Gratitude today

A lot to be grateful for:

1) Going to New York tomorrow for five days
2) Tickets to the World Series Game 2 in Yankee Stadium on Thursday!
3) A great dance party fundraiser this past weekend
4) Attending my sis-in-law's baby shower on Sat in gorgeous Tiburon
5) A great time with mojitos & margaritas at La Pinata for Wayne's bday
6&7) Three days off work this week (that counts double)
8) Magnolia cupcakes in NY :) :)

Gratitude today

Ah, gratitude, you have not been lost on me even though my writing has been infrequent.

Five things to be grateful for:

1) Free salad today and free half sandwich yesterday at work
2) Extra pizza and salad from community dinner last night
3) Walking the lake today, so nice to get out
4) Praying with friends
5) A great weekend

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Bumping into Jan and Lisa around the lake and getting to walk the second half with them
2) Sun!
3) Getting an hour walk on my lunch hour
4) Looking forward to Thriller! dance fundraiser next Saturday
5) Growing into a positive attitude

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Prepping and cooking dinner with Sophia last night :)
2) Eating then laughing & chilling with friends after dinner last night
3) Words from God
4) Little LM is doing a lot better and is out of the hospital though I'm still praying for a full recovery
5) Caprese sandwiches, yum :)

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Getting to see a few minutes of the Blue Angels before the show was cut short because of fog
2) Hanging with CK
3) Chilling before a good day in SF
4) Being healthy enough to walk all over the city
5) Dar and Alex's new baby girl, born today!! Everyone is healthy, yey :)

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) The crispness in the air, gently drawing fall in
2) Apple & yogurt for breakfast - everyday :)
3) Knee high black boots
4) The Blue Angels in SF tomorrow
5) Making caprese sandwiches, brownies, chicken salad, and grilled potatos/veggies for dinner on Sunday with Sophia

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) The almost-here peppermint and already-here pumpkin flavored drinks at Starbuck's (I luv winter and hot coffee)
2) Going to New York in the fall!
3) The show FlashForward - kinda like it
4) Swimming
5) LM looking like she's going to be ok after all, and less than 2 wks old :)

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today.

1) Glee
2) Rest
3) Everyone working hard to throw the dance-off fundraiser. So glad I'm not doing it alone.
4) Nora crazily playing with her fake mousies
5) grey Victorian-esque buttoned boots

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Going to New York in three weeks! yey, Magnolia Bakery
2) Sunshiny October days
3) Sour candy
4) Friends, nachos, fun @ the Cal game (even though we lost)
5) Shiny black heels

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for:

1) Going to the Cal/USC game today. GO BEARS!
2) A positive attitude change
3) 40 days of rest
4) Specialty's sandwich Caprese - fresh mozzarella, basil, and red pesto paste on foccacia
5) Ping iPhone app - send texts free to other iPhone users

Gratitude

I am blessed in my life and have received much.

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Peace on American soil.
2) Shiny black open-toed heels.
3) Chocolate chip cookies (I intend to eat one later today).
4) Sherbet (haven't had it lately but it's just good, you know?)
5) The Beatles

A few more just because:

6) Being employed
7) Public libraries
8) The awesomeness that is the Mills College pool (and hot tub)
9) Oakland's beauty, diversity, urban parts, parks, and lakes
10) Close friends who are due with their first babies in October (throwing one a baby shower on Sat complete with obstacle course game, and the other a work baby shower on Tuesday). I'm happy just thinking of your preggo bellies :)

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Friends, taro smoothies, sweet potato fries, and drinks at The Trappist
2) Swimming tomorrow at Mills College
3) 1 Kings 1-19 (hope and perseverance, and God's patience displayed)
4) Tigers at Six Flags
5) Getting caught up at work because a lot of ppl have the day off

and of course, always, for my bed :) it is a wonderful, wonderful bed.

Gratitude today

Ah, gratitude has been a bit harder today. Hard news will do that to you. Still, I am appreciative of my life and what I've been given.

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Friends at work
2) Dental insurance and a great dentist
3) A friend who lives with me and invites me to eat her noodles
4) My wonderful, amazing bed
5) Sleep

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Swimming again :)

2) Homemade turkey, cheese, and tomato panini

3) fresh water for showers and baths

4) furry little striped gray cats named Nora

5) awesome high heels

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Cool jewelry from Appel and Frank :)
2) Fresh veggie-ful salad
3) Hope about a house
4) Rest, sleep, and a good bed
5) A good realtor

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Local designer jewelry at Appel and Frank
2) Yummy Thai food and raspberry beer with friends
3) Good audio and paper books
4) Being healthy
5) Knowing that God is good, present, capable, and trustworthy

