Daniel M. Chazin

Resolutions and Evaluation of where this world is going.

2011-12-29T07:14:00.000-08:00

1. Join Touchstone Climbing for Bouldering and Weightlifting Regiment
2. Keep my alcohol consumption under control
3. Start the process to go to Grad School which means go to Community College for courses
4. Grow my tree brassicas more
5. Fix the sideyard at my house.
6. Continue with what was good about 2010
7. Give an honest shot at expanding on my relationships with people.

How did I do?

Well number one I accomplished on January 2nd and have gone crazy for. I'd say yup did it. Two, yes. I cut loose a few times sure but I really did a good job not going overboard minus one night where there was tequila and teammates and not a single part of it was peer pressure, I just was dehydrated to start with. So we'll say 90%. Three, I started, then backed out. I got as far as picking classes, but I never got very far in there. Three is a failure. Four is a total success. Five is still a work in progress so I'd say nope. I forget what was good about 2010, but I've had a great year so I'm just going to go ahead and say six was accomplished. Seven, definitely. Between it all, I've really made honest goes at relationships and cultivated great relationships both platonic and intimate. Seven is a success.

So 2011 is wrapping itself up. For me, 2011 has been marked by some truly great ups and some tough downs. My interpersonal life is going well. I still love my home, my job, and my hobbies. I've become addicted to climbing, started playing in a jazz/folk duo, wrote and self-published 3 zines, lived my life with love and patience and found my groove so to speak. I see myself as a tree. A tree is patient and constant. It is consistent in its growth however slow it may be. I'd like to think that a tree is understanding, but that might be a stretch for a metaphor. At any rate, I'm trying to focus on almost always being understanding of people and situations.

I guess it's an appropriate time to bust out new resolutions:
1. Be patient, understanding, and grow consistently
2. Keep climbing with strength and focus
3. Write more zines
4. Remain frugal, dumpstering, and resourceful
5. Captain a frisbee team again this season
6. Have ups and downs
7. Get into stretching and flexibility
8. Work on cultivating strong relationships

I'll briefly change gears. This year the world is finding some fire. The sense of urgency is strong in so many countries. It's not the first time folks have been hungry or brutalized in the history of famine or oppression, but with some defiant acts on behalf of some truly brave human beings we find ourselves in a world atmosphere where there are people putting their life on the line, staring down the barrels of guns or worse, standing up against the cadres of soldiers or policemen that mean to disperse or, even worse, kill them.

There comes a point wherein every person on earth loses fear because they are through being brutalized, watching their families go hungry, watching their friends suffer, and their neighborhoods destroyed. It is at that point where a person looks at the forces causing this destruction and decides that it is time for them to fight those forces and destroy them or die trying so that they might achieve freedom from the oppressive weights on their backs. This is happening in so many places. From Greece, to Egypt, to Libya, to Britain, to the USA. I'll be the first to admit that the USA's actions are not from true urgency but a sense of right, heroism, and rage on behalf of those who truly do suffer. Is it always right? Maybe not. But is it necessary? I believe so. Like I've said before, it takes a variety of tactics to win any battle. If the USA remains 100% non-violent, it will need truly unfathomable (tens of millions) numbers to win whatever it is going to stand for. If not, then non-violence will continue to sit on its privileged laurels and continue to do so until folks in the USA become so brutalized that they are willing to put their lives on the line and get truly disobedient. I don't mean picking up guns and shooting at will. I mean coordinated mixes of violence and none-violence. Occupation and destruction of property and means of production meant for the powers that be.

The way things are going, I think you could see this some day in the near future. Where politicians only answer to money and money only belongs to the truly elite (kind of the way things always have been), but once you stop allowing people easy access to food, water, and shelter for themselves and their families, then you will have serious problems. It will happen some day.

Variety of Tactics

2011-11-04T15:09:00.000-07:00

A variety of tactics refers to when one is trying to achieve a goal, it is most intelligent to approach achieving that goal with a variety of strategies and tactics. In the case of the current Occupy Wallstreet, specifically Occupy Oakland, a variety of tactics enters the realm of whether or not to use violent tactics or non-violent tactics or no tactic at all and allow for organic development (which in a way is a tactic).

GOALS: There are some very large and largely broad goals that the occupy movement is trying to achieve right now. Specifics tend to polarize people, so the responsible parties of the movement (however few there may be due to a more adhocratic model) have largely tried to stay away from specific targets. Of course the exceptions are there. Last tuesday during the general strike in Oakland, the Oakland Ports were targeted and occupied by an unknown number of people. Numbers are being thrown around in wild fashion. 3,000...5,000...10,000 and yes even 100,000 has been thrown around. I cannot comment on this matter. What I do know is that for one of two specific, publicized, and large events the Oakland ports were shut down and work was cancelled (the first coming a week earlier during the march on the jail and the reclamation of Oscar Grant Plaza and ending in one of the largest riots in downtown of the last 20 years after police began firing at the crowd unprovoked). Now what? Does this group of people have a developing vision of what to do? And if so, what tactics should be employed?

Before I get into this, I want to say that from what I've seen, Occupy Oakland's public and tactical discussions have seemed largely white and male. Whether or not they are aware of it (almost sure they are), the must remember to stop moving towards hierarchical structures of race, gender, and class, which are clearly at play.

Non-Violence: It's clear, most people who protest or occupy are non-violent. Non-violence has been a successful tactic in a number of different situations. Of course Gandhi's efforts were a part in the process of ending British rule in India, and in the 1960 and onward the non-violent actions of the "Civil Rights Movement" were successful in some arenas certainly, but in reality people of color are still systematically brutalized, despite being able to sit with white folks in restaurants and buses. Non-violence is generally favorable to most because it doesn't put them at risk, and most people don't want to be put at risk. It is inherently from a place of privilege that MOST non-violent practitioners come from. Non-violent practitioners in the US are usually not displaced, landless, starving, brutalized people, they are people who identify with the cause and movement against something, in this case the behemoth of corporate control in capitalism (which has many more cards in its deck). To non-violent practitioners, there isn't a great enough sense of urgency.

Sense of urgency is something I've written about in everything from my senior thesis to articles, etc (a pedestal of privilege I sit upon). Sense of urgency is a great motivator for humans to do otherwise dangerous or uncomfortable things because they sense the urgency of their and those they love's survival at stake. When you are displaced, landless (homeless more so in this country), hungry, brutalized, etc you sense that you could die, those you love could die, and you will do anything to fight back, even give your life to fight the source of what is causing you this pain. Take for example the Black Panthers, The FLN in Algeria, the folks who blow up oil pipelines in Nigeria, Slave revolts, or the folks who resist the Texaco/Chevron destruction of their lands and water supplies. These people were/are in a position of exinction, of death, of losing what they have. Not all of them are/were poor but many did not have much to hold onto. Many of them resisted violently, killing innocent people, soldiers, politicians alike, and were criticized for it. But when you yourself are about to lose everything, even your life, will you not do anything to survive or get revenge? Is it not human? At what point would it take for you to fight with violence? Anyways I'm getting off topic and I'm not in the violent tactics section yet.

So the folks who advocate the use of non-violence in the occupy movement have had the most support it's true. There has even been infighting between non-violent and violent folk in the occupy marches (refer to the second video this article). The non-violent folk are doing a great job occupying in my mind, they are being careful not to bring the ire of a city that is sitting on the edge of forcibly evicting them (no matter how bad it would look) and they are doing a great job showing that their numbers are strong and that with those numbers they can accomplish a lot (non-violence needs strength in numbers). To what point will the non-violent folks go? Will they begin to occupy Sodexo buildings? The Office of Homeland security? Will they shut down banks? with sheer numbers? Will they shut down Walmarts and risk drawing the ire of people who are trying to be sympathetic but just want to buy their goods at an affordable price? When will demands be made with non-violence and will they have any weight? When a crowd of 10,000 demands the end of Chinese imported goods in favor of rebuilding American manufacturing economy will anyone in power listen? When those people march to BART and demand the disarming of the BART police, will BART comply? It will take a lot of work, a lot of disruption, and a lot of time. Something that someone who has a great sense of urgency does not have time for.

