chi chi chi le le le

Like most of us with a television and no job, I spent the majority of the past few days glued to the Chilean miner saga. It was a story that had it all - I laughed, I cried (33 times), I cheered, screamed, fist-pumped, and I got chills. But most of all, it was a story, involving people thousands of miles from me, that reaffirmed my faith in Gd, humanity, and modern technology.

I wouldn't say my faith was "restored", as that would imply that it had been lost. I like "reaffirmed" because it seems more accurate - this served as a powerful reminder to me to always believe. I'm not hugely religious, having had a bat mitzvah but usually only attending services around the High Holy Days. I'd compare my Judaism to the average American's Christianity - church is usually reserved for Christmas and Easter, but most would emphatically say they "believe". I used to pray every night, having made myself a promise to do so after my bat mitzvah, but after high school that ritual became more weekly than daily. However, hearing about the constant faith in Gd that these miners displayed made me think a LOT about my own faith. I don't think there's any way that those guys would have survived without hope, especially those first 17 days with no contact with the outside world, and I think the only way to have hope is to have faith. Not necessarily religion, but faith in that ubiquitous "higher power" that AA is always touting. But however cheesy it may seem, I think it's true - I don't think any of those men who have survived without hope.

Now, I clearly don't think any of them would have survived without the assistance of modern technology, and almost everything that the rescuers did just blows my mind. How quickly the carrier pigeon system was set up to deliver food (not real pigeons, but packages coming down the small holes), the fact that a fiber-optic cable was able to provide a constant video feed, getting food and water down there... And to think, those supply holes were drilled almost immediately after they were discovered alive!!! Then, we have the fact that they actually managed to drill a hole more than 28 inches across down 2,000 feet in less than two months! Of course, they worked 24 hours a day, but still... I heard that whenever there was silence in the camp, it meant there was a problem, as the drills weren't operating. But all problems were resolved, so much so that months ahead of schedule, they lowered this spaceship/missile looking apparatus down those 2,000 feet on a simple cable, and started loading it up with men. One of the memories that I'll keep with me forever was seeing that first little bit of red emerge, seemingly out of nowhere, down into the cave. The joy on the miners faces as they swarmed the cage to hug and kiss their rescuer will be with me forever!!! It truly blows my mind that it's possible to drill a hole that deep - maybe someday they'll make it to China! :)

The last thing that struck me so much during this rescue was just the way everyone involved, from the president of Chile, the miners themselves and their families, the laborers, the rescuers, the people watching in Maine, Brazil, France, North Korea, and South Africa, came together with a spirit of unity and brotherhood. So rarely is there a "breaking news" story that has a happy ending. Usually it's 9/11, or a child abduction, or Hurricane Katrina that dominates our televisions and computers, so it was especially powerful to see such a positive story captivate the world. EVERYONE involved in the rescue are heroes - without their strength, perseverance, and hope, this never would have been possible. I can't imagine the courage it took to actually go down into that hole, so the 6 men who did are some of the bravest to ever live. The first man down (I think Manuel Gonzalez) was the last man up, and while I'm sure there were no shortages of volunteers (as they said about the miners who wanted to go last), it takes a real man to risk his life for the lives of so many others.... I don't even like elevators that are more than 20 years old, I can't imagine that slow ride down into the bowels of the earth and back. I'm sure the ride up was amazing, though, just knowing every second that you were getting closer and closer to freedom. Super Mario Sepulveda showed us how exciting the moment of arrival home must have been for these men by jumping around, screaming with joy, and kissing his overjoyed wife. I wept with almost every single reunion and they never got old, though I stopped sweating and my heart stopped pounding after the first two guys came up safely. When the final miner came up safe and sound, the world collectively let out its breath.

There's so much to say about this story - it's fascinating in all sorts of ways. But what I'll take from it is the way a story that has litereally nothing to do with me touched my heart and soul more than any other story I can think of in my life. I've never had such a visceral reaction to the news, and most uniquely, I've never wanted to change my life because of it.

wasn't this on seinfeld???

http://www.wpxi.com/news/25370016/detail.html?cxntlid=cmg_cntnt_rss

Upside to unemployment:

...elaborate meals every day. Tonight's dinner is lasagna and salad with avocado, tomato, and a lemon-mustard dressing.

Should I be like all the other girls and post pictures?

ah, meth

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/09/10/national/a051406D37.DTL&tsp=1


I like this story because it combines two of my favorite story components: pythons and idiots. After watching Steve Irwin's pre-Crocodile Hunter Discovery Channel debut called "The 10 Most Venomous Snakes in the World", I'd already pledged to myself never to visit Oceania, as all ten snakes reside there, but if I hadn't, the chance of stumbling across these morons and their constrictor would certainly stop me from booking that Qantas Air flight... Well, that and Qantas' safety record...

don't go to Guam

So apparently, Guam has the highest density of snakes in the world. How does one control such a population? Clearly, by dropping doped up mice from airplanes and hoping they get caught in the trees and that snakes eat them.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/07/tylenol-loaded-mice-dropped-from-air-to-control-snakes/?hpt=C2


we all know I'm not down with snakes, but this just gives me the heebie-jeebies!!!

fuck traffic

Today it took me an hour and a half to make a 50 minute drive, and I think it pushed me over the edge. There is just something intrinsically wrong with going 20 miles an hour on an interstate. I could go off on a rant about the lack of reliable public transit in America (seriously, how is there not a train from San Jose to Oakland? Makes no sense) or the level of metal retardation a person can have that is still acceptable for the California DMV to issue a driver's license, but I've decided that if I'm not going to have a road rage incident, I need to take a more Zen attitude towards it. That which I cannot change....