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Swimming :)
2) Feeling well-rested in the morning
3) A warm BBQ with friends, good meat, and watermelon
4) Bacon (in this instance, on a sandwich, but bacon rules in general)
5) Time to think and write new poems

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Hitting almost every green light on the way to work
2) A good cd that was made with care
3) Friends who listen
4) Sunlight
5) Loving my new Bare Minerals lipgloss

Gratitude Today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Great sushi
2) Change - on all levels
3) Mixed apple, blueberries, and cuties with vanilla yogurt for breakfast
4) SYTYCD
5) Reading books at Borders

Gratitude today

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Swimming in the evening at a public Oakland pool
2) New lip gloss and eyeshadow from Sephora
3) Warm sunshine
4) Jamba Juice's buy one, get one free sale
5) Dinners and happy hours and lunches with friends

Grateful

Five things to be grateful for today:

1) Free Gatorade in the office kitchen
2) Three pregnancies of dear friends and family (I can't wait to see the babies)
3) A friend's relationship that is almost an engagement (can't wait for the official announcement)
4) Losing 4 lbs. last week and dropping a size
5) Loving friends who are kind, supportive, and will laugh with me

Who pays credit card companies?

Companies protesting credit card fees from New York Times

White Nights

Ah, I LOVE the movie White Nights. I'm listening to the commentary and the director describes it as a "dance political thriller." Yeah, that kinda sums it up. I would add "race dynamic commentary." It's Soviet Russia in the 1980's, freedom to dance, wanting to choose your country, being African American and not wanting to be American anymore, defecting and becoming a criminal. Maybe I'm a child of the 80's but I remember being scared of communist Russia and their power. I later studied Russian history and Russian literature in college - am a bit obsessed.

In junior high, I saw Gregory Hines dance on Broadway in NY in Jelly's Last Jam. He was amazing and I've followed his career since. I felt sad when he passed away a few years ago.

Mikhail Baryshnikov dancing ballet and Gregory Hines dancing tap - together?! I love this movie. Introducing Isabella Rossellini in her first film and Helen Mirren, as a Russan ballerina, who I didn't remember was in it. In commentary, she says half her family is Russian. The director says Mikhail didn't film in Russia because he had been a defector so they filmed in Europe (Prague??).

Great soundtrack ("Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie and "Separate Lives" by Phil Collins), great dancing, great time. Great movie.

A few dance clips from the movie:










Gregory Hines in Jelly's Last Jam (1992).

W...T...H.....

Five things I like

Five things I like recently:

1) The TV show The Philanthropist

2) The new organic Natural Buttery Salt & Cracked Pepper popcorn

3) The TV show So You Think You Can Dance

4) This beer Framboise

5) The new bf nicknamed Sun Devil

Medical bills causing bankruptcy - stat increases

I found this new recent article that says medical bills and related expenses contribute to 62% of personal bankruptcies. It doesn't matter if the people had/have medical insurance -same stat. Depressing.

This percentage has increased from 55% in 2001. I don't know about you but the one person I'm close to who declared bankruptcy did it because of medical bills. And they had some insurance.

Eh, what to do.... you can't save enough for cancer or GI problems or a car accident. Hope for the best, I guess, and trust God in all things.

Don't Stop Believing song

Glee

I LOVE the "Don't Stop Believing" cover from Glee. I can't stop playing it in my car and on my laptop while I'm scanning other sites. I think I'm a bit obsessed.

Does anyone know how I can get it as a ringtone??

No, really. I'm serious. Pls email me if you know how I can get it as a ringtone on my iPhone.

My blog on a wikipedia page

So I happened to check my blog stats and see that I've been getting more hits lately but I don't really know why. I haven't been posting more and have actually been rarely writing.

Then I see that the Wikipedia post on The Aristocats features my blog post on it, seen here. Wow, how did that happen? And people have made some negative comments on the post like racism will go away if people just don't talk about the fact that racism happened.

Yeah, that's the issue.

Not this, where a few high schools have Orientals as the name of the school. With Chang the dragon as the mascot. And "Asian" font on their website.

Yeah, we need to stop bringing these things up. Bc then they'll just go away.

Like this woman Deborah Peagler who has been wrongfully imprisoned.

Like the fact that white girls who are kidnapped are put on the national news but black children are not. They're still missing, America.

If keeping silent and just wanting peace would make everything ok, I would duct tape my mouth. But that's not really how it works is it?

Music, High School, Poverty, and the Recession

This story made me tear up, and I often don't personally feel so touched by the need to have music programs in high schools. Watch the accompanying video, too.

I just want to send her money for college but that's not really the issue or the answer.

Ok, I have a bigger kitchen than these places

I've heard of small NY studios and apartments but these are small! And now they're "reasonably" priced at $250K - for 200 sq ft! Ack.

