new neighbors

Ah yes, the joy of living in an apartment building.

Actually, most of the time it's not too bad. Some good, some bad but overall my apt life has been on the good side. Take my apartment in San Mateo. There I knew and was friends with everyone in the building. I love/d everyone there. We even get together for parties 1x a month. Even now I try and spend some time down there with them hanging out and making sure they don't forget me.

Today's episode in the new dwelling, however, puts another notch in the 'bad' column.

I've been in my current apartment for about 5 months. It isn't the best place to live (very high up on a hill, no laundry close by, not easy to get to much, fairly dark and small) but so what. I'm making do and have a pretty cute apt no matter what the faults are.

I have new neighbors. They've been in the process of moving in for a few days, painting a month before that. Three nights ago, starting at 22:00, they are loud. Moving stuff, hauling boxes, 22:15, still loud. Grr. It's too late to take a Tylenol PM or a melatonin. Just put in your earplugs, it will be over soon enough. Now, this is the third night of their move-in and after the first couple of nights I'm near to being 'cooked'. But, earplugs.. try and meditate. Something.

But at 22:40 they decide that it's ok to hammer together furniture. Ok, I leapt out of bed at that point. Thats not ok. Not at all. So I knock on their door. I hammer on their door. I pound on it. no reply (they are upstairs and clearly can't hear shit up there, maybe too busy hammering?). I go down to our front door call box. Dial their apt number. It rings and goes to voicemail. Twice I did this.

Sigh. Only one alternative.

I use the fire escape (it's not like those you see in movies in NYC. It's more like a full staircase that goes up to the patio one level up. I use it. Their screen door is open and I announce my presence. "Oh, are we being too loud?" "Uh yes" I said "Hammering nearly at 23:00? Of course thats too loud. I'm trying to sleep and between that and the boxes, it makes it impossible".

The apologized and for the next couple of nights everything was a-ok. Some noise, but nothing a normal person couldn't 'deal with' and move on. I certainly did.

But oh yes, come today.. there's a pissing contest. Let's see how much of this I can remember.

As I'm coming in from running a couple of errands someone comes tromping down the stairs of the new apartment. The door was propped open for the movers so I easily heard "Rayne, is that you?" Then a guy I've already met once before introduces himself again.

"We need to talk. About noise issues and uh.. noise sensitivity."

He says that "There are people here above you, and you will just have to learn to deal with it, thats the price you pay for living in an apartment. We can hear everything from next door, but I'm not complaining about it."

He goes on to give me his phone number, so that if anything ever comes up again I should call him directly, instead of going up the fire escape. "That totally wasn't cool and it trespassed on our property". "Excuse me, hammering at 22:40 at night, what made that acceptable and cool?" I said, only to follow up with "thank you for your number, seeing as how the intercom didn't work, and you don't hear the front door being pounded on, I now have a resource I can use."

His idea was that if there is a problem, we wait until morning to talk about it. Are you kidding me? If I can't sleep, there isn't going to be a "wait-til-morning". We'll solve it RIGHT NOW. Clearly this kid has never had to deal with this before, is grasping for straws, and thinks that by being angry and saying I trespassed, then he has the upper hand. Girlfriend, so aint the case.

By now, me turning his arguments against him has his usually dark complexion going red, and redder. I'm not backing down, his pissy little antics sort of made me laugh after I got over the lashing out.

I told him I didn't appreciate him coming down and attacking me verbally. He said I already attacked them by violating their space. Oh my stars.

I did mention to him that being so new, he's not really making a good impression or friends here. He mentions that he really does want to be friends but we have to resolve it. By now I can smell his insincerity and the fact he knows he's started to blunder into unfamiliar territory.

That's ok, I'm not going to be here for much longer anyway. I need a better environment.
Fun saturday night so far! :)

Awkward?

So I'm chatting with someone online tonight. Cute guy, seem to have a few things in common. He asks me out for a drink and I think.. why the fuck not? It's Friday night, I'm not in any great hurry for bed and I swore to myself that the next time an opportunity came up where I could go out and meet someone.. I would.

I rush to get ready, it'll take me at least 30 mins to get there with walking the hill, muni then walking up to this place. He's there by now, already finishing a bud light (ugh, a bud light). I meet him, and got myself a drink.

Small talk. Awkward small talk. We're both trying to think of things to say. Sure, we have some things in common but whereas I felt I was putting a good foot forward.. he seemed lazy. Oh well, each of us are nervous in our own way. No biggie.

