All posts by jah
RIP Vesta Williams (a year later)
Going through Youtube I just found out today that Vesta Williams died last year, apparently in a hotel room from a prescription drug/alcohol overdose, at the age of 53. Perhaps because it happened so close to Teena Marie’s death and in light of Whitney Houston’s death by similar circumstances, not to mention Michael Jackson. She was one of my favorite singers and should have been a far more popular singer because she had an amazing, innate talent.
Juicing – Not Just a New Year’s Resolution
I think I’m going to start using my blender a lot more. I saw a documentary (actually I’ve watched many over the past several months, including Farmageddon, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, etc.) on juicing VEGETABLES (not so much fruit) which makes total sense. Mostly they suggested juicing dark green vegetables like kale (which I love) and cucumber. Fortunately I like spinach, but really love broccoli, brussel sprouts and other deep, dark vegetables, although not so much lettuce. I know it doesn’t sound all that tasty, but I’m sure it could be made better or used as a base for something else. It also takes care, for the most part, of making sure that I don’t have high sugar/carb intake so long as I don’t use too many carrots and other vegetables that are high in fructose. I now understand much better why it is that I have to take so many vitamins with my drastically reduced food intake since my gastric sleeve surgery. If I don’t get the proper nutrition from the small amounts I eat, of course, I will potentially suffer deficiencies. I’m very serious about this kind of attack on mother nature, as they put it in the documentary, so this is very inspirational for me. I’m also seeing this as a potential way of avoiding the SPOILAGE of so many fresh vegetables that I’ve bought since 2012 was the first time in my life I started shopping for only one person, although more and more I’m hearing that even frozen vegetables retain a lot of their vitamins. Still, I could buy farmers market vegetables and juice them, even if I froze them in my own containers until I was ready to use them, that would still be better than buying processed crap. I am glad to buy some processed crap that I can eat in small quantities, but I’m still going to keep that for the convenience of brown-bagging to work, for example, and not a regular part of my diet.
The Time to Talk About Gun Control Was December 15
I hate to blame victims in these tragedies, but now it’s being revealed Nancy Lanza, the Newtown gunman’s mother, was a “survivalist” and gun enthusiast who regularly took her mentally disturbed son to the gun range with her ? Really?
I do not care if the guns were obtained legally or not, but she really needed FOUR guns with large magazines to “protect” herself in her tiny, ex-burb in Connecticut and she got many bullets in her head from her son, who she gave access to the guns, while she slept.
This is not about how crazy she was, which is way crazy, but this is about how she legally acquired these things and a tragic chain of events led to… well, everyone in the world knows now… another example of our extreme violent culture, in every corner, liberal and conservative, of this very large and powerful frontier-minded, puritanical country where almost no one understands the true legal analysis of the oft-invoked Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Do your homework, people.
The NRA’s pandering statement today is vacuous, at best, today, also. They cite no specifics in what they will do to make sure this never happens again. They don’t even listen to the polls of their own card-carrying membership. It is a hard line across the board, and people like Cheney voted against undetectable, plastic firearms because of the whoring he did for lobbyists like theirs. There is no end to the insanity. I really don’t think these 27 martyrs are going to be enough to move the country. This wasn’t even the largest bloodbath in American history from one lone, crazed gunman, and the damage could have been far worse if he had exhausted all of the fire power his wholly irresponsible mother provided him direct access to.
I was aware of Obama’s lack of progress on gun control well before this particular tragedy. I know he’s had a full plate, but hopefully with the power of the second term, he will not kowtow to lobbyists and make some permanent improvements in our lives by doing something no president has ever done (again), but in this arena.
The NRA nuts are going to say “people kill people but guns don’t kill people”. Well the nutjob in China who attacked a school recently didn’t kill the 22 kids he stabbed. Most of them will live, unlike Lanza’s victims.
Nicholas and cappy boxed
Mom’s Big Birthday at my place
Started working at Stanford this week
I’m doing a contract position for a special project at the School of Medicine. It’s amazing to see what a full-fledged city this campus is, with its own police force.
Cherryland Statistics
On the radio this morning I heard that the Atherton part of the Bay Area has the highest percentage of educated people, but my neighborhood — Cherryland, part of Hayward which I find to be very charming — has the lowest, at 15% with bachelor degrees. I guess that means I need to stay put to keep our numbers up since I have a doctorate and we need all the help we can get with those numbers.
2012 November Southern California Trip
Went to Palm Springs, Cathedral City, San Dimas, Santa Monica, Echo Park, West Hollywood, Claremont, that observatory near the Hollywood sign, and Long Beach. Hung out with old friends and new. I was born in San Pedro, so it was cool to get a shot of the Queen Mary, docked nearby from Long Beach. I have a picture of my mom somewhere when she was a few months pregnant with me in front of the same ship in early 1968.
November 2012 Lake Tahoe Trip
Stopped in Placerville, where my grandfather used to go into town for years when he lived in more rural El Dorado County (Mt. Aukum). We had coffee and continued to my friend’s home on a hill with amazing views. It was a relaxing, fun weekend.