And some have what looks like $500 or $750 HOA fees. omg. Ack.

Somehow their sinks are smaller than mine and my kitchen looks like a chef's dream compared to these; one, the microwave is above a shelf above the fridge. How do you use it?? And people buy these?? Ack.

Ok, I thought about it, and I don't think I want to move to NY.

Your printer is a brat

Watch Your Printer is a Brat and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

so true

Hollister

I saw these teens last week wearing clothes with the word Hollister on the front. I was confused - is the city Hollister now that popular?

Then I discovered this brand after reading this article and then this one.

Interesting especially the existence of entire brands based on what ppl think Californians wear. Not the newest idea, it just surprises me everytime.

Africa, Business Destination

I liked this article on Africa, part of Time magazine's article "10 Things Changing the World Right Now."

From the article, by Alex Perry (emphasis mine):

Up to a point. In Africa's case, the perception has long been that where you are renders all but irrelevant what you do. Africa is hopeless, a place of war and famine seemingly populated almost entirely by tyrants and children with flies in their eyes. According to this view, if Africa generates any kind of growth, it is in suffering — and in the overseas aid sent to address that, now a $40-billion-a-year industry. Naturally, with a new appeal every year and a new disaster every other, some people have begun to wonder if all that money is doing any good. They argue that aid creates dependence, fuels corruption, undermines democracy and stifles development. They have written books with titles like The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working (by an ex-spokesman for the World Bank in Africa) and Dead Aid (by a Zambia-born former Goldman Sachs investment banker).

And that debate is important, no doubt. But it is drowning out a more significant development. Ecobank's success is not an isolated blip, and aid is no longer Africa's main source of foreign income. Africa is becoming a business destination.

In an article for the online journal allAfrica in February, Oxford University economist Paul Collier and Witney Schneidman, who advised President Obama on Africa during his campaign, noted that Africa now offers the world's highest rate of return on investment. "Africa, usually the poorest performing region in the world economy, is now likely to be among the best-performing," they wrote. "Moreover, the region has been largely immune from the current banking crisis...The continent's financial institutions did not venture into derivatives or sub-prime mortgages.

Perhaps the most compelling evidence that Africa is now a business destination is China's new love for it. While the old superpowers still agonize over Africa's poverty, the new one is captivated by its riches. Trade between Africa and China has grown an average of 30% in the past decade, topping $106 billion last year. Chinese engineers are at work across the continent, mining copper in Zambia and cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo and tapping oil in Angola. Nor is this merely exploitative. China bought its access by agreeing to create a new infrastructure for Africa, building roads, railways, hospitals and schools across the continent. The current crisis is not expected to affect China's march in Africa: on the contrary, with the West's plans in Africa on hold at best, Beijing views it as an opportunity to extend China's lead. "We will continue to have a vigorous aid program here, and Chinese companies will continue to invest as much as possible," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in South Africa in January. "It is a win-win solution." Dambisa Moyo, who wrote Dead Aid, says those who need convincing about Africa should ask themselves if they are convinced about China, "because if you back China, you're backing Africa." Ecobank CEO Ekpe says part of the explanation for China's zeal for Africa is a new way of looking at Africans. "[The Chinese] are not setting out to do good," he says. "They are setting out to do business. It's actually much less demeaning."

And that gets to what, for Africans, is the emotional heart of the matter — and why joining the business world means so much. Though it rarely occurs to Westerners who've been instructed that Africa needs their help, charity is humiliating. Not emergency charity, of course: when disaster strikes, emergency aid is always welcome, whether in New Orleans or Papua New Guinea. But long-term charity, living life as a beggar, is degrading. Andrew Rugasira, 40, runs Good African Coffee, a Ugandan company he set up in 2004 to supply British supermarkets under the motto "Trade, not aid." He is emblematic of a new generation of African antiaid, antistate entrepreneurs. For Rugasira, aid not only "undermines the creativity to lift yourself out of poverty" but also "undermines the integrity and dignity of the people. It says, These are people who cannot figure out how to develop." Aid even manages to silence those it is meant to help. "African governments become accountable to Western donors," says Rugasira, "and Africa finds itself represented not by Africans but by Bono and Bob Geldof."

Target has different prices

I discovered this weekend that different Target stores have different prices. The Target in San Leandro has cheaper prices than the Target in Walnut Creek. I was surprised. Should ppl pay more because it's in a nicer Target? I guess it's a good thing that it's not the reverse - which often happens in grocery stores. Grocery stores in the 'hood are more expensive which rips people off who can't travel easily to buy from other options.