Violence: Let me be clear, violence for violence sake is senseless. Violence is one of the most effective areas you can use for tactics, but it must be directed at something and that something has to be specific. Otherwise people will have carte blanche to go nuts. Now one thing that always irked me, is how violent practitioners get attention (as well they should) but that for some reason the non-violent people get roped in and have to answer for their decisions, held responsible, and ultimately suffer the consequences for things they didn't do. When a whole movement is destroyed over the actions of a few (many of whom could be undercover saboteurs and instigators) it's ridiculous! If someone in your neighborhood commits a crime, do you have to get arrested and held responsible for it when a cop breaks down your door and tells you to leave? Hell no. So why a movement? Not everyone is responsible for the action of other people. It's one of the only situations where that flies and it drives me nuts.

I mentioned sense of urgency plenty of times already, but I feel violence is a logical and acceptable tactic for someone who is truly feeling it. A lot of the folks who have employed violent tactics in this current situation are not people feel urgency, but people who want to play "revolutionary." People who act on behalf of the displaced, landless, starving, and brutalized without being it themselves. Now I respect someone who wants to empathize for people being fucked with elsewhere, but does throwing chairs in the street and trying to break a whole foods window accomplish something for those people? It seems like misplaced rage and heroism to me. I believe smashing big banks and financial institutions is great, but there's a direct correlation between their actions and a violent response. Breaking ATMs and the like is good because then you disrupt the flow of economic capital. Another way to stop a bank from doing its business would be to take up the space completely and fill it beyond capacity so that no one could go in. Don't beat up the employees damnit, they are just doing their jobs, they don't make choices. You want to fuck someone up, fuck up the CEOs and shareholders. Gotta find them first of course.

I suppose what it looks like is violence against things and violence against people are serious lines to cross. I'm in favor of violence against objects, violence against people is sticky and I'm fully for it in cases where you are in the situations I mentioned previously, but in the Occupy movement, the goal is too broad and fighting violently against people in specific who are not making decisions is too far for this moment in time. If the situation should change I'd be ready to change my mind. It's like saying a gas station attendant is responsible for the actions the company they works for does globally. We can't hold them accountable like that. We can however hold their gas pumps accountable and I encourage to in fact do so if we can correctly connect our cause to the action.

I guess what I'm saying to wrap all this up is that a variety of tactics is necessary. We are in a sort of war. A war where few people are running the show and innocent people worldwide suffer the brunt of the punishment so stocks go up in value fractions of points.

Here are some tactics I feel would be useful in our current situation:
Non-Violence: Occupation, civil disobedience, and blocking are great tactics. I.E. Whirlmart Occupations
Violence: Destroying property, sabotage, distruption, blockades, barriers are all good tactics for this particular time. Don't go head to head with the police, it's a fight we won't win. Violent self-defense however is not only intelligent but necessary if the folks in blue are trying to fuck you up. Sense of Urgency for example.

Touching on the idea that anarchism is the driving force of this movement. It's out of line to think or say so for now because the general understanding of anarchism as a mechanism for governing people is flawed. It is seen as letting chaos rule, which in effect can be a catalyst for ending a capitalist system of democratic rule, but chaos is not anarchism. I always credit the Black Panthers for doing many great things in the anarcho-localist idea (Like adding stop lights to busy streets so children didn't get killed, organizing their own food system programs to alleviate hunger, medical care, education, stopping drug use, and of course policing themselves). In their situation of systematic brutality, they worked endlessly for creating their own help with their own resources because it was clear that the government wasn't keen on helping them out. If the government ignores you, pool your resources, and ignore it. Get your own rule where you can. That's where I feel Occupy is succeeding in actually being anarchist. Engaging in consensus process for decision making, feeding ourselves, caring for ourselves medically, educating ourselves, policing ourselves (albeit not very well sometimes). Whether or not the people who are engaging in the smashing are anarchists is irrelevant. Anarchism doesn't thrive on violence, it just means that these folks who believe in anarchism are employing violent tactics to ensure the continuation of their existing structure (or lack thereof as some folks would say). Let's keep up the sustaining of our own system.

Frugality Revisited (A Year of Expenses)

2011-10-31T11:37:00.000-07:00

I suppose that I should have done this a long time ago, but things can get lost in the mix as we all know quite well.

In 2009 I wrote a post called "Frugality Rationalized" which in turn became the new name for this blog. It was also at this point that the blog itself took a definite turn; largely deviating from Frisbee thoughts and moving much more towards social theory, frugality, and dumpstering. The post itself was based on tips of how to live frugally and more within one's means; the end result being the ability to live on much less than you had previously considered.

Here's a little slice of my life and its exenses:

Background: I live in a co-operative home with 8 other people. We share expenses and responsibilities for maintenance of the house. Although this might not be possible or working for you, if you live in an area with neighbors or an apartment you can still find some of this to be helpful.

Rent: I pay $261 per month on rent currently but with dues ($75) for all my bulk food, utilities, upkeep of the house and garden, and miscellaneous expense for the house. That comes to $336 per month. Which per year comes to $4032. If you can establish a relationship with your landlord you can work out deals or trades to cut your rent down. Say you are good with finances, teach skills, or have access to a desirable commodity you can talk turkey and try to get it cut down so you can save a bit more. Quick utilities tip: If you shower with buckets you can catch the water runoff and use that water to flush your toilet, it's a simple greywater system and lots of fun!

Food: I still dumpster dive, work at the farmers market (although I trade a lot less), know people in the farming sector, foraging, and grow my own food. A small portion of my dues goes into maintaining bulk food stock. Aside from that, I pay nothing for my food. Between 5 pound bags of spinach from farm leftovers, foraging of apples and citrus from local trees, a weekly gift from my friends at the market, Food Not Bombs leftovers, and all that comes out of our garden all 9 people in my home are fed. Trust me, my fridge is exploding with produce. Calculating the amount of money I spend on going out, I spend something around $400 per year.

Travel/Commute: I bike. I use BART on occasion (maybe once a month at most). I take the bus to travel to Santa Cruz or other such places. I pay money for used parts to upkeep my bike. I probably spend 8 dollars per month on BART, 10 dollars per month on the bus, and if I was to add everything up, $200 per year on my bike if I'm really doing a lot of repairs. I'll be generous and say I spend $200 per year on travel locally.

Travelling beyond locally: I certainly fly places a handful of times per year but the totality of that can't be more than $1,000 on a heavy flight year. Due to the fluctuating nature of my flight schedule and the usual use of train or vanpool or craigslist, it usually comes out closer to $100 per voyage once I'm home. I'll venture that I spend $800 on travel per year.

Sports: Strangely enough, one of the larger expenses I have. Usually $150 on climbing shoes and cleats per year. $200 on tournament dues. $80 on uniforms. I have a $69 per month climbing gym membership which comes to $828.

Clothes: No money spent on clothes, free pile clothes only.

That comes out to $6690 per year. Pretty awesome. There might even be some things I'm missing or mis-calculating but to be safe we'll say my expense are plus or minus $350 so I could be anywhere from $6300 to $7000. Even as a substitute teacher working 2-3 days a week if I feel like it I make far more than that and even save a lot of money each month that goes into my bank account. The rest of my time is spent on projects and fun. It's a charmed life. Every day I live I remember to thank my lucky stars for my privileges. The privilege I've enjoyed because of phenotype, funds, and educational opportunity make a large part of who I am today. This wasn't just me, I have a lot of luck and open doors, and I recognize that.

