Prop 8 - Passes and Gay Rights Get a Setback

Looks like the big turnout of black and latino voters tipped the scales on Prop 8 at the cost of the homosexual community. According to this SFGate article, 70% of blacks and 50% of latino voters were in favor of the constitutional ammendment against the supreme court decision from May. The pass of Prop. 8 really suprised me. Why do people care so much? 

Pre-Daylight Spending Time Sunsets

Before the time change, I caught a number of beautiful sunrises out the kitchen window. I managed to have a few breakfasts timed out such that I was eating while the sun peaked over thar yonder hills. 

Internet Patched

I cannot say that a 12ft USB extension cord going into the ventilation duct is a "fix" so I can only call it a patch at best. The good news is that I'm finally getting usable internet speeds doing this, and can get a bit more up to date here, and finally download crap. Geeze. Not having a solid dependable internet connection really made me realize how much our society is becoming dependent on the world wide web. I honestly think that it has become very utility-esque, as in water, electricity, heat, internet. Weird to think that it has significance on par with the life fluid, warmth, and electron flow- but really I suppose it hasn't- it was the last thing I manged to straighten out. If the water were messed up- I think I'd probably skip work to get it fixed if need be. Heat can be covered by blankets as we all know, and I'm lucky in California. But MMmmmm, internet makes my brain get all warm and fuzzy.

Moving Pictures a la Fluffy

More car pictures from Liz. She's getting better folks!

Stop It Already

Last weekend (I'm catching up I swear) Liz and I went to see some friends Robert and Panda get married. This is the 3rd wedding I've been to this year, and all I've got to say is that enough is enough. Stop getting married already. I mean next thing you know you'll all be having babies...wait oh yeah...that's starting now too. Sigh. I guess I will have to be the final standing bastion of immaturity and self-indulgence. I take up this mantle with a heavy heart...sigh =P

More From the Train

Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being

This is a damn good character book. Unfortunately that is ALL that it is, a character book. I love good character development, but DAMN, does this guy take it to a new level. It is like these characters are intimate personal lovers of the author. I just hope that something happens in this story besides romance and lovey-dovey shit. I like lovey-dovey shit as long as it is in the context of a larger story line.

Anyway, I wanted to share this all too appropriate quote from this book (which is packed full of good quotes and you'll be seeing more) about parades, marches, and the changing of the guard:

"When she told her French friends about it, they were amazed. "You mean you don't want to fight the occupation of your country?" She would have liked to tell them that behind Communism, Fascism, behind all the occupations and invasions was a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unison. But she knew she would never be able to make them understand. Embarrassed, she changed the subject."

Edge of a Cusp?

Go Vote!

Go Obama!

Final: 350ish Obama - 150ish McCain

Grats Obama.

Now don't fuck it up...

Grass Fed, Poo Scavaging Chicken's Eggs Are Orange

From Michael Pollan in Omnivore:

"Apart from the high color of the egg yolks, these eggs looked pretty much like any other eggs, the chicken like chicken, but the fact that these animals in question had spent their lives outdoors on pastures rather than in a shed eating grain distinguised their flesh and eggs in important measurable ways. A growing body of scientific research indicates that pasture substantially changes the nutritional profile of chicken and eggs, as well as of beef and milk. [...]

Perhaps not surprisingly, the large quantities of beta-carotene, vitamin E, and folic acid present in green grass find their way into the flesh of the animals that eat that grass. (It's the carotenoids that give these egg yolks their carroty color.) That flesh will also have considerably less fat in it than the flesh of animals fed exclusively on grain- also no suprise, in light of what we know about diets high in carbohydrates. (And about exercise, something pastured animals actually get.) But all fats are not created equal- polyunsaturated fats are better for us than saturated ones, and certain unsaturated fats are better than others. As it turns out, the fats created in the flesh of grass eaters are the best kind for us to eat."

A Fall Day

To finish the day off, we went to a pumpkin patch on the way back to Santa Cruz, just off of the Hwy 1. It's this great little strawberry patch that has the BEST shortcake ever. It has an honor system for payment, and you go out into the fields and pick up your own pumpkins. It was hard to hold those two btw.