One thing today's awful commute highlighted for me is that I really do want to find employment in the South Bay. I thought for awhile that I'd be fine commuting (I really only make the drive twice a week) but today's unexpected snarl at an early time really drove the point home for me, pun intended. I spent all of yesterday afternoon working on the content of my resume, and I then applied for a job at the San Jose Earthquakes. I'm pretty proud of myself for doing that, just because sometimes I have such trouble with motivating myself - I think job searching is so difficult, because you're essentially setting yourself up for rejection. But what am I saying, I'm NOT going to be rejected because I'm going to implement the power of positive thinking! (Speaking of which, I'm reading the new Barbara Ehrenriech (sp?) book about how the myth of positive thinking is ruining America, but whatevs.) I'm going to post my resume so that I can get advice on formatting. I'm great with content, not so great with presentation.

One "small world" moment from my commute though: I got a text from someone I haven't spoken with since before I left Virginia (upwards of 4 years now) and it said "the name of the copy shop is xpedx." Now, clearly this was not meant to me (probably directed for another Sophie/Sophia) but I noticed the name of the shop, as I'd never heard of it before. Then WHAT DO YOU KNOW, not 10 minutes later, a big rig with XPEDX on it drove by me! Amazing, eh? Never heard of it once then all of a sudden it's all over the place! It always happens that way...

Ironic much?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/08/31/state/n054954D71.DTL


I guess they couldn't hear each other coming? This is what I've been saying all along, these things are dangerous!

How to lose a guy, and your life, in 10 days of hanging upside down

http://www.wlsam.com//Article.asp?id=1937170

Ladies, this is an example of how not to win your man back. Not much needs to be said about this article other than SERIOUSLY?

I've certainly had girlfriends do some things that have caused me to question their sanity, but this crosses the line, especially because she was almost 50 years old! Not that she's old or anything, but just... really? you're a doctor and you feel you need to break into your bf's home to speak to him??? Come ON! Clearly she was intelligent enough to make it through med school, but did she skip class the day they explained the ol' "square peg, round hole" conundrum?

It's a little jarring when you realize that a lot of the drama associated with high school relationships does not, in any way, end after high school. This story just reinforces this to me. I remember a moment when a second cousin of mine (family relationship changed in an effort to protect the source) started telling me about her anxieties of letting her husband go to his college reunion, in case the girlfriend whom he'd had TWENTY YEARS AGO might be there and FLIRT with him. At the age of 17, this struck a nerve. In a way, I don't think we ever outgrow our insecurities. Hopefully we just learn to identify them so that we can manage them, but we never fully shed them. Kind of like diabetes I guess.

my glorious emergence from retirement

It's been awhile since I've had the opportunity to post some of my important musings on life. Mainly my sabbatical was in due to the tree sitters' forced descent from Memorial Grove in Berkeley. I struggled for several months to find meaning in my suddenly empty life, not content with the occasional anti-Prop 8 demonstration at Sather Gate or "lie-in"s in solidarity with Sudanese famine victims that the Cal Campus has to offer, but eventually, time does heal all wounds, and I was able to make some sense of life's cruel changes and move on. The rise of the Tea Party has also brought some focus back into my meaningless existence, as they are always providing fodder for my comedic cannon.

So now I'm thinking I need a venue to get back in touch with my creative side (and, of course, my wide audience base) and start touching up my writing. I'd appreciate feedback, but do keep in my that they will be in rough form. And I'm incredibly oversensitive with a propensity towards tears unlike anyone else's in the world. And a propensity for hyperbole, clearly, but you get the picture. And I overuse exclamation points and other manners of punctuation unabashedly, so you can skip that. And sometimes I use emoticons, I don't care what anyone thinks about that - they're a guilty pleasure who are here to stay in my life. And I realize this has an audience base of one.

I'm planning to address a bunch of topics here: my love for posting random news stories, my opinions on these stories... my opinions on pretty much anything, great moments in hip hop history, the constant wonder of the world, the constant letdown of the world, birth, death, sex, nightblindedness, adding -ness or -ability to words to create new words, my cat, clothing, nudity, celebrities who do incredibly dumb or incredibly noble things, friends, my daily activities no matter how mundane, and (most importantly) trying to improve my writing.

Before I head off to Whole Foods (which, I know, I know, of COURSE I find incredibly overpriced and pretentious, but since I don't know this town yet, I'm unable to think of a viable alternative for purchasing fish that is guaranteed to make me not beg for death around 4am tonight) I just thought I'd share this little gem for the moment:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/hottopics/detail?entry_id=70552

A snuggie for your face!