Community Building Tips for Food:

Food: If you don't like cooking for yourself every day, try to start a dinner co-operative. Get a bunch of people (as many as you want but try to keep it to around 15 for the sake of kitchen sizes) and start a dinner co-op. This works great if you have a lot of people in close proximity like a neighborhood or apartment complex. If you get 15 people to sign up then all of you can cook dinner for everyone else 2 times PER MONTH and every night that isn't your night you can show up at the person's house and get a meal and enough for leftovers the next day for lunch. Maybe every night is too much, then perhaps you can make it every week day or maybe 3 days per week. It not only builds community but gives you the benefit of not having to cook every night. A cool thing to do is the 'Judy Barstow' rule where you wash one dish the cook used after getting food thus cutting down on the work the cook must do.

In the dinner co-op you can also try a bulk co-op and order bulk foods like legumes, grains, and even produce. 25 pound bags of grain might be a large order in your mind but buying bulk is way cheaper than buying retail, AND you get to split it with everyone in the co-op or do it by the pound. This way you can get all the things you need cheaper and can have enough for your dinner co-op!

Dumpster For A Cause (Occupy Wall Street)

2011-10-18T22:50:00.001-07:00

Whether or not you agree with the folks Occupying the various cities (OAKLAND!) in your country, you can definitely see that what they are doing is brave. They are living outside, occupying a space, standing for what they believe in (very American), and putting themselves at risk of arrest and brutality.

If you don't feel like committing time and energy to occupation remember that one of the best things you can do is feed the fire. By feed the fire I mean feed the folks. Those people need food and what better way to help than to dumpster it for them. These folks need sustenance, help provide it.

Bread, Produce, Pre-Packaged food. Everything. Bring the food to the central or food tent. In Oakland it's located at the corner of 14th and Broadway in Oscar Grant Plaza (aka Frank Ogawa Square).

It was Destiny after April For the Dumpster Run.

2011-10-10T10:21:00.001-07:00

It's always tons of fun to take friends on their first dumpster experiences. Destiny and April were passing through on their way to any adventure that should take them to the next place. I met Destiny at the Farmers Market actually. This dumpster run was a long time in the making. She was excited for it but it never really came together until a warm Thursday evening in late summer. As you can tell at the end of the night we came back with tons of bread, fruit, and root veggies. What a pleasure.

Homicide of Troy Davis

2011-09-21T23:14:00.000-07:00

And the US "justice" system commits another homicide. This time Troy Davis was put to death after a denial of his appeal for a stay and a new trial. The crime was the 1989 shooting and killing of a police officer working security in Savannah, Georgia. Despite the fact that witnesses recanted parts and in some cases all of their testimony, the murder weapon never being recovered, and support of many international figures (like the pope and Jimmy Carter) to grant Davis clemency, the state of Georgia put him to death this evening. More disgraceful and disgusting is the fact that the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (passed after the Oklahoma City Bombing) barred Davis and all death row inmates from presenting evidence they did not present during their initial trial. The use of this law makes clemency extremely difficult. I suppose I really don't have much to say other than I'm bummed that the US keeps on making blatant attempts to let everyone see how racist and bullshit the Justice system is. I think my point is fully bolstered by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's comment on why he dissented to the Supreme Courts decision to make the Georgia courts review old facts and accept new evidence to make a new trial. He said he didn't want to because it was "a sure loser." Scalia is a dick. Troy Davis is dead.

Setpember 10th Plus 1 Plus 10 Years

2011-09-12T09:29:00.000-07:00

The time has come, September 10th Plus 1 Plus 10 Years. It is the coming of age event for my generation. Other generations had Challenger, or JFK, or World War II and many others. However, my generation is marked by the fatalities of almost 3,000 people and the injury of over 6,000 and the subsequent wars that have cause the deaths and injury of many hundreds of thousands of people. Almost as important is the way the narrative of Islam was essentially stolen by who the majority of the Muslim world sees as criminals. It has been irreversibly stolen and will not be possible to mend until the events that occurred on September 10th Plus 1 Plus 10 Years fade into the consciousness of our national psyche and it becomes just another death toll for the history books like the Mongols vs. Everyone or Pearl Harbor. Every next generation feels the sting less and less.

There are two things that mark S10P1P10Y for me: The first is the excuse for bigotry and racism in this country and the second is my own personal narrative.

On Cyberpresse.ca (for all you French Speakers out there) there's an ongoing report going on where a journalist from Quebec is going around the world to important locations and running stories about how these places are affected 10 years later. She has stopped in New York, Murfreesboro, TN, Hamburg, Germany, Baghdad, Iraq, and will go to Kaboul, Afghanistan, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Inuvik, Canada. Trust me the TN story does not make the town 45 minutes from where I grew up look good. Between a woman who openly states that she's the number one opponent of a mosque being erected in the small Tennessee town while saying "We're not bad people" and showing reporters her 5-generation home's former slave quarters, a NY firefighter calling all Muslims evil, and a preacher who starts bashing the Koran and all of Islam for its shortcomings and questionable practices, you get the sense that many American folks are still scared shitless of people of color and especially anyone who could be Muslim.

I wonder why it is that our Norwegian christian homeboy Andres Breivik, who also openly stated his holy war, doesn't catch a shit-ton of flack for christians every where. No no, instead he is seen as a psycho and all christians especially those media people are quick to dismiss him and keep christianity clean. As if the bible doesn't say any whacky shit in it...oh wait. I mean the guy openly encouraged people to "embrace martyrdom" in his online manifesto! In his words, "100% Christian." Why is it that we don't run for the hills every time we see one? Oh right...Brevik was white so he's just a nut job, but those guys who carried out the attacks were totally sane, right?

To change gears from snarky to serious for the end of this one, I'm going to talk about what my personal S10P1P10Y narrative is. The truth is, I missed out on this generational coming of age event. I was in transit to Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina on a bus with a number of my classmates and some teachers. Nobody had cellphones at that time except for one teacher and they only referenced it in passing. People in the bus speculated as to what was going on, but unlike the majority of people in the country we did not sit glued to the TV all day and night for the next few days. Instead we canoed, camped, white water rafter, and learned about wilderness survival. We came back on the 14th of September only to be told about what happened. As we came back, the flags in the area were all at half mast, and we saw our first images of the events that took place. As we went home our parents and friends brought us up to speed, but the images I saw made no sense to me. They seemed like surrealist imagery or individual moments of death. There was no aggregate, I wasn't watching live or saw thousands of replays of the second plane or people jumping or the buildings collapsing. To this day I look at the images and they really don't touch me the way they do others. I recognize the tragedy, but I honestly don't feel pain, sting, or anger. I believe I am fairly level-headed about the experience as a cause of it. My generation gasped in unison but I was under a rock somewhere and no gasp will have ever come. I'm glad I missed out, for me my generational tragedy is Katrina.

Summer Garden

2011-08-22T00:46:00.001-07:00

The garden at the IOD has really enjoyed the hot early summer that featured strong rains, then the dry heat of the last few months (especially all the solanaceae ie potatoes and tomatoes). Right now the Tomatoes are taking off and the renegade squash from the compost pile is never ceasing to impress me. The Tree collards are now almost 7 feet tall on the high end and 5 feet tall on the low end.

2 shots of the tree collards

The Renegade 15 foot squash plant born of the compost pile

The Tomatoes

A nice clutch from the tree collard harvest

Bay Area Transit Murders

2011-07-18T13:21:00.000-07:00

In the month of July there have already been 2 shootings of people. Both were related to Bay Area transit.

The first was on July 3rd when BART police shot the supposedly knife wielding man named Charles Hill at the Civic Center BART Station. He was in his 40s and without a known address is assumed to have been homeless. He did not lunge he did not attack any officers. I suppose that warrants death by firing squad now.

