5.6 earthquake yesterday

Many of my readers (ok, my friends who continue to read my blog) do not live in California. I am a relatively new Californian - I just moved here in early 2001. So, I've only actually felt two earthquakes. Sometimes I'm traveling, often times too far from the epicenter to really feel it. Both were, obviously, minor. But, I got a concerned text message from a dear friend about last night's 5.6 earthquake and decided to try to describe it.

Luckily, I was at G$'s apartment. We were standing there, talking and then all of a sudden the bookshelf seemed to move away from the wall a little. Everything kind of shook. It was as if you were standing really close to a slow jackhammer. And then, what seemed like 5 seconds later, it was over. We then jumped up and down "Yay! Earthquake!" Big hugs, and that was it.

Of course, these mini-earthquakes are still novelties to us native Midwesterners. However, I am scared of the next big earthquake. There are some theories that say that these mini-quakes would lessen a potential big one, but some other experts say that these minis are also just leading up to an intense earthquake.

USGS Earthquake Map

Caveman in the city

So I'm walking to the bus stop today after work. There's a generally normalish couple in front of me. Woman looked normal. Guy guy was a little... off. His legs were shaved (not all bad, I'm a biker, after all) and he was a lovely shade of fake-tan orange (I guess that's why he shaved) and he had horrible posture.

But what really did it for me was the way his palms were facing when he was walking.

I dare you. Stand up and take a short walk. Which way do your palms face?

...
...
...

I'm guessing they face in, towards your body, right?

This guy's palms were facing back. So he, bright orange legs and all, was reminicent of a caveman. No, I haven't actually had the pleasure of meeting any cavemen , but that's how I think they would have walked, based on movies, pictures, museums, etc.

Even more proof that San Francisco really *is* accepting of people just as they are (we'll just talk about you behind your back).

The day after...

You know you had a good night out when your legs are sore the next day from dancing so much.

Chocolate Sandwich

I want one of these.

Recipe and picture from Eating Well.

Green collar jobs

No kidding. If you're concerned about where you're getting your next meal, your kids getting shot on the way to school and just plain finding a job... why care about the polar bears? This program, the "Green for All" campaign, including a push for the birth of the Green Collar job to replace our dying manufacturing sector makes a lot of sense.

Long op-ed, but worth the read.

October 17, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
The Green-Collar Solution
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Van Jones is a rare bird. He’s a black social activist in Oakland, Calif., and as green an environmentalist as they come. He really gets passionate, and funny, when he talks about what it’s like to be black and green:
“Try this experiment. Go knock on someone’s door in West Oakland, Watts or Newark and say: ‘We gotta really big problem!’ They say: ‘We do? We do?’ ‘Yeah, we gotta really big problem!’ ‘We do? We do?’ ‘Yeah, we gotta save the polar bears! You may not make it out of this neighborhood alive, but we gotta save the polar bears!’ ”

Mr. Jones then just shakes his head. You try that approach on people without jobs who live in neighborhoods where they’ve got a lot better chance of getting killed by a passing shooter than a melting glacier, you’re going to get nowhere — and without bringing America’s underclass into the green movement, it’s going to get nowhere, too.

“We need a different on-ramp” for people from disadvantaged communities, says Mr. Jones. “The leaders of the climate establishment came in through one door and now they want to squeeze everyone through that same door. It’s not going to work. If we want to have a broad-based environmental movement, we need more entry points.”

Mr. Jones, who heads the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, which helps kids avoid jail and secure jobs, has an idea how to change that — a “green-collar” jobs program that focuses on underprivileged youth. I would not underestimate him. Mr. Jones, age 39 and a Yale Law School grad, exudes enough energy to light a few buildings on his own.

One thing spurring him in this project, he explained, was the way that the big oil companies bought ads in black-owned newspapers in California in 2006 showing an African-American woman filling her gas tank with a horrified look at the pump price. The ads were used to help bring out black votes to defeat Proposition 87. That ballot initiative proposed a tax on oil companies drilling in California, the money from which would have gone to develop alternative energy projects. The oil companies tried to scare African-Americans into thinking that the tax on the companies would be passed on at the pump.

“The polluters were able to stampede poor people into their camp,” said Mr. Jones. “I never want to see an N.A.A.C.P. leader on the wrong side of an environment issue again.”

