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| Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 | | 7:16 pm |
Finally took my faithful mechanical companion to the dentist...
The good reviews of Art's Automotive aren't wrong, these guys are great! Apart from some new tires back when I first got it, my 1995 Integra hadn't had even a check-up for these three years (and 13,000 miles) I've owned it, aside from routine oil changes (and, perhaps foolishly, I never even had it inspected because I trusted the comprehensive maintenance report provided to me by the former owner, performed 4,000 miles before my purchase). In that time, it's made it up to Tahoe and back at least four times, all up and down the Bay and Marin, survived being stolen from my street and doused in pennies and french fries and rudely abandoned in Hercules, lost its (not legally required) right side mirror, made it through a smog check that also miraculously repaired the jammed ignition, all the while without leaking oil or losing its air conditioning or its nice tight handling. But, lately, some road noise from the wheels in back told me it was time to see the doctor... not to mention I had always wondered if it would be easy to get the splash shield below the front bumper to stop hanging down like that, and whether it would be easy to fix the inoperable lowest two settings of the dashboard fan. The right rear window also gets stuck when being raised by its motor, but at least it's easy to get it back in place by simply reaching back and guiding it up with some hand pressure. All this time I never really bothered to check what the best general maintenance shops were, having gotten my tires at Big-O and my oil at (*shudder*) the local Berkeley Jiffy Lube (the Yelp reviews are accurate, these guys always did a terribly half-assed job for me, though they always did fill my car with oil and put the cap back on, unlike my friend Christian who, like some reviewers, drove away and smelled burning oil and opened his hood to find the cap had never been put back on and half his oil was smoking all over his engine block!). Anyway, imagine my surprise and pleasure to find that Art's, widely respected all over the entire Bay Area, is just a 15 minute walk from my house! So I bit the bullet and took the little guy in for the 1-hour, $98 bumper to bumper inspection along with my list of noted issues, hoping that the total repairs would come out to around $500 or so but knowing that realistically it might be more like $1,000. With a trusted repair shop, I actually find this sort of thing fascinating and enjoyable, what with all the learning about all the various bits of my car, their condition, their likely lifespan, and so on. Sure enough, I dropped $961 today, which is no chump change but still really quite good after three years of use on an excellent car which is now just shy of 200,000 miles, and which only cost me $2,650 to begin with. Here's what we did yesterday and today: ( Read more... ) | | Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 | | 10:56 am |
You're part of the problem, dipshit
Yes, yes, another compelling story about an infant/toddler denied health insurance because of being in the wrong percentile: Underweight Girl Denied Insurance CoverageBut what really pisses me off about this story is the father's statement: "We would definitely like to see insurance reform," Rob Bates said. "We are not proponents of universal health care by any means, but what we want to see is that insurance companies have legitimate reasons for denying coverage." Alright genius, if insurance companies are still allowed to deny coverage and operate for-profit, what would be a legitimate reason, if not a perfectly grounded statistical cost-benefit analysis that your daughter, like many other applicants, is likely to cost the company more money than she would generate for it? You want insurance companies to come up with "legitimate reasons" for denying coverage, well, this is what you get. Americans and their goddamn individualistic "not my problem!" hoarding, and they can't even see it when it directly endangers their own family. | | Monday, August 31st, 2009 | | 12:17 pm |
Oh this is just too amazing
"One letter is missing" -- what a fantastic hook! Now wait for the punchline :-) And don't even bother trying to make sense of the nonsense he's thrown together to make the "word". Yes this is the Glenn Beck whose job is secure because of his phenomenal, and I fear, 100% non-ironic ratings. I've seen colleagues of my Alaskan sister comment on her FB status updates, with drooling back-and-forth high-fives rejecting healthcare reform and all things Obama and devolving into mutual "we love Glenn Beck" chirrups (evidently a useful group-call for determining friendly status amid a forest of potentially rational people). via ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) gmonkey42 | | Sunday, August 30th, 2009 | | 1:19 pm |
August movies