Then on July 16th 19 year old Kenneth Harding died. The events surrounding his death are now incredibly clouded by what SFPD have claimed to discover in their investigation including the possibility that Harding died of a self inflicted gun wound. It's hard to know what to believe. Based on prior experience it seems to me like the SFPD is trying to cover its ass. I'm keeping this video up. The video is very graphic, please be warned, there's a lot of blood, but the aftermath is caught here on video. Another thing to note is the supposed handgun in the shot. If it is in fact a handgun, which is difficult to tell (why weren't more people looking at it?), whose is it, was it a police planted gun to make the situation sound worse than it was? At this time it's unknown:

Times of Plenty

2011-07-08T14:56:00.000-07:00

Through the efforts of the collective home, we've arrived mid-summer and we're in full swing of the plenty in our abode. Pears, avocados, apples, grapefruit, plums, tomatoes have all been recovered from the waste cycle and making our bellies full and happy.

Still got it

2011-06-22T00:46:00.001-07:00

I'm back on the dumpster chore in my co-op, which always motivates me to dig in and dumpster hard.

Tonight I went and picked up 12 pizzas from a pizza co-op dumpster, a bag of pastries, Organic Pink Ladies and Honey Crisps in the grocery store dumpster in an hour's time.

I'm working on an East Bay Dumpstering Etiquette Handbook. Check it stores near you.

May your dumpsters be full.

Return of the Loquats

2011-06-03T19:00:00.001-07:00

The summer months are coming back around. This means the arrival of Eriobotrya japonica or Loquats. What are loquats? These are loquats.

These fruit are so amazingly sour and sweet. However I think something that cannot be omitted is that it might be the most plentiful fruit in the East Bay, or at least be giving oranges a serious run for their money (Southern East Bay has a lot of citrus). Despite being so plentiful, many people do not have a taste for them, or just simply do not want to make the effort to pick them or even bother to try them. I have two trees in the yard of my neighbor. I have been spotted hanging like a monkey from trees in Oakland and Berkeley having my fill. If you haven't tried one yet, do it. It's foraging at its best; a central tenant of Freeganism.

The Media Shit Storm and Bin Laden's Supposed Death

2011-05-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

In our society's most recent act of inflation of self-worth, a collective rejoicing over the death of an individual man has begun and will likely not cease for weeks. To quote celebrated actor Harvey Keitel "Let's not start sucking each other's dicks quite yet." Unfortunately to continue with the image, this media shit storm is going to make the fellatio non-stop until something else crabs the collective attention...like a royal wedding. Oh can't we have one every week? It distracts us so well.

I digress, perhaps poorly.

OBL as he will be referred to in this post, the main man, the focus of everything is now supposedly dead. Not the first time. The Bush Administration falsely claimed this more than once, all to no avail. How many hundreds of billions of dollars did we spend (trillions?) on this witch hunt in Iraq and Afghanistan? How many hundreds of thousands of lives were claimed in the name of these wars? How many millions of people's lives and livelihoods did we destroy? And how many of the American people's lives are better off because of Bin Laden's death. Yeah, some may say that they feel better knowing that he's dead, but really their lives are irreversibly changed. Does it make us feel better really? At what cost I ask, at what cost?

Realistically, OBL pulled no triggers. Crashed no planes. We trained him, funded him, made him into the monster he supposedly is. We liked it a lot better when he was fighting the Soviets it's certain.

Let me be clear, OBL is/was an ass. His treatment of other human beings, specifically women and those who didn't have his same beliefs makes him a total ass. He deserves to be sentenced to forcibly rebuild the lives of those he saw fit to destroy, house by house, infrastructure by infrastructure, and look into the eyes of all those people and beg for forgiveness.

Regardless, OBL's death still leaves us with terrorism in this world.

Take Obama's quote from his address: "a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men women and children..." were the words he used to describe OBL. It's a sound statement, but please look into the eyes of the millions people that are oppressed by people who use violence in the United States or Americans who use it abroad and tell me that the rhetoric we Americans use to describe our monsters could not be easily used to describe our government, army, CIA, FBI, Police Forces, and us. We should be reacting with the same rage towards these institutions as we did to OBL.

Don't forget what else is going on around the world.

Getting Cooking Oil, and the Mutiny in Burkina Faso

2011-04-18T12:10:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I've posted anything about frugality, so here's a little something plus another little something for you.

Cooking Oil: If you've ever wondered how to get your hands on choice Olive Oil or other choice cooking oils go to Pizza places and fancy restaurants. Bring yourself a small bottle (16 oz. is best because this is going to require patience). I've found that Pizza places don't care because they're all grungy to begin with and fancy restaurants often don't have time to care since all their food is so gourmet it gets eaten anyways. If you go into the recycling bin behind these restaurants you will likely find large empty containers of cooking oil. A local pizza co-op around here uses olive oil, many others might use canola, or if you're at a fancy place perhaps other oils like flax seed. Anyways empty? Not really, there's almost always a little bottom left. If you tip it all the way over into your bottle you'll get a tiny bit, repeat a good number of times and you've got a 16 oz bottle of cooking oil. You be the judge of how worth it is to you.

I'm working on a dumpster zine. It will be sold at Pegasus Books in Berkeley and cost only what it costs to cover my costs of producing it.

Keeping in line with what's happening on this blog recently, I want to give a spot to the revolt of soldiers and youth in Burkina Faso. This rarely discussed west African country is one of the latest of the examples where dictatorial rules are being revolted against for augmentation of quality of life. Something that could indeed happen in this country in a variety of different ways someday.

Pour garder le rythme de ce blog aux derniers mois, je veux donner de l'attention a ce qu'il se passe dans le pays de Burkina Faso. Ce pays, rarement discuté, de l'ouest de l'Afrique est un des plus récents exemples ou l'armée et les jeunes se mutinent contre le gouvernement pour augmenter leur qualité de vie. Un scénario qui pourrait un jour se produire chez nous d'une façon ou un autre.

Troy Davis: Another Failure of the Racist US System of Justice

2011-03-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

Troy Davis was convicted for the 1989 murder of an off-duty white police officer in Savannah, Georgia. He has been on Death Row for 20 years and the state of Georgia has just rejected an appeal for a new hearing to re-evaluate the evidence that got him convicted in the first place. Davis is convicted of shooting the police officer during an altercation at a restaurant in darkness. The murder weapon was never found, there is no DNA or fingerprint connecting him to the murder, and of the 9 people who originally testified being a witness, 7 have recounted their statements and 3 have claimed another gunman responsible. Yet Troy Davis could be killed in the coming days because of a bullshit racist system. Another person of color's life ruined.

Troy Davis sera exécuté malgré le doute de sa culpabilité. Troy Davis est condamné à mort par l’état de Georgie pour le meurtre d’un policier, ça fait 20 ans déjà qu’il est dans le couloir de mort. Encore un exemple du système de justice raciste aux Etats-Unis,. Le meurtre se passa en 1989 lors d’une bagarre dans le stationnment d’un restaurant fast-food à Savannah. Un policier blanc, en repos, s’est intervenu dans la bagarre et reçut une balle mortelle. L’arme fut introuvable, aucun NDA ou imprime digitale a été retrouvée, et des 9 témoins qui ont témoigné contre Davis 7 sont revenus sur leurs déclarations, dont 3 indiquent qu’il y avait un autre tireur. Parce que la cour de Georgie a rejeté l’appel pour re-examiner l’épreuve contre Davis, une date d’exécution pourrait être choisi dans les prochaines deux semaines. Les Etats-Unis pourrait tuer encore une personne non-coupable.

Relations between Hawaiian Native and Tourists...

2011-02-24T17:30:00.000-08:00

I first went to Hawaii when I was 7. While I was there I have no recollection what I actually did. I might have been 10, I'm not totally sure. Anyways I do know that I went to Oahu and saw Hanauma Bay, Waikiki Beach, Diamond Head, visited the North Shore etc. Point is I was far too young to really understand everything that was going on. I am referencing the great disparities of wealth between the native peoples and the non-native peoples.

When you travel though the central part of the island of Oahu, the east, or parts of the north (I haven't really traveled in the West) you see a number of low income housing projects, and large neighborhoods that seem to indicate poverty.

It just so happens that Hawaii is known as the "Aloha State," a state that is supposed to be all about welcoming tourists (as most tourist economies are) but of course this overlooks the history of brutality and domination that the US has perpetuated upon these colonized pacific islands.