Using his little center in Oakland, Mr. Jones has been on a crusade to help underprivileged African-Americans and other disadvantaged communities understand why they would be the biggest beneficiaries of a greener America. It’s about jobs. The more government requires buildings to be more energy efficient, the more work there will be retrofitting buildings all across America with solar panels, insulation and other weatherizing materials. Those are manual-labor jobs that can’t be outsourced.

“You can’t take a building you want to weatherize, put it on a ship to China and then have them do it and send it back,” said Mr. Jones. “So we are going to have to put people to work in this country — weatherizing millions of buildings, putting up solar panels, constructing wind farms. Those green-collar jobs can provide a pathway out of poverty for someone who has not gone to college.”

Let’s tell our disaffected youth: “You can make more money if you put down that handgun and pick up a caulk gun.”

Remember, adds Mr. Jones, “a big chunk of the African-American community is economically stranded. The blue-collar, stepping-stone, manufacturing jobs are leaving. And they’re not being replaced by anything. So you have this whole generation of young blacks who are basically in economic free fall.” Green-collar retrofitting jobs are a great way to catch them.

To this end, Mr. Jones’s group and the electrical union in Oakland created the Oakland Apollo Alliance. This year that coalition helped to raise $250,000 from the city government to create a union-supported training program that will teach young people in Oakland how to put up solar panels and weatherize buildings.

It is the beginning of a “Green for All” campaign (greenforall.org) that Mr. Jones — backed by other environmental activists like Majora Carter from Sustainable South Bronx — is launching to get Congress to allocate $125 million to train 30,000 young people a year in green trades.

“If we can get these youth in on the ground floor of the solar industry now, where they can be installers today, they’ll become managers in five years and owners in 10. And then they become inventors,” said Mr. Jones. “The green economy has the power to deliver new sources of work, wealth and health to low-income people — while honoring the Earth. If you can do that, you just wiped out a whole bunch of problems. We can make what is good for poor black kids good for the polar bears and good for the country.”

fortune

Wow. What an evening. I got home from work and should have done homework. Instead, I rode my bike out to the beach. Made it there just after sunset. The sky was amazing. There wasn't any fog, just vibrant shades of blue, pink and gold. The breeze was light and the ocean looked inviting (though really, quite chilly).

Tonight is unusually warm night in San Francisco and I am very fortunate to be a 5 mile bike ride away from the ocean.

Today is also my mom's birthday. I talked to her on the phone for a while and held the phone down near the waves so she could hear the soothing sound of the ocean. I feel like that was a pretty good birthday gift... the sound of the ocean, even though the ocean is very far away (she's in Illinois).

(No worries, fair readers. She got other presents too!)

Bike commuting

Blog reader Kristen had some comments on yesterday's post that I think are good to share with everyone. I was talking mostly about road bike riding (the "spandex-clad road biker" type of biking), but commuting, as she discussed in her comment, is a good topic.

Ooooh! Exciting topic - I'm SO with you on this! What exactly is your challenge?
>>I don't know yet. I'm open. I like your idea of trying to ride through the winter. It's less of a challenge for me in SF, but it does get windy, rainy & in the 30-40deg range at night.

I ride almost every day - to the train station, grocery store, and rehearsals. (A trombone case intended to be a backpack can be converted to an excellent pannier bag.) My new (to me) commuter bike, which came from craigslist, rocks. It's all about comfort and cargo capacity - heavy, upright riding position, low maintenance. It's not going to win any races. This year's goal: Ride through as many winter days as possible.
>>Rock on, my dear. Rock on.

May I add another list in addition to your stuff to use on long rides?

Recommended bike commuter accessories for shorter/slower/flat Illinois type rides (besides the helmet, of course):

Fenders - useful if you might possibly ride through any kind of puddle or mud in your work clothes.
>> I don't have fenders on my bike right now, but may decide to add during my winter riding. May not be possible with my current commuter bike.

Lights - Critical for night riding. The more/brighter, the better. Assume you are invisible to drivers.
>> Agreed. I would like to have something on the side in addition to my front and rear lights.

Milk crate (mine is attached to the rear rack with zip ties) - cheap, durable, and roomy. It's amazing how much it can carry, and it feels much better to put stuff in the crate than on your back.
>> I just have panniers on the sides of my rear wheel. They're kind of small and I sometimes wish they were bigger. The top of the pannier rack has these straps that I do use quite often. Maybe I'll add a milk crate here instead.

