Towse: views from the hill

December 30, 2008

Spinning

Filed under: blog,life,URL,web2.0 — Towse @ 8:30 pm

Spinning, a blog.

The thing ^H^H^H One of the things I find fascinating about the Web is all the things I find fascinating and stash away in a links folder or delicious or a Web page or a post and then forget all about and never return to.

Too many fascinating things.

With delicious, though, if I click to save a link to a page I’ve found interesting and I’ve already saved a link to that page, delicious lets me know.

I came across Susan Marie Rose Maciog Gibb’s blog from somewhere else earlier today and found the first post or two interesting enough that I clicked on her “about” page. I found her self-description and the items that were used to categorize her self and her life interesting. So I saved a link in delicious.

I then went back to the blog and read back a ways and said, that’s interesting. I’ll keep a link.

When I clicked to save a link in delicious, delicious told me I’d already saved a link: 05-Jun-2007.

I must’ve liked it then.

I’ve never been back since. (That I remember.)

How did I find it eighteen months ago?

Ah, the Web.

December 27, 2008

A philosophy of life

Filed under: life,shopshopshop — Tags: , , — Towse @ 2:49 am

Had a nice long, ranging chat with Hermon Baker when I stopped in at Yone Beads on Union on my way back from the library and further places afield. (Complete list of stops and purchases on the day after Christmas: Cost Plus: nothing. Even at 75% off there was nothing there I needed, but seems I needed a couple small, blank canvases and a sketchbook (all on sale — total price <$10) at Artist & Craftsman Supply on Columbus.)

Baker and I talked about life and warm beds, the weather and the tiger sculpture that’s allegedly over on the Greenwich Steps. I need to go over and see if I can find it. One of his earlier customers hadn’t been able to. We wondered whether it had already been removed.

We talked about the year ending and his negative view of “top ten” lists for the year. Life is not a competition, he said. We shouldn’t be ranking this or that as on or off the top ten list for the year. Winners or losers. Top ten or not. Don’t.

I left the shop with two beautiful beads I will find some use for and something to think about.

December 26, 2008

A Christmas wish for those who celebrate

Filed under: culture,life — Towse @ 4:44 am

“Next year all our troubles will be miles away. …”

YouTube – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas — Sinatra.

“Some day soon we all will be together, if the fates allow. …”

Bunny Suicide

Filed under: culture,life — Towse @ 3:21 am

OK. Granted. I have an odd family.

When Dad was still alive, our children’s sigoths would sometimes freak at family gatherings because we’d be discussing “If you were a terrorist intent on making Americans feel shakier than shaky — and killing some Americans as an added benefit — what target would you attack?”

These discussions happened to have a concrete reason behind them because some of the family members were/are concerned with what terrorists might target.

Question: Would you target a monument like the Golden Gate Bridge, the Alamo, or Mount Rushmore or would you wreak terror by targeting small malls and roller skating rinks across America — both of which are easier to target.

Is it more effective to clobber some national symbols or to make EVERYONE — including Laverne’s cousin in Tucson — worried about whether it’s safe to go out for dinner?

Well, we don’t have those discussions anymore, for various reasons.

Instead today (AT OUR FAMILY CHRISTMAS), we talked about Bunny Suicide.

December 24, 2008

Our Christmas Eve tradition

Filed under: culture,life — Towse @ 7:17 am

Lionel Barrymore as Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol by Dickens

I’ve listened to this every Christmas Eve for probably the last forty or fifty years.

Tomorrow night, do thou likewise.

We’ll be sitting around on the floor, listening too.

You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!

Has it been that long?

Filed under: life,people,photographs,video — Tags: , — Towse @ 6:37 am

I have a framed John Byrne Cooke photograph of Mimi Fariña on the wall to the right of the front door. She’s standing at the top of the hill, at Union and Montgomery, goofing off with Debbie Green. I like the picture because it shows the waterfront behind them as it was back when the picture was taken, in 1966, and because it shows Mimi Fariña full of life.