It was annexed by the US in 1898 and given statehood in 1959. Any colonized people will not take too kindly to being taken advantage of you can bet that.

I went back to Hawaii this past week to boulder, hike, and play ultimate with my friends at the Kaimana Klassik in Waimanalo (the eastern side of Oahu) and had a great time. But one of the patrons of the tournament is a guy with a light phenotype and while he was at a corner store down the street from the campsite he was punched in the face by a native Hawaiian man without anything as a warning.

Now I am using hearsay and of course I was not there but I have heard confirming reports from guys who were present that the man was yelling something impossible to understand to the guy and then ran up and punched him, breaking his jaw, and having him get surgery. Not a fun way to start your weekend. In this paradise there is always a problem somewhere. Nothing is perfect.

I was talking to a friend of mine from Santa Cruz who said that in a way he understands. In Santa Cruz there's a lot of resentment towards tourists in the non-tourist areas, the sort of area we were certainly in. Sometimes locals are just frustrated that their home is being sold out to tourists who will just use their resources and leave. A speedy recovery to the victim is what I wish, but I know that what needs to happen is native Hawaiian empowerment and access to upward social mobility in order to satisfy the needs they have instead of living in the shadow of brutality and domination that had been their reality for over a century.

Texaco/Chevron in the Ecuadorian Rainforest

2011-01-11T14:20:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Adrian Wilson for forwarding this to me.

Please take a look at this photo essay to see what sort of shit is going down in the Ecuadorian Rainforest:

"Descending from the Andes into the oil boomtown of Coca, the Ecuadorian Amazon, one of the most biologically diverse rainforests on the planet, stretches as far as the eye can see.

Nearly half a century ago, this part of the rainforest was the pristine home of five indigenous groups – the Quichua, Cofan, Huaorani, Siona, and Secoya. In the early 1960s, American oil company Texaco discovered heavy crude oil beneath this jungle region, called the Oriente, or the East.

Over the next three decades of oil drilling Texaco (now Chevron) spilled an estimated 17 million gallons of oil, and dumped over 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the rivers and streams relied upon by local residents for drinking and bathing.

The invasion of the region by oil workers wreaked havoc on the cultures of the indigenous communities while Texaco’s environmental devastation condemned the tribes to an ongoing public health crisis. The extensive oil infrastructure (opening roads to build oil wells and pipelines) propelled a massive colonization of the region by poor farmers from around Ecuador, who in turn would suffer from the same problems faced by the indigenous residents.

This is the first in a series of photo essays documenting the cultural and environmental destruction in this region of Ecuador by Chevron. The people who came to the region hoping for a brighter future in the wake of the discovery of oil encountered unsafe working conditions and exposure to toxic chemicals, and continue to live in the midst of a polluted environment that has caused an epidemic of oil-related illness throughout their communities.

To find out more about the historic lawsuit to demand Chevron/Texaco clean up its contamination, please visit the website of Amazon Watch’s Clean Up Ecuador Campaign."

Take a second.

2011-01-10T09:10:00.001-08:00

I don't have to reiterate my political positions. In my eternal critique of media and marketing of what is important I could go on for days about what I find more important than what is being said is important but alas, let's take a look. In case you haven't been on the up and up and you're from the US, an alleged pre-meditated (signs point yes in the 8ball vernacular) attempted murder of Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford as well as the deaths of 6 others (of course the 9 year old kid killed is a big deal) and the wounding of 9 others has taken place. Gifford, a democrat in a staunchly republican state, is in a stable but critical situation since she took a bullet to the head. Surgeons are optimistic of her survival. It sucks yes. The killer was a 22 year old guy who I'm sure is being given all sorts of labels. But I wonder (since the case is still pretty early) if he was acting on that old American tradition of killing politicians, was it her stances on immigration and SB 1070? Was it her stance on health care? Given how largely ineffective politicians are giving anything more than rhetoric, what tipped this guy off? I understand he might have an accomplice, but is that accomplice his philosophical motivator? Unknown.

Let's just take a second, breathe in, and remind ourselves that there are things happening outside of this country that are equally important. Often times a story like this breaks, and we forget the rest of the world exists.

For example:
Israel continues its occupation of Palestine and systematic brutality with two air strikes on "Centers of terrorist activity" in response to rockets fired from Gaza. There is no responsible party for the rockets, only speculation. A few people were injured by the rockets, there is no word on the death toll from the air strikes. The never ending analogy of a fly biting an elephant can be drawn. How can Israel continue to defend its actions?

800,000 Haitians are still in temporary camps after the Earthquake over a year ago. This tragedy continues.

In Tunisia and Algeria, there have been riots and beatings of police and protesters alike (almost 800 police beaten in Algeria) over the raising of the cost of living and staunch unemployment. I would not hesitate to say that a country that doesn't give its police a green light to shoot people who are struggling to survive and get beaten just as badly as the beating they dish out is closer to a situation of freedom than the US.

33 people were killed in a contested area of Sudan in a continued conflict of contested land that dates back to colonial redrawing of boundaries and neglect to pay attention to rivalry by occupiers.

Resolutions

2011-01-01T17:54:00.000-08:00

Rural Freeganism

2010-12-08T09:30:00.000-08:00

On Monday I was walking in the environs of Santa Cruz, CA on Wilder Ranch, a state park, and my friend Jessie and I came upon an awesome example of rural freeganism. Along the edges of the path on which we were walking there were brassicas growing. Some kind of hybrid radish green. When we looked up we noticed that we were walking along the edge of a 100+ acre farm of Brussels Sprout. Walking further we passed by a truck that was depositing the sprouts and transporting them across the farm. Of course the road it was driving on was just dirt and lopsided so a bunch of sprouts were falling out. Jessie and I took advantage and picked as much as we could carry which turned out to be a nice bag's worth. After splitting it up I came out with a nice sized bag myself. Jessie and I tried to figure out whether or not it was conventional or organic farming but it really seemed like conventional with the mechanized picking processes they seemed to display and the sheer size and uniformity of it all. Anyway all it meant was that we were going to wash them and that's what we did. These sprouts will end up being in tonight's dinner. Nature's dumpster so to speak.

Fiending for fruit

2010-12-02T16:49:00.001-08:00

I have been out of town for seven days and spent two days back in the Bay and I've not gone dumpstering...I am starting to fiend...hard.

Recently vegetables have been in mass inside my home so fruit has been what I've had my eyes on. The best fruit to dumpster is usually anything with a shell or skin but then again it is hard to turn down a good apple or pear...or even grapes. My favorite method of washing off fruit to make it seem healthier or better for you than straight from the dumpster is baking soda, lemon juice, then dipping it in water. The acidity of lemon and cleaning agents in baking soda offer a good fight against unwanted dirt or odor.

Burden of Proof

2010-11-11T07:57:00.000-08:00

I remember taking a class with Dr. Phil Zuckerman twice while I was in college. The second one (Modern Critiques of Religion) was when I was a second semester senior year with a completed thesis and a while lot of time trying taking a few classes trying to complete my major. Needless to say I was a little over the whole thing and partying too much. I slept a good bit in this class, but I do remember one thing that made so much sense and really continues to make a whole lot of sense to me: why when talking about religion do we put the burden of proof on the critique of religion?