Well, apparently he goes to this bar quite a bit, because many of the staff and patrons of this place knew him. Kinda cute that everyone approaches him, wants to give him a hug, be friendly with him. But kinda creepy he frequents a bar so much everyone knows him. Drinks alot of bud light methinks. And not once did he introduce me to anyone. Manners suck in this town, or is it just this guy?

We wander over to where the drag show was happening, watch it for a few. He engages this one guy who obviously knows him quite a bit. Then the barback gives him a hug.. next thing you know all 3 of them have their phones out and are talking about them.. booooring. I am standing right there, waiting for him to say anything.

Nothing.

So, I turn around and start watching the drag show (I'm literally 2' from this moron), when suddenly.. he and his friend/Daddy/fb/whatever go shooting off down the hall. His friend says "You still smoke right?" and they head down to the smoking patio. My god this guy was hanging on his buddies every word, was a puppy dog at his heels. And there they go.

Gone.

I thought "this is a sign, boyo" and tossed my drink in the trash, and walked out.

I'm so thankful I went out tonight, even to meet with this moron. I got out of the house, for one. And two, if that's the kind of person he is.. then far be it from me to stand in his way. Good to get this shit out in the open immediately.

At least I would have introduced him to my friends.

Prop 8 -- March Saturday 14 November 2008

Yesterday's march

Saturday morning about 09:30 I got down to the location for the 'action' that was to take place later, for the march against Prop 8. The day was awesome.. beautiful warm weather.

Met with a group of about 30 of us, and we chose our paths along the lines of direct action or peace keepers. The CD (Civil Disobedience) folks otherwise known as being the ones to take direct action were wearing white shirts labeled 'Repeal Prop 8' and they were the ones who would risk arrest. The rest of us were there as peace keepers, designed to keep the crowd back and make sure nothing happened to the direct action folks. We also were to help the crowd understand what was going on, and to keep the chants going.

When we got to 10th and Market we discovered that the rally had already broken up, and thousands were marching already! The energy was awesome. Was wonderful to see so many folks come out against Prop 8.

Prop 8 was/is a proposition of Hate. Designed to amend the California State Constitution to /ban/ same-sex couples from getting married. We've already been through this with the Knight Initiative (Prop 22) when the CA Supreme Court overturned this as being un-constitutional. And now we have to deal with this again??? Only this time it's worse. To place wording in the Constitution restricting one group of people.. that is just wrong. The Constitution should be about inclusion, not exclusion.

Back to the march: We decided at that point to set up our direct action then at the highway exit and entrance to US 101. That would put us right at Market and Octavia. Seeing as how there were already thousands marching and blocking the exit we decided to go for it. Our direct action folks too charge and led the way! They fanned out along the exit for 101 and sat down. 15 people evenly spaced took up quite a bit of room! As crowd control we kept the chants going for a long time and kept folks to a reasonable distance. And the chanting.. we kept chanting over and over. We were claiming our streets back.

The crowd was /so/ very supportive of us and kept the chants, the clapping, the screaming going for a long time. I estimate that we were there for a good 45 minutes.

Our police liaison worked with the commander in charge and he said, after awhile, that he would end up having to arrest the direct action folks, who were now standing, linking arms. He made sure that no one would resist arrest and that things would go peacefully. So, while the rest of us moved away and got back onto the sidewalks he and his officers calmly arrested the folks who had been willing to be arrested for this event. While the crowd was cheering and screaming and taking photos, they were all put into the vans and drove off.

Yes, it wasn't a huge riot that ended up in a fight, but it did show the world that these folks were willing to be arrested for the cause of fighting Prop 8/Hate. I applaud those individuals with all of my heart. Thank you for putting yourself out there and showing the rest of the world what you were willing to do for us.

All in all there were thousands at the Rally at Civic Center, and I counted 3 distinct marches going on throughout the next few hours. And, as I've seen some news footage it looks like this was taking place all across the country and in Canada and the UK.

People, this is our civil rights movement. We need to fight back, we need to make sure that Prop 8 is overturned. Call your Congressional Representatives, call your California Senators. Urge them to fight for our rights.

If we don't.. no one will.

Keith Olbermann's Comment Against Prop 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-QG_WEdwcU&feature=related

A wonderful commentary, but Keith, why couldn't you have said something before the Election?

It may have been able to turn the tide just a little.

Or maybe we all need to scream and rally and demonstrate and vote with our feet and flood the airwaves with our messages and cry that we won't take this anymore and tell all of our friends and families that this is it..