This was a weird summer for film. Maybe the year in general too? The last couple weeks though, things have really exploded in the "worth watching" department. I've been getting up every day and just banging out pages of my chapters as fast as I can, but now and then I've taken a quick break: - District 9: Really enjoyed it. ( Read more... )- The Hurt Locker: Not only the best film about Iraq I've seen (this isn't really saying much, I suppose), but just a fantastically tense, unpredictable, well-balanced, well acted film by any measure. ( Read more... )- Ponyo: Kind of a return to Totoro-like sensibilities. ( Read more... )- Inglourious Basterds: haven't seen it yet! Going to! - World's Greatest Dad: Pretty skillful black comedy. ( Read more... )- The Fast and the Furious (1955): the Pacific Film Archive played this the other night in a free outdoor screen projected against a big cement wall in the Berkeley Art Museum sculpture garden (not a great "screen", but it served well enough I guess). Pure B-movie comedy gold! (This is a Roger Corman film, after all). There was also free popcorn and lemonade. (Spoilers ahead). ( Read more... ) | | Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 | | 7:22 pm |
| | Thursday, August 13th, 2009 | | 1:54 am |
| | Monday, August 10th, 2009 | | 3:20 pm |
Brief dental update
Well, I had pretty much given up on this ridiculous "SafeGuard" insurance of mine. Sure, $8 a month is a steal, but not if every single dentist in the Bay Area that takes their insurance is some kind of freakshow that will ruin your face! I even drafted my cancelation letter today and have it ready to mail, but I called my old dentist only to learn that even with their discount for the uninsured, a simple exam + cleaning + a couple of X-rays (not even a full set) will run about $200. Their receptionist helpfully suggested the UCSF School of Dentistry student clinics, where you can apparently get decent care at about half of normal cost, as long as you're willing to have very long appointments while the student's work is monitored and evaluated by their faculty supervisor. Still, if I have to go all the way into the City, I figured, might as well check some of their SafeGuard dentists. I got the usual horrifying set (think overtones of Russian Mafia, and plenty more stories of dishonest diagnoses and unnecessary work), but I think I may actually try this guy, Edward Zhao, who is seriously the *only* dentist I was able to select under my plan, who does not have absolutely horrifying reviews written by multiple people who registered for Yelp specifically to share their bad experience and save other people from misery. Amusingly, the first review is by another Berkeley resident who states right in her review that he's the only dentist in the Bay Area that both accepted her insurance and didn't have terrifyingly bad reviews, so I guess I've arrived at the same destination! | | Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 | | 2:46 pm |
Thinkin' about canceling this "SafeGuard" dental insurance...
Well, it was quite useful in getting me a cheap eye exam and 20% off on my glasses with Dr. Kiyomoto, a perfectly fine optometrist over at San Pablo and University. But I still haven't been to a dentist. I haven't been able to find a single dentist with great reviews that accepts their insurance. Instead, looking through their provider network, I keep running into results like this guy, who sounds like a real-life Dr. Nick (an analogy requiring no exaggeration at all, apparently). The one I'm officially assigned is University Dental, but I'm afraid their yelp page kind of spectacularly fails the smell test. Another possibility is Guolin Yu up on Telegraph but I haven't been able to find a single review anywhere online. So far Madelyn Ballard seems like the best bet, with lots of satisfied customers, but the one person who mentions fillings also makes it very clear that she doesn't really know how to do resin fillings. I've got resin composites in the couple of cavities I've had, and though I don't really think I have any cavities right now, it would suck if I had to head to a different dentist just because I don't want silver fillings (I worry about the look as well as the possibility of temperature sensitivity).She's not actually in my provider network anyway. Stupid badly designed website giving me false results. Is it worth $8 a month for cheaper cleanings even with a chance of needing to go back to my old (beloved!) dentist Dr. Assael, and have him do a filling without insurance? Perhaps, perhaps.... It may be worth mentioning that I generally have extremely healthy teeth and gums (it's a family thing... my mother and brother have had no cavities at all, in their entire lives, and they aren't exactly superheroes when it comes to proper brushing and flossing). I think I've had 3 cavities total, which were discovered in places where my (possibly ill-advised?) childhood sealants had partially broken off (leaving little traps), upon my return from a summer in China... during which I used locally purchased "Colgate" toothpaste that may have been made with melamine instead of fluoride. I might try Lavorini Dental Care. Downside is, though the reviews are reassuring, the fact they do well on Yelp (and are a "sponsored