Rabid Squirrels

These squirrels are getting out of control, and now, it looks like they will DIE for it.

Pistachio Rant

How is it that in every bag of pistachios I buy, there are inevitably more empty shells than unshelled pistachios? I might have to write to the California Pistachio Commission.

My Name is Alicia and I am Addicted...

to LOST.

I have spent the last two weeks, since receiving the Season Two DVD, watching and re-watching episodes. I had finished it within two full days. After doing this, I moved on to reading about it online. I have visited Lostpedia, Wikipedia's main Lost page, The Dharma Initiative stations pages, and especially, this map. In addition I've read a lot of forum pages and checked out a bundle of The Lost Experience pages and clues. I even plan on tuning in to DJ Dan podcast tonight.

Yes, you can make fun of me all you want, but I need something to take my mind off of law school and this is certainly a mind-boggling pastime. Are any of my friends as intrigued as I am? Probably not, but if you start clicking these links, you just might be hooked. Season Three starts October 4th. You bet I'll be tuning in.

Dissection of the Office

Slate writer dissecting why The Office works . Personally, I don't think the American remake is as funny as the original, but I understand his notion of the cultural preferences in the work place to make each new version seem familiar and appeal to the audience. I did have an issue with him saying that Dawn and Tim are doughy-faced and out of shape while the American players are more appetizing.

Stop Eating the Spinach!

People keep eating the spinach and they keep dying. Same story here too.

Business School has Highest Cheating Rate

Business school students have the highest rate of cheating according to this article. The rates of all graduate students cheating are pretty alarming though; none below 30%.

An interesting quote

The typical comment is that what's important is getting the job done. How you get it done is less important," McCabe said. "You'll have business students saying all I'm doing is emulating the behavior I'll need when I get out in the real world.

Oh, what has the world come to? Is this really the case?

DNA Evidence Frees Man After 15 Years

New York Times article detailing the conviction of a 17 year old and confining him to prison for 15 years to life. The interesting thing about this case is that DNA evidence had never pointed to Mr. Deskovic, he allegedly was coerced into confessing to the crimes, and he pleaded not guilty from the beginning. It's tragic that the man lost some very important and formative years behind bars, and 15 years, that's just about half of his life in prison. It's a good thing to be released, but an even more important issue for this not to happen. Hopefully with the more sophisticated DNA testing presently, this would be MUCH less likely to happen.

I & G for Me?

Has anyone in the San Francisco area seen this beer? I went to every place that carried it in New York, but to no avail. I even spoke to someone at a store about carrying it. If anyone could get even a six pack of it for me, I'd be greatly indebted. If you haven't heard of it, but are a beer fan, try finding it in your city. You won't regret it.

This weekend was a LOST Season Two marathon. I'm hooked. I also discovered that I am starting to like tomatoes.

Death by Bagged Spinach

So of course when I was at Trader Joe's the other day, I grabbed some convenient bagged veggies and salad to keep myself healthy and strong. Apparently, as is being broadcast all over the news, I could die. No documented outbreaks in California yet, but should I chance it? I just might, after washing it in warm water for sure and maybe even cooking all the spinach instead of using it in salads. But, my dear friends, if I eat this, and you don't see a post for a while, you know the threat was real. Hah, just kidding.

To throw out or not to throw out, that is the question.

Update!! Apparently washiing won't help. Ouch.

Longevity Rates by State

Long live Hawaii!. Hawaii ranks number one, with a life expectancy of 80 years old. California comes in at a respectable number 10. Where does your state stand?

You Want to be Famous?

You couldn't pay me to do this, and I'm not completely convinced it isn't a joke, but still, the idea of Snakes on a Plane as a television show is quite frightening. I am guessing this one won't be scheduled for the fall line up. How nice, you get bitten by a poisonous snake and YOU LOSE?! Sounds awful.

Off topic, San Francisco weather has been heavenly the past two days, keeping my fingers crossed that it will stay that way for a while.