The burden of proof means the fact that you can't take something simply at face value...you have to prove that it is true. For example, something you need not imbue with the burden of proof, 2+2=4. It's math, it's quantifiable, and needs not any more proof than we already have. You can take any two objects, add two more objects and boom you've got four objects. I didn't need to give you an example for you to know that it was true. Now when we turn to religion, we tend to find that the burden of proof is on trying to prove that god does NOT exist rather than being on prove its existence. Why? That doesn't make any sense at all. Well, as so many people have said, it's all a matter of faith. A matter of faith? Since when is that license to make something true. Just because you believe it doesn't make it true at all. When you question people about their religion (as useless as the question may be) there is an inevitable dead end because you can logically argue for and against certain principles but once you get into the fantastic, the supernatural it all comes down to a leap of faith, people say they just believe it. Well, then that sucks the logic right out of any argument. A simple response might be,
Me: "Okay, you believe that a man rose from the dead and etc etc, do you also believe in Atlantis... or zombies?" the answer is almost always
Not Me: "Come on, there's no such thing as zombies!"
Me: "Okay...well what about zombies is any more or less fantastic than Jesus?"
Not Me: "Because Jesus was real."
Me: "Okay...how can you prove that when in all of the VERY DETAILED historical records of the time in the area, the records that talked about everything from kings to petty thieves, is there no mention of Jesus?"
Not Me: "There's one."
Me: "One? You mean the historical records that were in possession of CATHOLIC PRIESTS until after the Councils of Nicea and Chalcedon in the 5th century where they also decided to omit gospels that didn't align with their agenda?"
Not Me: "You're just believing conspiracy."
Me: "Okay what about the fact that the things Jesus did and the majority of old traditions in Christianity can be linked back to local (ie Pagan) traditions and fables. Or what about the fact that you're insinuating some ROSE FROM THE DEAD...something that no one else has ever done. Or you believe god is a good and merciful force when in fact the actions it displays resemble more a petulant child like when god defied gravity (which would have destroyed earth) and put the sun backwards, prolonged the day so that Jacob to commit genocide on non-believers. You see what I'm saying. What about how almost every religion has similar stories but you discredit them as being wrong."
Not Me: "They are wrong. It's just a matter of faith. You clearly have none."

Thank goodness I don't because honestly what's the point if you are going to disregard reality to live in fantasy. In no other facet of life do we take "faith" as a plausible reason to hold something true. I may have faith that 2+2=5 but that doesn't make it true, we can quantify 2+2=4 and not the latter. I mean in the Dark Ages we thought that the plague was wrath of god...well it turns out that due to our horrible sanitation (thank you for that technology ancient peoples who the Europeans clearly did not take time to learn about) rats and other animals carried plague to Western Europeans.

I was thinking about this this morning and just was like, WHAT THE FUCK? Why do I have to prove that some magical supernatural force DOES NOT exist? Hell, does that mean I have to prove that sorcerers and Mortal Kombat is NOT REAL too? Hell no, I won't go.

Oakland's Finest Police Work

2010-11-10T10:49:00.000-08:00

Once again, OPD has graced our city with the murder of an unarmed man who was running away over a disputed domestic violence call at a laundromat. The man, Derrick "D.D." Jones was considered by many of the people in his community as a good man, a business owner, and a great father. Instead of catching the guy, the cops claim that he tugged at his waistband and had a shiny object which of course meant gun, right?

This is insane. At some point people are just going to stop calling the cops to settle their problems. The folks in the interview said it right. A lack of opportunity to employment, education, and not being shot at will by cops. Hours earlier a man was arrested for having shot off rounds at cops. That man was not killed. I feel this might be happening more in the near future.

Never forget 1/1/2009

2010-11-09T00:08:00.000-08:00

"I don't know. I don't feel like a person. I don't feel like a human being right now."

These were the words of a CCSF student at the rally in protest of Johannes Mehsrele's less than harsh sentence, healing of the community at large, and in memory of Oscar Grant who was murdered in front of countless BART patrons on January 1st, 2009 by a BART cop (Mehsrele) while he was visibly subdued and on the ground calmly. Video evidence was not enough to convince the most steadfast of the USA's racist institutions that Mehsrele was guilty of murder. Even if you believe his argument and the police report which says that although Grant was on the ground, he was resisting arrest and the cops who were involved (Mehsrele and Anthony Pirone) both claim and Mehsrele was afraid, stands up, says "I'm going to taze him" then instead pulls out his gun and shoots Grant in the back, how can you assume that that sort of mistake only gets you 2 years plus time served? If Grant had been the one doing the shooting with a gun he had a permit for he would have been lynched in public. Pirone punched and kneed Grant in the face, was holding him by the neck, and had him on the ground. Even if Mehsrele was scared he's a cop, he had other cops with him. Personally I believe that if he was scared he was scared that a hundred witnesses would decry is dumb ass for being a racist murdering asshole. Your gun has a holster for a reason. So that you have to think about pulling it out. Temporary fear is not an excuse, just like how drug influence is not an excuse. Those are explanations. The question remains did he mean to do it. That's the difference between murder and involuntary manslaughter. Well let me just say this. Involuntary actions include farting, sneezing, and the like. Pulling your gun out and shooting someone point blank when they are lying on the ground is not.

On Friday November 5th, I went to the aforementioned rally. It featured speakers, community open mic, performers, altars, memories, art, anger, sadness, frustration, hope, hopelessness among other things like people. Community leaders ranged from fiery to calm, inciting to reciting, but, as always, inspiring. Former Black Panthers, community leaders from West and East Oakland and long time fighters for social justice were featured but the community open mic spoke to me the most. A lot of youth came up and spoke their minds as well as the middle-aged and elderly. The quote I started this post out with was the most wrenching. This guy also said this

"I look around here, I don't just see Black people. I see everyone here. White people, Brown people, Latinos, Asians, Black people. But now what? What's it going to take? Are you going to do something now? I can't eat. I've just been walking around all day just trying to understand. I don't know. I don't feel like a person. I don't feel like a human being right now."

On some level it's almost impossible to empathize with him, on another I can. I can certainly understand that someone like Michael Vick served 4 years for killing dogs. Mehsrele will do 2 plus time served so closer to 7 months. That basically puts the value of a life (specifically of a Black American) below a dog. I can see how that would be unnerving.

Like most other protests I've been to, I didn't much get into the performers. They were saying good things in their songs, but when I protest I want to stay focused, I want to engage in direct action, not be serenaded or call and response someone's chorus; even if it is power to the people or no justice no peace. Anyways, people were getting restless, and there had been enough talk. Community members pleaded with the crowd to not destroy our neighborhoods but heal ourselves through community building and direct action. Some 200 people took to the streets around 6 PM when the rally ended and marched through downtown into East Lake on their way to Fruitvale on 10th street. The Police set up a blockade of riot cops on 10th and 4th Ave, about 4 blocks from where I was eating and sitting (I was on 14th [International] and 4th Ave). The blockade, police helicopters, and search lights did nothing but incite the crowd of people. They split off and started to dash into the adjacent streets like the one I was on. Businesses were told by cops to shut down. As the crowd moved some people started busting windows of cars and businesses. I could not stand for this. Not only would it escalate an already perturbed police force but it was destroying the businesses of communities of color, our communities. A number of people were arrested. Apparently some bullshit police report said that someone stole a cop's gun from his holster. How then did someone not get shot. How could you pull that off without 20 other officers shooting at you. If you take a gun from a cop, you better be ready to use it or you're going to die. There's no "Okay, give it back" you would get shot no questions asked. Since no one got shot, I can't believe that was true.

I did not destroy anything. Me and my friends were just sitting and eating dinner in a Laotian food place after the rally when the crowd came through. It was reckless of them to discredit the movement with that senseless violence instead of more constructive direct action.

One thing that was frustrating was KTVU (Fox) running puff pieces on their evening news with Mehsrele's family members drawing up favorable sentiment in the week prior to the verdict without doing any counter media with interviews of Grant's family. That sort of blatant bullshit resulted in a demonstration at the Jerry Brown rally where we unveiled a banner that said 'KTVU Supports Killer Cops' right in front of the news cameras. Some security guys tried to get us to put it down by grabbing it and telling us we couldn't, but the irony of it was that they were wearing shirts that claimed Free Speech was one of their values...strange. Anyways the 10 of us holding the banner struggled with the men verbally and physically and because we were not being respected we began to shout our banner out along with "JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!" None of the Democratic Candidates referenced Oscar Grant's case despite it being mere days prior to the sentencing. One of us walked up to Jerry Brown and Oakland's finest and demanded that they recognize what had happened. Brown took the flier and the boys in blue kept their position blocking him from us.