Prop 8 is about Hate, not protecting marriage. It's about division, not inclusion. And it's about fear, not knowledge.

No on 8 Protest

Tomorrow there will be a demonstration against the monstrosity that is Prop 8.

http://www.couragecampaign.org/JoinTheImpact

Join the fight! Don't let the religious /wrong/ win on this

"No one in California political circles has ever seen such a speedy response to a single political event. And it's spreading across the country. More than 10,000 rallied in New York City on Wednesday evening..." -- San Jose Mercury News, November 13

From the Courage Campaign's site:

This is our moment to stand strong together -- gay and straight -- and say that we refuse to accept a California where discrimination is enshrined in our state constitution.

We hope you will take this stand on Saturday and encourage your friends to show up as well by forwarding this message and asking them to come with you.

Proposition 8

What a week it's been. The lead up to the election was a long and difficult one. I applaud everyone who got out the vote, volunteered for Obama and the No on 8 campaign. Through major effort on everyone's part we now have a President we can believe in. I can't recall the last time I wrote that word using a capital letter. I saw someone outside the White House with a sign that read "Why wait? Evict him now!" and I couldn't agree more.

As President-Elect Obama said, the road will be a long and difficult one. And we see that with the passing of California's Proposition 8 -- a ban on gay marriage. If enforced, this will actually put discrimination into the state constitution. This will be the first time in history where rights were taken away from a set of the population. Is that ok with everyone?

No, it's not.

I don't know how many times we have to fucking tell the world but "Gay people don't want special rights, we want equal rights". We have long been accused of having a gay 'agenda'. I've laughed at that most of my adult life. Agenda? Do we have an agenda? I realized this week. We do. We do have an agenda, a gay agenda.

Equal rights, equal protection under the Constitution. Whether that be the California Constitution or the Constitution of the United States. Why don't people see that basic truth?

Fear. The religious right and the ignorant masses are afraid of gay marriage, saying it will destroy the family, invalidate heterosexual marriages. Um.. straight folks are doing a damn good job at fucking up their own marriages, long long before gay people started pushing for gay marriage. The divorce rate started to climb 25 years ago. Tear apart the family? Yes, it has. How many people out there are from what the term is called "broken families"?

And how in the world can two people who love each other, who have been together through thick and thin, who have worked out their small jealousies, who have learned to get over their partners idiosyncrasies, to come out on the other side.. willing to stand up in front of a group of their loved ones say "Til death do us part", how can that hurt hetero marriages?

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGES.

It's not about str8 people's marriages. Let me repeat that. Gay people getting married has nothing to do with a heterosexual couple's marriage. It's about that gay couple loving each other, showing the world they love each other, being validated for their love. Straight people who think this has something to do with them bewilder me.

What floors me is that the Church of LDS was one of the biggest contributors to the Yes on 8 campaign. Based in UT, they flooded our state with millions to push this thing onto the ballot. And their ads were despicable. But, apparently effective. Saying that gay marriage will be taught in our schools, and that homosexuality will be encouraged. Give me a fucking break. Do schools teach about marriage now? Do schools teach about heterosexuality? No. This had nothing .. nothing - to do with schools and children, however all you have to say to strike fear into the hearts of every ignorant person out there "gay people will harm your children" or a personal favorite "we don't want gay people adopting because they'll turn the kid gay". How ridiculous is that? As so many progressive radio talk show hosts have mentioned. All you have to do is say "gays, guns, and god" to push the fear factor.

I am encouraged that the Ca Supreme Court has already knocked down one attempt at a ban as being unconstitutional. And right now there are at least 3 legal challenges to Prop 8. I am hopeful, and will keep my fingers crossed for their efforts.

The fight is long from over.

No on 8!

http://www.noonprop8.com/

This is the ballot measure to change California's constitution to ban gay marriage.

Look at the facts: This has nothing to do with schools, the pro ads want to scare you into believing this will do horrible things to children, when it has nothing to do with kids.

Taken from the ballot initiative:
* OUR CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION – the law of our land – SHOULD GUARANTEE THE SAME FREEDOMS AND RIGHTS TO EVERYONE – NO ONE group SHOULD be singled out to BE TREATED DIFFERENTLY.

* Marriage is the institution that conveys dignity and respect to the lifetime commitment of any couple. PROPOSITION 8 WOULD DENY LESBIAN AND GAY COUPLES that same DIGNITY AND RESPECT.