Remembrance

I feel compelled to write something about September 11, 2001, not only because it's mentioned in every newspaper and every television broadcast, but because it was a big event in my life. I remember the sights and sounds of the city that day, and I remember the people who helped me deal with the tragedy. And that is all I have to say about that.

Lazy Sunday

Well, this was a pretty relaxing weekend for me.

I picked up Arrested Development Season Three. I enjoyed it a lot, but hate that I burned through it so fast that the whole thing is over. There were many hilarious moments, but you could sense the sinking ship feeling that the show wouldn't last. Great guest stars including: Scott Baio, Justine Bateman, and Charlize Theron. I wish another network picked it up, but if you believe the last episode, maybe there's hope for a movie. I'm not sure how I'd feel about it as a film though. I like the episodes, they're like bite-sized morsels of laughter.

I also had my first In-N-Out Burger. The burger itself was pretty great, the fries were not my favorite. The menu was literally: hamburger, cheeseburger, double cheeseburger, fries, and shakes. That was until my buddy showed me this secret menu. Next time I'm getting it either "protein" or "animal" style.

Oh yes, and I watched, The Neverending Story, which made me feel like a kid again, even though I didn't see the movie when I was a child.

Hmm, with all that relaxation, I guess I should get to that law school reading, woo! Oh, and if you're reading this, Hello Grand dad!

If I Could Save Time in a Bottle

The Charleston Saturday Gazette has an article detailing the finding and contents of a time capsule. I remember wanting to make one of these when I was a kid. Heck, I am thinking about making one now inspired by this article. What most intrigued me was that there was:

A copy of “Charleston Public Schools Courses of Study” — the curriculum for every grade level. By second grade, students learned to distinguish oak, cherry, walnut, hickory, sweet gum and ash trees. By third grade, they learned the difference between “summer and winter foods” — a distinction that hardly exists today. In high school, all students were required to take at least one year of Greek or two of Latin or German.

The differences in the curriculum are amazing. I wish I could tell the difference between woods and foods. Sometimes I really feel like I was meant to have grown up in the past. I adore everything that is available for me to learn now and all the freedom I have, but something about the simplicity and practicality of the past makes me yearn for that.

I've Joined the Ranks

I finally broke down and registered at Metafilter. I obsessively read the AskMeFi site anyway, at the suggestion of a former boss, so I thought I might as well be able to contribute. Coincidentally they linked to this funny snarkticle (yeah, I made that up) about everyone's favorite community blogs. Includes Fark, Slashdot, Digg, and many more.

Starting Salaries Soar for Lawyers

The NYT documents escalating salaries for first year associates at larger New York based firms. It's unclear whether that increase has trickled to other large market areas as well. Seemingly there's a firm by firm decision about starting salaries and whether they should be the same firm-wide, or have premiums based on cost of living. Law firms are interesting with the publicity of the salaries. I have visited the greedyassociates.com website, just out of curiosity a few months back, and I know that to make more money I'll have to stay in a metropolitan city. Good thing that's all I've ever really chosen for myself. Hawaii is not the hotbed for lawyers. I guess the market is smaller and there are fewer large firms out there so salary takes a nose dive. I feel that the longer I am away from New York, no matter how much I miss it, I will become less interested in practicing there. San Francisco is home to a lot of larger firms as well, including a branch of my New York firm. It's time for me to really sit down and analyze what I want out of my career and if the thrill of firm life and a larger paycheck is what I want out of my education. In other news, I think I'd look amazing in that pink skirt suit.

Happy Anniversary to Me!

So, yesterday was my one month anniversary of being in San Francisco and I have to say it was probably one of the most jam-packed and enjoyable days yet. As mentioned, I went to the Sausalito Art Festival. We left a little after 8am and didn't return til a little after 10pm. I'm going to link to a few of my favorite artists and the one I bought a few photos from a little bit later, but first will discuss the rest of the day. Unfortunately this won't be a picture post because bonehead me forgot my digital camera.