result") means they are completely swamped with patients.Why would you come up in my provider search results provided by my own insurance, if "this provider does not accept patients for this plan"? More humorously ALARMINGLY bad ideas in my provider network. In fact, this is my entire provider network! - Gentle Dental: "When all was said and done, my back teeth had been mysteriously sharpened and now there are so many weird gaps between my teeth I need a toothpick every time I eat so much as a bowl of ice cream." - Western Dental: "My teeth are ruined and i will probably have to have them pulled." - Oakland Dental: "I hate this dump with all my heart. People, you don't have to suffer through this." - Ronald Bullard: "The office is disgusting and smells worse than a truck stop men's room." - Andrew Cheung: "He told me I had 17 cavities... he then put some blue stain on my teeth, saying that would show me where the cavities were. Then he said if he could scrape the blue stain off, it was only plaque that needed cleaning, not a cavity. He started scraping, and it all started to come off. When he noticed that, he stopped and started pointing instead of scraping, saying it was all cavities." The only slight possibility seems to be Franklin Dental. But at this point I'm starting to seriously think I should just bail. The SafeGuard dental network appears to be the Dr. Nick Network in disguise. | | Monday, July 27th, 2009 | | 11:20 pm |
How is Bloo-ray formed?????
how factory get pragnent? Well, here it is. This gallery is basically pornography. Did you know that the polycarbonate disc material is first sent through the factory in granule form, through a series of tubes? Current Mood:  enthralled | | Friday, June 19th, 2009 | | 8:24 pm |
Music recommendations?
Just for fun, I scanned through all the albums on my computer to see which (non-classical) ones I seem to be drawn to again and again. When people ask me "what kind of music do you like?", I never have any quick way of answering, but maybe that's because I have an underdeveloped palate or spent too many years immersed in classical stuff. So, after taking a look here, how would you describe me? Any recommendations based on what I seem to like? Or, you could treat this as a meme if you want, and post a similar accounting of your own tastes. Here are some of my most favorite traditional albums (kind of in order, though they're rather hard to compare!): Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth (2004) Lamb - Best Kept Secrets (1996-2004) Radiohead - OK Computer (1997), The Bends (1995), and In Rainbows (2007) Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself (2005) and (as Frou Frou) Details (2002) The Beatles - Revolver (1966), Magical Mystery Tour (1967), and Rubber Soul (1965) Metric - Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? (2003) Björk - Post (1995) Peter Gabriel - Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ (1989) Shpongle - Are You Shpongled? (1999) The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (2006) Snow Patrol's compilation choices for: - The Trip. Snow Patrol. (2004) [Disc 2 only] As well as these fantastic soundtrack albums: A.R. Rahman, M.I.A. (et al) - Slumdog Millionaire (2008) (movie soundtrack album) Sondheim (et al) - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) (movie soundtrack album) Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Akira "Symphonic Suite" (1990) (movie soundtrack album) Alex Wurman - March of the Penguins (2005) (movie soundtrack album) Gustavo Santaolalla - Babel (2006) (movie soundtrack album) Yasunori Mitsuda & Millennial Fair - Creid (1998) (acoustic arrangement of "Xenogears" video game soundtrack) And some "honorable mentions" in no particular order:
M.R. Shajarian and Kayhan Kalhor - Night Silence Desert (2000)
Seal - (1994 album)
Coldplay - X&Y (2005)
The Magnetic Fields - i (2004)
Infected Mushroom - The Gathering (1999), IM the supervisor (2004)
Juno Reactor - Labyrinth (2004) and Shango (2000)
Paul Oakenfold - GU007: New York (1998) and Tranceport (1998)
Talvin Singh - OK (1998)
Cat Stevens - Footsteps in the Dark (1984)
Miles Davis & Gil Evans - Sketches of Spain (1960)
Björk - Vespertine (2001) and Homogenic (1997)
Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra (1987)
Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill (1995)
Garbage - Version 2.0 (1998) and beautifulgarbage (2001) | | Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | | 3:34 am |
Drunken sailors tie poor knots
See, gmonkey42 posted a link to the Drunken Sailor song.... man, they do all kinds of horrible things to that poor sailor, many of them multiple times with only slight variations. But more importantly, some of the more obscure lyrics sent me off on a rather enlightening (but mercifully short-lived) wikipedia clickety-fit, in which I not only refreshed my memory for yardarms, daughters of captains and gunners, and running bowlines, but also learned that all this time I didn't realize there was a difference between a square knot and the much less reliable granny knot and, what's worse, I discovered I've been tying my shoes with a granny knot bow all this time! So I practiced a bit on a piece of headphone cable (damned if I'm getting out of bed to go find my shoes!) and I think I've figured it all out now. That's right, folks: it's taken me 30 years to learn how to tie my shoes.... Current Mood:  *facepalm* | | Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 | | 12:12 pm |
| | Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 | | 6:34 pm |
housemate wanted
I'm searching for a new housemate, for a July 1 lease (or possibly August 1 or mid-August start, if necessary). It's a great 2-bedroom/1-bath cottage with a great price (currently $683 per person before utilities) and in a great place (set back from a quiet street, at Browning St and Channing Way in Berkeley), fully furnished except for the available bedroom, which is reached via a charming short flight of stairs from the living room. We have our own free laundry machines in the built-in garage. We pay for water, gas/electricity, and DSL (currently no landline), averaging out to around $50-60 per person per month for all utilities. Lovely garden between the cottage and the landlords' house in front, with fruit from Meyer lemon, lime, fig, pear, and persimmon trees. Access to campus is an easy 10 minute bike ride (or 30 minute walk). We are also a 6 minute walk to the 51 bus which goes straight to campus and is useful on rainy days. 15-minute walk to N. Berkely BART. 10-minute walk to Andronico's grocery (or a 15 minute walk to the brand new Berkeley Bowl West that is opening tomorrow!). 5-minute walk to Caffe Trieste (an excellent coffee shop; great for studying and live music many evenings). Street parking is also very easy here and uncrowded (unlike the situation right next to campus), a major perk if you own a car. About me: I'm a 30-year-old male grad student in the linguistics department at Berkeley, currently working on finishing my dissertation. I'm generally cheerful, reliable, personable, and I value good communication. I'm a big fan of movies and home theater, and the living room is equipped with a very high-end TV and sound system. In the evenings I often like to watch a film from my collection or from Netflix, or perhaps play a video game (PS3/PS2/Wii, etc). I'm also into geeky things like fantasy and science fiction. I'm more of a night owl than a morning person (ideally hoping to live with someone who would enjoy watching, or wouldn't be bothered by, a loud movie running as late as midnight some nights of the week). I like to keep the kitchen and living room pretty clean, and am pretty conscientious about not leaving a big pile of dishes (and hope for the same in a roommate). I don't smoke. I tend to have overnight guests no more than 1 night a week or so, and occasionally I host movie night gatherings with friends. The cottage is better quipped for small or medium dinner gatherings rather than large wild parties. These days I spend most days away from home, working on my dissertation at local cafes. Occasionally I also do sound editing for films, which I usually do at home. If any of this piques your interest, please drop me a note! | | Friday, May 29th, 2009 | | 8:00 pm |
Maker Faire
It's going to be awesome, guys! [ Maker Faire homepage] cityofgates, cryptoquip, haaaychiq, linkling and I (and some of you??) are heading there tomorrow. There's a good chance I'll meet up with haaaychiq in Dolores Park at 8:30 for the the critically massive, unrestrainedly goofy 19 mile bike event that will head down the peninsula, on "party bikes" cruising with "great music" (I will be on my ordinary bike, however). | | Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 | | 11:51 am |
The Bowl's big sister is almost here
Oh, I had no idea this was coming so soon! Berkeley Bowl West is opening June 4! It's a larger store, with twice the parking spaces, is twice as close to my house as the current store, and actually has a larger produce section (which is really saying something, since the other store's produce section is the largest I've seen in any grocery store anywhere in the world). As the article notes (and as pretty much any Berkeley resident can attest), the current store's "parking lot is a gridlocked swamp of road rage, a demolition derby of Priuses and rusty old Volvos vying for parking spots." It's such a headache that the store lost virtually all its utility for people who live too far to walk. When driving you actually have to visit in pairs, so one can do the shopping while the other circles around the lot where they will likely never find a spot! ( Read more... ) | | Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 | | 10:34 am |
Jesse Ventura tells it like it is
This is a pretty awesome clip. He utterly destroys Hasselbeck, who's used to spouting her constant spurious nonsense without such a stark reality check. The Body should've probably stuck to politics on TV all along, with his verbal cage match skills. (Instead of finding out the hard way that actually being governor is a whole lot more complicated.) | | Saturday, May 16th, 2009 | | 11:47 pm |
In the mood to watch Dirty Harry again....