It took me years after I first stumbled on the image on the Web to decide that his price was worth it and to contact Cooke and arrange to swop him $$$ for a print.

I’m still glad I did.

Depending on my mood, the photograph makes me smile, or tear up.

Same with DIAMONDS AND RUST.

The YouTube video is from 1975. Has it really been that long?

I guess it has.

yes I loved you dearly
and if you’re offering me diamonds and rust
I’ve already paid

December 23, 2008

How I came to Believe in Santa

Filed under: blog,life — Towse @ 11:13 pm

Motherhood is Not for Wimps — How I came to Believe in Santa

*sniff*

Snitched. [via Janet Reid’s blog]

Melissa Etheridge: The Choice Is Ours Now

Filed under: causes,commentary,culture,election2008,life — Towse @ 2:55 am

Melissa Etheridge: The Choice Is Ours Now

Melissa Etheridge on the Rev. Rick Warren.

[...]

On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick, and before I could say anything, he told me what a fan he was. He had most of my albums from the very first one. What? This didn’t sound like a gay hater, much less a preacher. He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection.

[...]

She tells everyone to chill.

[...]

Maybe if they get to know us, they wont fear us.

I know, call me a dreamer, but I feel a new era is upon us.

I will be attending the inauguration with my family, and with hope in my heart. I know we are headed in the direction of marriage equality and equal protection for all families.

Happy Holidays my friends and a Happy New Year to you.

Peace on earth, goodwill toward all men and women… and everyone in-between.

Costco chicken from the roasting spit = redux

Filed under: food,life,recipes — Towse @ 12:32 am

Used the breast meat I’d set aside on Friday night for dinner last night: THREE GINGER CHICKEN

Roux made w/ flour and 2T butter.

Add chicken broth (canned … sorry for the purists who might blanche at the thought), madeira, cream. Use hand blender to get any lumps out of the sauce.

Add white meat sliced into finger sized pieces. Toss in ginger powder, chopped up candied ginger, minced fresh ginger. (I added a lot of each. I love ginger.)

Heat through and let sit while flavors mellow.

Serve hot with steamed rice and green beans, zapped in the microwave.

We still have three or so servings of chicken pot pie in the frig. Dinner tonight is either chicken pot pie with added mushrooms browned with garlic and butter (must use up mushrooms) or we’ll save the pot pie for another day and laze around tonight with white wine, crackers and Boccalone coppa di testa.

Update: Dinner tonight was chicken pot pie.

Didn’t feel terribly hungry after lunch: salmon over a [deconstructed] rock shrimp hash on a bed of pesto. Delish. Shared dessert was a poached pear with what appeared to be whipped cream. But it wasn’t. The “cream” was bleu cheese whipped with cream into a light-ish froth. Sublime. Delish as well.

Tonight when the clock rolled round to 7:30/8:00 I still wasn’t hungry. Didn’t feel like adding mushrooms browned with garlic and butter to the pot pie. Still full from lunch. Luckily, his nibs was of a similar mind.

Light supper.

We’ll figure out what to do with the mushrooms that need to be eaten. (Mushroom omelet for breakfast tomorrow?)

Tomorrow evening we’re off to a short-notice spontaneous year-end HOLIDAYS! house-gathering/dinner with friends. Attendees include old friends from twenty-plus years back. Half of the host couple is a sib of the twenty-years-back friend and her family. Really nice that we wound up so close to them, geographically.

Gathering will include new friends and neighbors too. Children we haven’t seen in years. Not children anymore.

Looking forward to it. Sweet. This is why we try not to overbook at the year-end holidays.

December 22, 2008

The days grow longer.

Filed under: life,nonprofits — Tags: , — Towse @ 5:47 pm

Thanks be.

Sunshiney day outside with rain expected off and on through the weekend. Clear skies now, though. Lunch at the Bankers’ Club to enjoy the views.

First, though we need to walk down to North Beach Citizens and drop off three bags of warm clothes. I rummaged through our closet. How many warm pullovers and sweaters can you wear at one time? We have more than enough and it’s been so chill recently.

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