Here's the ranting section:
Anyways all in all, this hopefully will encourage more participation, more open-mindedness, more action, more activism, more community building, consensus, locality, and ultimately justice. Certainly my anarco-localist evaluation of what has happened and what should happen is draped in the notion that we should begin ignoring the institutions that so blatantly do nothing but oppress people. To paint a very classic and cliche image, the justice system and police are the footsoldiers of the elite at home. Our participation in this society is held together by the threat of violence towards us and our loved ones or invasion from the IRS including loss of livelihood. Like in the past the FBI will do all it can to silence radicals. The Panthers know it all too well. But if our current generation starts to focus its resources in community building, then we could start making the independence that existed when the Panthers, Brown Berets, Young Lords, etc established. All of these autonomous bodies that provided services like free breakfast, health clinics, and education came to be on the will of real people who didn't want to be less than human, who wanted to remove themselves from the alienation society forced them into. Of course all these organizations suffered their own internal problems, humanity has its flaws.

However, we could truly build a consensus based model and a functional self-serving community. It starts with basic needs being met so that we may find equity. I mean it's not like the local government, state government, or federal government is providing many of the services that communities (especially communities of color) need, so why not make it happen on our own? Small steps will take us far, let's remember that a revolution need not happen over night, but our small steps will eventually become a giant step and a framework that we know helps us can be in place. We shall see. Justice for Oscar Grant...I hope.

Personification: Death of the American Dream

2010-10-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

The month of October has been marked by my amazing return to unemployment. Glorious, I missed it like all get out (southern expression). I took a trip to Eugene, OR, wrote letters, painted houses for money, delivered produce for food not bombs, listened to jams, played some jams, got rained on, biked in the rain, played frisbee, recovered from my nagging foot injury, cooked, cleaned, did my jobs, and so on and so forth. Basically now I am catching up on the 9 months of sleep (I'm getting 6 hours a night now!) and destressing from the whole experience for the next few months. I would say I had a great time being a teacher but I needed to get out and do something else.

The lack of desire and ultimately the inability to settle down is something emblematic of our generation. We still live in a society where we cling onto this notion of the American Dream, settling down at the age of 24, living a heteronormative life, having a job, kids, a car, and a house, which realistically are not all bad things. Having a family and stability are good but with the change in our economy and the death of the stepwise career path as well as increased physical mobility (not upward social mobility, which is as bad if not worse) and increased capabilities of communication, the idea of settling down is virtually unattainable and in many ways is completely undesirable. In the past many people took that path because there was no other option, it was societally expected and there wasn't really any other way out. You took what job you could get and boom that was it and most other of those things would follow. Now since we have the ability to move and take new jobs wherever possible (and with the way the economy is going, it's almost a necessity) who or what is keeping me in one only. This of course has been greatly facilitated by a college education and the advantages of being a white male. I never forget how lucky that has made me. In the end I'm going to keep on rolling with it because I am financially sound due to extreme frugality and see what life throws at me next.

I don't like to write these kinds of evaluations on my blog...but what the hell.

A different perspective on revolution...

2010-10-24T23:23:00.000-07:00

Humans and societies have and always will be a tangled set of turmoils and contradictions, this is human an inevitable.

Revolution is something that has become something of a dirty and misunderstood word in our time. It would seem that the general opinion of what revolution means includes a paradigm shift and instantaneous radical change. If we were talking about poltics, it would be something like an immediate shift of ideology from a governing body, if we were talking about technology it would be the creation of new life-changing technology and its introduction into our society for individual or collective use. The important thing to note is that it demands speed and very little time to adjust to the radical changes it brings. Revolution does not necessarily need to be embodied in such a way. I and some other folks such as David Graeber (author of 'Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology') would argue that revolutions can and do occur in mass and gradually. Also, revolutions that occur gradually have greater success because they allow for adjustment. Certain utopian socialists (like Stalinists) tried to push their societies into impossible shapes and using their ideology as scientific fact committed great atrocities to ensure the speed of their process. It is power backed by violence that makes almost every society in existence today unegalitarian. Instead of asking to create an egalitarian society with a cataclysm that we can call "the" revolution, I propose that we think more of revolutionary action.

I'm approaching this idea from an anarchistic framework right now. Anarchistic framework is leftist, yes it's true, but unlike Marxism which tends to ask broader philosophical questions that certainly have their place for analyzing the systems around us (ie revolutionary strategy), it is an analysis of how best to enact revolutionary practice (ie true industrial democracy, consensus, direct action, when is it appropriate to use violence in self-defense?)

Revolutions do not necessarily need to topple governments, they should involve collective action that rejects, thus confronting, forms of power and domination and reconstituting social relations. Think instead of creating autonomous and consensus-based collectives localities, towns, cities in the face of power gradually accumulate to accomplish a lot from reconnecting people with their communities, having say in decisions, and abolishing racial, gender, seniority, or class-based generational power and disrupt the forms of capital that reproduce themselves and maintain oppression in our world.

We're talking about Consensus and removing ourselves from the alienation from our labor and decision making processes, a shift from democracy to consensus

A Year Ago

2010-10-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

A year ago today the pastries died. Semifreddis shut down their dumpsters in Emeryville, CA to move to a new location making room for the expansion by Pixar. The new location of Semifreddis is on Bay Farm Island near the airport and Alameda, and it is a beautiful and fun ride. However if you were to go there now, you'd probably find it empty of anything you would want; unless you are looking for trash, you'll find plenty of that. Yup now there's a trash compactor and nothing to eat...it sucks.

Last year at this time I could watch them throw away their pastries and find cinnamon twist loaves which I'd quickly bring over to the farmers market and trade for whatever I wanted. It was trade at its finest. RIP Semifreddis.

Hello new bakeries. I'd mention their names, but I never kiss 'n tell.

College Ultimate Restructering

2010-09-10T22:38:00.000-07:00

Generally I would refrain from bringing ultimate into my blog, but sometimes it's appropriate. USA Ultimate has just restructured their regional break downs with divisions to further move ultimate towards NCAA-esque organization, which I agree might be a good direction (although I'm a fan of keeping ultimate sort of a fringe sport), but I'm not there to argue about that. Arguing that this is to cut down travel time is nonsense. You thought that folks traveling in the Metro East had it too hard so you decided to cut their region in half and make two even shittier regions then make Nor Cal have to play New Mexico? Give me a break. I won't get into Divisions and all that stuff.

Look at these fuckin regions...jeez.

Let's start at the top shall we?

Region 1: Take the Nor Cal out of the NW and you got this region. So this is actually quite acceptable. Living in Oakland I would hate to travel to British Columbia in April to get rained on and play a crappy tournament...no sir, about as much as I love traveling anywhere north of Eugene to play frisbee and get rained on...not at all. On the men's side you got Oregon, UBC, UW, Western Washington, OSU...aaaand not much else. You just took out Stanford, Cal, Davis, Santa Cruz, etc and make it a whole lot easier to qualify my friends. On the women's side...same story, but conversely Cal, Stanford, and other Nor Cal schools are now relieved on the need to beat UW, Oregon, and UBC to qualify...this region is still a bloodbath.

Region 2: Couldn't just make California its own region could you? Over 2/3rds of the teams in this region come from California. Now Nor Cal has to play So Cal and Arizona...there's still a whole lot empty space out west. And people are going to have to travel quite a distance to play...don't remind me of how long it was to travel to regionals circa 2005. On the men's side, Colorado stands outside the fence but now UCSD, UCSB, Claremont (if they ever get their shit together), Arizona, SLO, UCLA, and all the good ol boys have to duke it out with the rough and tumble boys from Nor Cal such as Cal, LPC, Santa Cruz (Holy shit will anyone stop Cass and ~~Russ~~...I mean Max Finch), Stanford, Davis, Chico, Humboldt, etc etc. This region has become a bloodbath for real. The advantage the SW teams have is being used to the heat whereas the Nor Cal boys, unless regionals is in Nor Cal, will have to deal with temps out of their comfort zone. On the women's side, things just got even more complicated. Sure Kali is out of the picture but now UCLA, UCSB, USC, UCSD, Claremont, and Arizona will have to deal with the Nor Cal armies of Stanford and Cal. Blooooooodbath.