When I head 3 or 4 blocks from my house to study at Caffe Trieste, I get used to very frequent instances of police and ambulances and fire trucks zooming by with sirens blaring, because it sits right at the major intersection of Dwight and San Pablo. But today's siren-related events were much nastier than usual. Right as I was biking the couple of blocks southwest to get to my destination, someone was getting shot to death a couple blocks away at 10th and Allston. The ambulance I waited for before crossing the street was probably carrying a dead man. A short time later the murderers realized the police had a bead on them and took off in their Cadillac, for all I know passing me by as I serenely ordered my espresso, followed soon after by police barreling down San Pablo in hot pursuit. It all ended very badly, when the bastards crashed into an unlucky motorist in North Oakland near MLK and 57th, throwing the car against the corner of a building and killing both the driver and a pedestrian. Two of the four suspects were arrested, while the others managed to take off through people's backyards and are still at large. The developing story as told by the Chron. And a minor update. Another update: names released and the driver killed in his car was a 27 year old film editor. Bastards! | | Sunday, May 10th, 2009 | | 1:14 am |
Star Trek movie thoughts behind the cut
Got up and saw it today at 11:30 at Bay Street. Movies always taste better when they cost just $6! Fun set of trailers before the show, what with G.I. Joe (looks better than you'd think!) and the next Transformers flick (at least worth a watch, even though I know they'll never write a part for my beloved triple-changer Astrotrain...) So, ( Read more... ) | | Friday, May 8th, 2009 | | 11:26 am |
| | Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 | | 4:02 pm |
Need moar El Cerrito friends
I abandoned the 4-hours of work per day some time ago... because I was not working on Saturdays and Sundays. Instead I've been managing to hit 6 hours or so, sometimes more, most weekdays. I cannot express to you how good it feels to come sit in this cafe, have a nice big cup of coffee, and get down to business. The "Ritual" coffee feels like it has more than coffee in it. All french pressed, cloudy, muddy even. Coffee you can chew on. Do not fear the little floaty bits... they're the best part ;-) Bottom line, no matter how droopy I feel in the morning (which seems to be roughly constant regardless of whether I'm being a coffee drinker), I get here and have my cup of joe, and I feel like a million bucks. A MILLION FRACKIN' BUCKS! (*shakes you by the shoulders*) I'm also clearly a "regular" by now. Everyone knows my name, and I know theirs. Can't you hear the theme to Cheers coming on? Gwuh... of course not!! Because as you may recall, this place is also a totally chill record shop, with tons and tons of classic LPs on display, and Dave provides us with a constant selection of high quality background music all day long, mostly stuff I've never heard before, from decades that produced the hand-me-down bell bottoms I was ridiculed for as a small child in the 80s. Lately I've taken to sitting in the sunny lounge area with its goofily mismatched selection of chairs and couches among the tall potted plants. For lunch my favorite is the arugula salad, because it comes with pine nuts, mandarin oranges, and the most amazing roasted beets I've ever tasted (something called "Chiogga beets"), plus bacon if I want it for another dollar or two, or chicken, or whatever. Meanwhile the spinach salad comes with an amazing goat cheese (something called "Laura Chenel"). And all salads feature the most impressive homemade vinaigrette I've ever encountered which, like the coffee, is solid enough to chew. So where is everybody? Come on down and inhabit this place with me! |
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