Random thoughts

When did it become ok to bring dogs everywhere? When exactly did we cross that line - early 2000's? I was at an outdoor mall and saw a couple holding back a huge dog who was barking because a smaller dog had just danced across his path. I was now cautious to walk down the middle of the dog corridor to go from Macy's to my car. So I ask, when did it become normal behavior to bring pets to the mall? I'm ok time traveling back to when dogs stayed home.

When, o when, is the The Wire coming back? It's not? Oh, Orangecat sad.

If you're in the Bay this Saturday and want to come to a cool fundraiser to beat childhood cancer, come to Bay Street in Emeryville and watch tons of ppl get their heads shaved in commemoration of kids who have to go bald because of cancer treatment. Buy some Teacake cupcakes, hot duds from H&M, and donate a few dollars. We can make a difference.

Rihanna and Chris Brown

The whole thing is just really sad. I really liked Chris Brown but I can't look at him the same way.

I'm all for hearing what happened but it looks strongly like he abused and possibly threatened her. :(

I'm neutral about Kanye West but I like that he seems to be one of the few celebrities calling Chris Brown out that you can never touch a woman. Article from EOnline:

But Rihanna's former tour mate, Kanye West, has a very different response to the situation.
"She has the potential to be the greatest artist of all time and, in that sense, I feel like that's my baby sis and I would do any and everything to help her in any situation," the "Stronger" wordsmith told E! News' Ryan Seacrest this morning. "I don't want to speak more into the specifics with that situation, but all I'll say is it's just so devastating.
"I feel like, just as a person, I don’t care how famous she is or even if she just worked at McDonald's, that should never happen. It should never come to that place."

Go Kanye. Boo Chris Brown. Speak out Rihanna.

Riots in Oakland

I have heard said that Oakland has never had race riots, which is amazing considering the diversity of the city. I wouldn't call last night's events "race riots" yet but it feels like they're getting there.

I left work at 8pm last night and the security guard asked if I was taking BART. I said no, and she said good, because people that were protesting at Fruitvale have moved to 12th St City Center to protest. Hmm, I thought, did they walk from Fruitvale? I left my office at 22nd and Broadway, and didn't see any big commotion on the street. Walking the block to my parking garage, everything seemed fine on a foggy January evening. I had no idea cars were being torched and police had riot gear on only ten blocks west. It was not a protest anymore.

I'm glad I took the freeway home. Sometimes I drive straight down to Broadway and turn left onto 11th which merges onto 14th Avenue or International Avenue. I don't know what would happened if I had driven straight into the anger last night.

I understand the anger and the outrage. But local businesses and minority store owners in downtown Oakland had windows smashed and cars burned. One protestor replied to a black small business owner's frustration with her braid store's broken windows by saying "At least she only lost her business, and not her life." I can't believe that person said that. And in this economy, do you really want to go around bringing down more businesses and creating more unemployment especially for your brothers and sister of color? Are you that casual about what having a job means and the need for income? Do you want this store owner to pay with her life, as she holds her daughter, because a BART police officer at 2am on New Year's Eve accidentally killed a handcuffed man on his stomach? I'm not glossing over it - I think a criminal investigation needs to happen, as it is - but what price do you want? How many pounds of Oakland flesh do you want for justice?

And how the FUCK does a police officer seem to accidentally reach for his taser and end up shooting and killing the person?!? First of all, he's on his stomach and handcuffed. Ok, you still think he's a threat and you feel like taser is needed. The threat is not so imminent that you need to grab the quickest thing and use it. It appears clear on the cell phone videos by BART passengers that the officers seem surprised by the gun going off and look at each other, like "uhh.. what just happened?" Could you make the taser not in a freaking shape of a gun?! That seems to be a good idea, to start with.

I'm touched by the victim's family asking for peace in this, even if they're suing. I think you have to sue, to bring attention to the misuse of police weapons.

And to top this stressful week off also, on top of the electricity being out for my top floor for two nights, I came home late last night to see Mitch outside on the top deck of my unit, meowing. WTF?! I ran up and brought him in but couldn't find Nora. I started freaking out. Maintenance guys had let my cats out accidentally I realized. I could not find Nora on the deck, in the backyard, anywhere. I didn't know how long the had been locked out (though I realized later it was about four hours). I started walking up and down the street with a flashlight and mousies but I felt like it was hopeless. I prayed desperately, and God was gracious. I went up to the deck one more time and swung my flashlight to the house next door and saw Nora sitting, scared, on their back steps. I threw her a mousie in an attempt to keep her there and ran around, trespassed frantically into their backyard, and thank God Nora was still sitting on the top of the stairs, looking trapped. I picked her up and started crying. So stressful but really, thank you God that I found her in an hour. Otherwise it would be have been a long couple of days putting posters up and going to the SCPA.

Tired.