkin’ piñata!

falling behind, music outside the beltway

This past week saw me busy working, hosting a string of out of town guests and attending graduation ceremonies for some friends.  And what little time I did choose to spend online at home was dedicated to getting my new website running, which still doesn’t look very good.  Ergo, I have not been blogging and I am not OK with this.

Eh, it’s gonna happen, no doubt.  But in the meantime I missed the window to talk about a local story involving Snoop Dogg.  Seems the Monterey Music Summit was considering revoking (or not actually granting after having promised to) the permit to allow concert organizers to use county lands at Laguna Seca.  Here’s the link to the original story.  And here’s the follow up from last week that says the show is a go.

That story was particularly relevant to me because I attended the OzzFest Tour in 1997 (scroll to the bottom) when Marilyn Manson was on the docket on his Antichrist Superstar tour.  (Interesting that Manson was protested, not Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath nor Pantera)  Though times would eventually get much tougher for Brian Warner (aka Marilyn) when it was thought the Columbine shooters were fans of his, his band was already very controversial by this point.

The show was originally set to run outside Somerset, Wisconsin, at a beautiful natural amphitheater.  But after the community found out Marilyn Manson was going to play, they backed out forcing the event into the confines of the (relatively-speaking) crappy Metrodome.  Better yet, the Dome is in downtown Minneapolis, meaning it was much easier for the press, protesters, religious zealots, and subsequent anti-protesters to gather outside of the venue turning the whole thing into a circus.  (If you can help me find any links about this, please send me a comment.)

In one of my more proud moments I was filmed by the local ABC affiliate wearing a white t-shirt upon which I wrote, “Fuck Somerset.”  Fuck them indeed.

Suppose the thing that binds these two stories together is the misunderstanding that surrounds artists on the fringe of mainstream culture.  They can’t all be Jason Mraz, can they?  Cordozar Broadus (aka Snoop Dogg) has a show with his kids on the E! Channel entitled Father Hood.  Brian Warner can clearly articulate (slow load) what he is and what he is not.  (I’ll comment more here in a later post).

[Below: Video from Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine]
(I admit it’s kitschy, but that makes Manson’s words no less poignant.)

Answers?  Recommendations?  C’mon Peder, you’re not just going to complain here, are you?  A little, yes.  First goal was simply to outline a common thread here (and to get another blog post in!).  The second step will be to start putting together some notes for an upcoming post entitled, “Scared of Something? Learn More About It. ‘Ignorant’ Fear is the Worst Kind.”

Monterey Sustainable Business Showcase

Today at the Portola Plaza (map) will be the Monterey Sustainable Business Showcase.  I’ll be headed up there a bit after 3pm.  A buddy of mine is hosting the Marina Technology Cluster booth, as well as presenting his new firm, Ecomentum.

Another very interesting topic will be the Green Dragon Film, which was developed by a grad school colleague and his team.  Very interesting and inspiring presentation of the massive efforts to develop energy-efficient and environmentally-respectful buildings in China.  I also wrote about an earlier screening of the film here.

Here’s a link to the event schedule. (Sorry about the lame GIF file.)

And below is the event flyer.  Click on it to go to the event homepage.

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Deer Fishing

Luke explains what the point of deer fishing really is:

Step 1. Tie an apple to fishing line.
Step 2. Throw it.
Step 3. Drunk deer.