I urge everyone to read this thoroughly and then make your '''own''' decision about this. This is a ballot measure designed to incite fear and prejudice. Critics say this will hurt marriage everywhere. But how? This doesn't affect heterosexual couples marriages, but it does take that option away from gays and lesbians.

Personally it's my feeling that with the divorce rate at 50%, and troubled kids living through seperations.. heterosexual marriages don't need anyone to help them fail. They're doing a great job on their own. If a heterosexual marriage is going to survive, it has to be on it's own merits, their own hard work, strong trust and communication. Allowing gays and lesbians to marry won't detract at all from other marriages, but it will add to the point that we feel it's something worth fighting for.

Passing Prop 8 will do nothing but divide us.

This is just wrong for everyone, not just for gays and lesbians.

Today, like no other

April 24th, the last time I blogged. Thats one of my new year resolutions, blog more!

Let's see, I'm still working for this great software company here in the SF area. I moved to SF in August, and I now live alone (except for Bael).

Today I want to talk about the vast overload of information that flies at us constantly. It's overwhelming, it's inundating, it's exhausting frankly. I spent a bit of time recently tallying up all of the accounts I have at this or that site and I had to laugh. So, let's see, 4 blogs, 25+ accounts having to do with everything from banking to email. Oh yes, and 5 email addresses. Work, 4 for home, blah blah.

And then news. News flies at us from all angles from every which way whether it's online, radio, tv, coworkers. The emails.. omfg the emails. At work alone I get 150 per day. Most of it doesn't have much to do with me, but it still has to be sorted out. And then personal emails that come in to the different accounts. There's the "hey how are you" emails from folks I keep in touch with, and then there's the 'balance alert' emails. then we have spam (yes, some of it does make it through), not to mention some of the groups I subscribe to. Filters are yummy! and then we have the email friends send on about cute kitty pictures or here's a funny (or uplifting) story you /have/ to read. Sorry, I delete them, unread, 99% of the time. I don't have that much time (or frankly, the energy) to read everything I need to read let alone something that while cute, won't really change my day. And I confess, I'm guilty of it too!

Oh, and then we have blogs to watch for, read up on, not to mention twitter, facebook, and the 'Friendster' types out there. Myspace? Forget it. And then yahoo messenger (well all of them really), game accounts, SL accounts.. oh, and texting. Got to find out exactly what everyone's doing every 2 seconds. wheeeee!

Now, I'm just ranting and not advocating the elimination of any or all of these things. It's just a fact of life we have far too much going on.

How do we not become exhausted with all of this information and things to keep track of? I don't know if I have any answer. But, how do we minimize it and keep it down to a level where we don't run out the door to avoid? The answers lie in simplifying our lives to some degree.

Again, filters. Not only electronically, but once in awhile apply a filter for shutting down the computer, picking up a book, drawing, whatever works for you.

As we come to another year's end (no, not 31 Dec, I am talking 31 October.. Samhain) take a look at what you have going on in your life. Now is a wonderful time to become more thoughtful, more introspective about your daily goals and lives. As we cross the threshhold into winter be more aware of those things that nag at you, pull at your mindset, let them wash through you and out of you. Far too often all of these emails and twitters make it so we can't be in a present mindset. We're too concentrated on later.. what comes after now.

I suggest we all take the time to breathe, enjoy the moment you're in. There will never be another like it. The emails will still be there .. later ;)

What happened?

Man time has flown by. It's been a couple of months since I posted anything. Yeah, no biggie I know :)

I got involved with an online community called Second Life and lost track of time! However it is time well spent, I feel. I've met some amazing people and learned some incredible skills while I've been there. Check it out!

Oh yes, nearly 7 months after I started looking.. I found a job! I'll be a network operations 'engineer' working for a great IT company located here in the bay area. I'm /very/ excited about it and can't wait to start. I'm very sad to be moving on from the gardening world. I have learned so much and met so many amazing wonderful people. I'm looking forward to the transition back into the tech filed, learning new skills, etc.

I'm also hoping to start doing lectures and speaking engagements in an online 'format' here coming soon. I have ideas to start teaching my environmental knowledge to others. I cannot lose sight that no matter what we think is 'green' or green-washing of a product we still have further to go. I have learned so much in my time in the garden that to not pass some of what I know on, would be a loss for everyone.

I also hope to green up my work place as soon as I get settled. That is of course, if they're not greened up already.

Off I go, more later.
Rayne

Through my eyes

Cold and wet. More than a little liquid sunshine here in the Bay area. Just keeps pouring, breaking up, and pouring again. I'm just glad the Sierra's have the snow pack they need for the summer water.