It started with an underground ride to the Embarcadero, and then a streetcar ride to the ferry pier, but since our group was early we strolled around Pier 39 and saw the sea lions. They were such characters and it was adorable to watch them play around on the docks with their sea lion buddies. Then we ferried over to Sausalito for the festival. As soon as we stepped off the ferry we were given programs and sent on our merry way. The weather in Sausalito was to die for; just the right mix of sun and a slight breeze. There was food and entertainment to go along with the huge collections of all different sorts of interesting artwork. We grabbed a lunch of fried calamari, pizza, crab cakes, and margaritas under a tent while watching some old school bands play. We stayed at the festival from about 11am til 5pm, there was just so much to see and everything was so visually stunning. I even got a chance to look in the U.S Army Corps of Engineers model of the Bay Area. Of course there were a few things that were more my style than others, but I would've taken home something from every booth if I had the money and space for it. After the festival we headed back to San Francisco on the ferry and walked to Caeser's for an Italian feast. Our party of five each had a seven course dinner which was not bad, but way too much food, especially after the lunch we had. Dinner was definitely in Italian style in that we were at the restaurant for two hours plus. From there we did a reverse Muni trip home only to collapse into bed because of the exhausting day.

On to the important part. So there must've been two to three hundred booths and I'm pretty sure I got a look at at least 90% if not all of the booths. Of all the different types of art, I was definitely most drawn to the photography. Paintings, sculptures, jewelry, printmaking, glassblowing, and all sort of mixed media works were available as well.

Patty Mulligan was one of the more innovative photographers. You've got to read her process section to really understand the intricate nature of the photos. One of the people I was with bought a few of her photos. They were truly magnificent to look at under a light source. The gold really captures something in the photographs.

Chris Honeysett was another photographer who caught my eye. He does a lot of archtectural work, with a real concentration on composition. My favorites from him are the foggy golden gate bridge, and some of his water drops black and whites.

Jeff Laing is moving towards more sculptures, but I was really caught by his "Fireworks" section. This is flame painting on copper. Check out Crack in the Void, which is stunning.

Melissa Herrington's website is apparently not up and running yet, but her paintings are worth checking out once it goes up. I'll try to keep on top of this one. I think if I ever took my own painting seriously I'd like to try this style of old and warm looking comforting forms and abstractions.

Robert Burridge's paintings are colorful and eclectic. I was really a huge fan of some of them, but some were over the top even for me. Vibrant colors are definitely the appeal of the paintings, but you've got to be in the mood and have the right space for one of these works.

Thomas Barbey had some very realistic surrealist photographs, not to mention his website is elegant and a complete visual and audio experience. Tearful Encounter is my favorite. This website is definitely one to spend hours looking at and the superimposition of images is really fascinating.

I bought my photographs from Eddie Soloway. The website isn't the fanciest, but his photographs are exquisite. They are subtle, cerebral, serene, and evocative. My purchases were Iris, Tornado Prelude, and one other piece that's not on the website. The iris is so classic and it'll go perfectly in my bedroom, while the tornado one is just so haunting I couldn't pass it up.

So, that was my Sausalito Art Festival 2006 experience. I hope you all enjoy looking at some of my favorites. Let me know what you think. Oh, and happy anniversary to me.

Fly Me to the Moon (or NYC or Hawaii)

So I had heard about this a while ago, but never had too much use for it. Now that I'm thinking about some possible trips back to New York or to Hawaii, I'm checking out Farecast. The site is really quite interesting compiling data to predict whether airfare will be going up or down in the future. It's amazing how much cheaper it is to fly to Hawaii from here than New York.

On another note, the MTV VMA's were on last night and although I didn't watch most of it, I did catch Lou Reed presenting with Pink! Um, why on earth was Lou Reed presenting? A.F.I. won the rock video of the year, which was awesome. Maybe now I should sell mt autographed fan on eBay.