Rain cape - campmor.com has a nice cheap one - goes on over any clothes you're already wearing, hood is thin enough to put a helmet over, it lets air in from underneath for ventilation and keeps you surprisingly dry from the knees up. It stays down via hand loops and leg loops inside. But it's pointless if you don't have fenders, as water will splash up under the cape from your unfendered tires.
>>Interesting idea. I'll have to look into that.

Chainguard (not easy to retrofit on a bike that didn't come with one) - lets you ride in any kind of work pants without getting chain gunk on them. Otherwise, you can just roll up your pants or tie something around your ankles so the pants stay out of the way of the chain.
>> The "one pant leg rolled up" is very haute couture here in bike-happy SF :)

Anything to add?
>> Yes. A lock. A small U-Lock (large ones that allow too much space between your bike and whatever it's locked to make your bike easy prey for thieves that shove a car jack in the U-Lock and open it that way) and a cable for your wheels. Or get rid of the quick release wheels.
And
A repair kit. Spare tube, pump or CO2 inflators, patch kit, tire irons. B/c you're going to flat sometime. Especially if you're riding on dirty city streets.
And (because it deserves a second mention)
A helmet.

It's funny that you hope commuters will get into road biking. Every time I see a spandex-clad road biker on my ride to work in business casual attire, I hope they also use their bikes for everyday trips.
>> I don't use my road bike for commuting-type trips, mostly because it's worth too much to lock up outside. But I think a lot of riders, around here at least, do have a commuter bike for around town. (I own a commuter, a road bike, mountain bike and my sister's got my beach cruiser down in San Diego.) A lot of friends that have been asking me about biking are finding that they enjoy bike commuting and would like to bike farther distances...much like their spandex-clad brethren. Easy to understand, living in SF.

Thanks, Kristen! Man, we were bike commuting before we knew it was called bike commuting. Of course, we didn't wear helmets on our trips to Schnuck's... but you did have those sweet baskets that were big enough for a gallon of milk.

Clif Bar 2 Mile Challenge & long rides

Did you know that 40% of US urban travel is less than two miles? Would it be easy for you to ride your bike instead of drive? I know it's getting cooler and/or rainy for most of us, but check out the: Clif Bar 2 Mile Challenge

Kind of similar to the walkability map we talked about a few months ago... you put in your address and the map shows you what is within a two mile radius of your house. Of course, this doesn't include detours you need in order to avoid major highways, giant hills and streets with many annoying stoplights, but still, something to check out.

Anyone want to challenge me? I'm in the process of outfitting my commuter bike for the winter. Just bought fatter tires for better traction in the wet weather and will be getting a big Ziploc bag to store my high-visibility windbreaker and gloves so they are protected from the rain. Maybe I'll even fix my front brake...? Now that'd be a good challenge.

If this isn't a good season for you to start riding, it may be a good season to check out the bike shop. I imagine a lot of bike shops have sales in the winter when there aren't as many folks out riding. Make sure you get a helmet!!!

---

I've been talking with a lot of folks lately about biking. Mostly friends have questions about what bike to get, components, tires, etc. Hopefully some of these new riders & commuters will eventually move towards road biking (and mountain, but I don't do that as often) and then they'll want to know what to eat and drink.

Stuff I use on long bike rides:
1. Long rides, like >30 miles...Clif Bars. I used to be pretty open to other bars, but Clif's a great company. Check out Raising the Bar: The Clif Bar Story. Awesome stuff. Gary Erickson has really made sustainability (people AND profit AND planet) a huge priority for the company. I always used to go chocolate chip or peanut butter chocolate chip, chocolate mint... But after riding with JM this spring, I learned the beauty of the Banana Nut Bread flavor. I have a total weakness for baked goods like banana bread AND it has chocolate chips. How could you go wrong?

2. Gels. I've used Clif Shots, Gu and Hammer. My latest favorite is Hammer Gel, banana flavor. It really tastes like mashed up banana. Their plain, chocolate and raspberry (tastes like jam) are pretty good too. I also like Clif Shot Mocha Buzz, but I really only do the caffeinated ones for races (and I likely won't participate in a race again until 2008).

3. Cyotmax endurance drink. Tropical fruit flavor. I tried to avoid it, as it's really expensive... but it's really all I need for shorter (<20 mile, assuming normal temperatures and no giant mountains involved) rides.

Today is...

Sunday.

Not Monday. I just woke up to my alarm, all freaked out because it's 7:50am and I'm supposed to be at work at 8:00am.