I've been sick since Friday. My new roomie Matt caught something on the plane and well uh.. brought it home. I thought I would be ok and not catch it but no luck. I figure that I rarely get sick so I'm not too worried about it, this will be the first time in years.. it's about time I guess.

Living with someone has been interesting. I have a small space so we kinda get in each others way a bit, but thats lessening. We're learning how to get along. Both of us are interesting and lively guys with opinions and ways of doing things. I'm doing my best do adapt. One thing for sure is that my whole routine has been changed dramatically now that someone else is living here. My regular normal routine of gym time has definitely been compromised, mainly due to the flu, however. I'm glad I'm feeling better, so tomorrow I can kick-start it again. Change, while good, isn't something I look forward to.

Super Tuesday's right around the corner and I have no idea who I want to be our Democratic nominee. Barack or Hillary? Both represent change, but other than that I'm not sure. I was for Edwards but he pulled out. And then there are the ballot initiatives that are getting alot of play on TV. Indian gaming casino to term limits. Bah.. I'm highly at a loss for all of 'em.

And the Super Bowl, forget it. Who cares!

0430am

Matt text'd me this morning "I'm catching an earlier flight!"

Huh what?

Apparently he got to the airport ahead of schedule and found an even earlier flight so he'll be in at 1230 approximately instead of arriving at 1630 as originally planned.

Ok, so step things up a bit.

Short work day, and I can finish dinner this afternoon vs this morning. Then CCOP board meeting.

Like you wanted to know all this crap. lol

Rainy days...

Make me want to cook. And thats what I've done.

I am making a killer lamb and squash stew for tomorrow along with fresh bread. It's days like this I love cooking. You're kinda forced to stay indoors, do your own thing. It's been raining so much over the past few days that I have really felt the domestic gene kick into high gear.

Well, between the rain and actually having a friend stay with me for a few weeks, really has had me cleaning and grocery shopping, cooking, organizing the cats toys, you name it I've done it. Nothing like someone seeing your place for the first time, to really motivate you to clean your shit up!

Matt is coming to stay with me from Michigan, used to live out this way and he wants back in.
So, he'll be staying with me for a bit while we both look for a place up in SF. I have the job, so now just have to re-save some funds and move my butt out of San Mateo.

Employment!

so I got a call today. I got a job!

I will be a Customer Service Rep, Level I for about 6 months or so. Possibilities for advancement are good too. Which is what I wanted. Pay ain't the greatest but with advancement and 4 possible chances of good performance reviews, I can make more dough.

Now the bad stuff:
I have to start (most likely) at 6am(oy!) Which means I can't take public transit that early as Caltrain wont get me there til after 6. not good. Means I have to drive.. bleah. But, then I'll move to SF and things will be better.

And, it doesn't start until 19th Feb. So, what to do til then? I have part time work, but I really need more work. A good note though, a friend has recently hurt herself so I can work for her for a couple of weeks. I can make some money that way. Maybe that will tide me over?

I think I'll have to look for more work though.. and quick! There's always tomorrow! :) Details!

For now though, I'm elated!

Looking ahead

Here's what I'm thinking about:
Killer ants, its cold outside, cranky that the neighbors plumber got drywall all over my things,
have an interview this week that I'm not looking forward to and I haven't heard back from the job that I want to interview for.

Oh yeah, and I got woken up early this morning by someone laughing super loud outside my window.

All in all, a good weekend. Least I worked out really hard today, and I didnt succumb to my urge for pizza. grrrrrr

Tomorrow's Monday. Again. :P

Oh the weather outside...

It's damn cold! When I woke up this morning it was 37 out there. Thats par for December (well I guess now January) so I shouldn't complain too much. Still, a wee cold for me.

I'm so glad the holidays came and went. Finally over and I hopefully will find a job quick and get back on a good solid financial path. These last few months have been tough, but bearable. Have some leads that may pan out, but not crossing my fingers just yet.

on a good note, I finally finished my scarf I'd been knitting for months. Nothin like a lil cold weather as incentive!

Not that I like to make goals or resolutions, but why not. This year I hope to move to SF, quit smoking, work out alot more, get a kick-ass job, spend more time with friends, see more movies, knit alot more, meditate more, and look into buying a house. Oh, and start my own internet business. First day of 2008 isn't over yet and I'm already exhausted.

Here's to a great productive and whole 2008. I'm so glad 2007 is gone. Cheers!