And then, after getting 75% of the way ready to go AND stressing about all the stuff I have to do this week AND the fact that I'm getting a cold...

Realized that it is actually Sunday.

Ahhhhh....

500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art

3:00 long video. Didn't seem like 3 minutes. Very cool morphing of portraits of women. I saw that there were some more modern artists in the list ... you've got to get to about 2:15 for some of the more out there paintings (how do you go from the Mona Lisa to abstract?).

http://miraulam.multiply.com/video/item/38

Totally safe for work. That's TSFW, the opposite of NSFW.

Enjoy!

Overheard at a cafe.

I am at Cafe du Soleil in the Lower Haight/Duboce Triangle area. Crazy conversation at the table across from me. A middle aged man & woman came in the cafe, nicely dressed, but also sort of date-y dressed. They start to talk about what they do. Or rather, what he does, which is something to do with TV. The situation is:
1. an interview for some sort of high-end match making service
2. a first date that was set up by a high-end match maker (maybe the lady who just showed up)
3. a job interview for the TV show?
4. some sort of brainstorming session about the TV show
5. settting up a reality TV show about dating

Interesting quotes so far...admittedly, the man is talking way louder so I can hear him pretty clearly. I'm sure the women are pretty hilarious as well, but I can't hear them as well.

Man: "My ex and the kids live in Italy now. So really, it doesn't seem like much has changed."

Man: "Sex should be fun. I couldn't have sex with an ugly woman."
Woman 1: "Not ugly. Unattractive."
Man: "Oh yeah, unattractive. But sex should still be fun."

Man: "Is a bunch of talking heads sitting in a room that interesting?"

Man: "You're all sitting around a table. The guy should ignore the pretty one. Go talk to the less attractive one. Then the pretty one, who's used to getting the attention, will come and talk to the guy."

Man: (about some TV show on VH1 right now) "It's more about getting laid than a long term relationship. It teaches guys tricks, so they want to watch it. Not that I've ever seen it."

Woman 1: "What if you've got a really pretty woman who's a hand model. She's wearing oven mitts because she has a gig tomorrow. The guy has to feed her at dinner because she can't use her hands. How long does he last?"

Man: "Guys are idiots." (kirby thinks: thank you for admitting that one)
Man: "Nice rack, I might go out with her again."

Discussion about - Attractive people match with attractive people. You watch people going into a bar and they gravitate towards those that are similarly attractive. In California. We're much more aware here. There isn't that appearance match so much in the Midwest. (kirby thinks: huh? do i do that? what about people that have really poor self esteem? how does one "size up" where they fit in a line-up? interesting topic, but short-lived. and don't even get me started about californians being more self-aware than midwesterners. that's hogwash. maybe midwesterners aren't as superficial, eh?)

Overall... seems like really, they are brainstorming about a new reality TV show about dating. Cuz yeah, we totally need another one of those (granted, this is coming from someone who doesn't currently own a TV... but I did finally start renting TV shows on DVD).

I am done. Earplugs in, need to focus. But I hope you all enjoyed this one as much as I did :)

Grand Lake, CO pictures

Yesterday while at the bluegrass festival, blog-reader (and non-commenter) GB reminded me that I didn't post any pictures from Colorado. I don't know that these really capture the beauty of the area, but hopefully it gives you a little sense of how amazing it was near Rocky Mountain National Park.

Grand Lake:
Tundra at 12,500 feet:

Pictures from around the conference site area:


And, of course, some elk:

Good vibes sent to AM...

To AM, first time marathoner, awesome chick & fellow blogger... good luck & have fun running the Chicago Marathon on Sunday!!!

Pants. Large pants.

Why would one choose to wear their pants so big that they had to hold them up as they walk?

My new juicer is awesome

I love Craigslist.

Sunday morning, after a liver-taxing night out (at least I stuck with one drink... tequila shots) I decided I wanted a juicer. A good Olympic juicer so I can make good, healthy stuff like carrot juice. V8 is not my thing (as you know from earlier posts), but I like the idea of vegetable juice.

Hopped on over to the Household For Sale items... and found a nearly new juicer just down the street!

Monday I made carrot juice. Tonight, I got adventurous and did a mixture of kale, celery, ginger, carrot & spinach. Sounds strange, but was really good! The ginger was a little overpowering though, so I'll try less next time.

Cheers!