Region 3: Apparently this region includes the Yucatan...how far is that from Boulder? Again give me a break USA Ultimate. Just Boulder to Denton is a long ride. Anyways, Colorado, UNT, Texas State and Texas are going to be the powerhouses of this region only to face potentially Arkansas or CSU...but I doubt it. On the whole this is a bummer for Texas on the boys side with such a strong force in the north, but what can you do. On the women's side we have Kali and Texas...aaaaaaand...Bueller? Bueller?

Region 4: Wow...just wow. Has a team from Nebraska ever even made it to Regionals? What a huge fucking region...and sitting on stop of it is Carleton. Carleton's dilemma of beating Wisconsin is now moot. That's a big win for them. Now what stands in their way is Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota, Wash U...and U North Dakota-Fargo...watch out. They definitely broke over even. The only downside is that Carleton does not get to practice at regionals against UW. This region wins the "Most Cornfields, Least Population Density, and Greatest Geographical Diversity (mostly thanks to the Badlands)" On the women's side, Carleton and Iowa pretty much have it on lock.

Region 5: Wisconsin now has a new team to duke it out against before nationals in Michigan and if State ever gets its shit together then them too. Indiana could potentially get involved but that would be a stretch. Wisco and Michigan stand on their own right here...unless UI-Champaigne or WKU gets rolling. Oh yeah some Canadians might get around there but I'm losing steam. Now the Plains Regions has been split ceases to be a bloodbath and the Great Lakes region just got a big boost.

Region 6: Similar to the Atlantic Coast region of the past just minus the UNC and NC-State or UNC-W. Florida, UGA, G Tech, UT, and UCF are going to vie in this region.

Region 7: North Carolina is the big winner here. UNC, NC State, and UNC-W now have a far lesser challenge without Florida and UGA in the picture. I expect Maryland and Delaware to make a little noise but look for the better Carolina to rule the field.

Region 8: Someone shoot me. Another shitty region for Pitt to dominate. Don't expect West Virginia to produce much, and Ohio ultimate sucks (sorry Weston)...okay fine the boys from Columbus (OSU) will likely sit up top with Pitt, but seriously guys, was the grand plan to make the Metro East into 3 shittier regions than before? I guess so.

Region 9: Part 2 of Operation: Split Metro East Up and Make the Drive Shorter but still produce the same shit. There are no good teams from this region. Cornell will just waltz backwards to Nationals unfortunately...even though they suck...or Wesleyan. Just sad.

Region 10: Expecting the Quebec, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia teams to boost it to nats? Since they can't play outside from October till June I'm guessing no. That leaves Brown all by its lonesome with Amherst or Middlebury...sad.

So I guess this was all just a plot to make a few bloodbath regions and let all the poor kids in the East feel alright about life then barely change a few others *slow clap*

First Times

2010-09-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

For a person who has never dumpstered before, the experience could be potentially scary, gross, and uncomfortable...but it could also rule the hell off the block for sure. Be ready for both I'd say. This past Thursday my friend Kelsey and I rode into the darkness for her first dumpster run. She was excited and ready for anything. We rode to the local grocery store and I talked to her of dumpster etiquette. Upon arrival we saw that some folks had definitely already been there, but there was lots of leftovers for the pickin'. Corn, carrots, and eggplant a plenty. I've been laying lower from easier spots and hitting the tougher ones for the fact that I know fewer people will be there and there's a better chance it stays open with my careful etiquette. Cranberry Walnut Bread is the jam of the month. Anyways here's some good shots of the goods I got in my cut.

Let me also mention how much I love brassicas. Cruciferae is just amazing. I love cauliflower, collard greens, kales, broccoli, cabbage, radishes, etc. I've been really into growing tree collards and regular collards despite the heavy presence of aphids in the hood, as you can see some lady bugs have got my back for sure. I get to grow about enough for a meal for 15 each week and half. It's great. I have my brassica garden in the back and front in pots full of Berkeley's soil. Sweet.

Born Free

2010-07-25T23:50:00.000-07:00

I heard through the grapevine that MIA's new music video "Born Free" is the most blogged about video...perhaps ever or something along those lines. What I will say that it (the hype) intrigued me to watch it once. I am a fan of MIA's music sure, she knows how to crank a good jam out and of course make its subject matter be fairly political in nature. Everything from the Tamil Tigers in her videos, song lyrics, and art, to Third World struggles, poverty, etc. She's got a knack for talking about shit that most other artist in her position of glamor and fame do not talk about so much and make it profitable, kudos to her.

The video "Born Free" is not revolutionary, but it certainly puts imagery of ethnic cleansing, internment, police brutality, Ireland, Palestine, and Abu Ghraib in mainstream media (however play or lack thereof it will get). The video takes place in Los Angeles and clearly displays technical strategies of SWAT agents and military task forces assigned to find and forcibly detain individuals around the US and abroad. The recently leaked documents on Afghanistan will display a similar story. What this video being set in the US does in my opinion is remind us of violent, abusive, intrusive, and brutal detaining of individuals on our hometurf, and this includes brutalization of innocent bystanders as the video displays as well. Furthermore, the video shows a number of the detained individuals who are all "gingers" being separated and made to run across a live minefield. After resisting, a younger one of them is executed with a bullet to the head causing all of them to run. One by one they are killed by mines or beaten by these paramilitary units in the middle of the desert where they have been taken. This bears striking less violent but equally dehumanizing resemblance to our detaining of our own people during World War II who were deemed too Japanese. Like Hobbes said, in the name of what we consider our own safety we relinquish our freedoms to a powerful force and like many others said after him, our sense of right and wrong, blinded by fear we stop being humans and treating others as such.

Well, here's a link to the video

Times of Plenty and Thoughts on teaching

2010-07-12T22:53:00.000-07:00

Today I acquired 4 flats of white nectarines and 2 boxes of zucchini from Salinas (which was used as trade for the nectarines). Wild. This is what that looks like. I will be working on dehydrating them starting tomorrow. We should have dried nectarines in a week. Summer is certainly upon us.

Another thing that I was thinking about today is that when I was talking to one of my 7-year old students we were reading and she saw 2 kids walking down the street. She said "White, black, white, black, white..." while turning her head side to side. When I asked her what she was doing she said that "black" people were out there and "white" people were in the school. I asked her why she thought that and pointed that she was not white. I showed her a picture in the book of a chicken with white feathers. I asked in French "Are you white like that?" She said no. I then asked if those people were "black" like a kettle in the story, she said no. So then I asked if she thought they were different. She said yes. I explained that she was not so different. I asked her why she thought everyone in school was white. She said "Well, I'm tan. But it's easier to say white" Both her parents are from South America and I would say she has a darker phenotype. When she said that, I had to think about my time in the DTB circle. The frustration some of my best friends have had to endure since their childhood about having lighter phenotypes and other making assumptions of them being "white" and sometimes how a few thought it was just easier to accept it rather than fight it. This girl is smart, but her reaction to differentiate and classify indicates the strength of a society that seeks to differentiate peoples by phenotype.

There can be no justice...

2010-07-09T00:06:00.000-07:00

...when Structural Racism and oppression continues in such a blatant fashion. It was not bad enough when Oscar Grant was killed, but his murderer, ex-cop Johannes Mehserle, was just found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and will likely get 2-4 only. However, I agree that a cop (BART Cop at that) being found guilty is a step in a direction where racist murderers are held accountable for their actions instead of being cradled into freedom by a racist judicial system.

It just plain sickened me that the trial was moved to LA, the jury all-white, and evidence such as tens of videos of the event and a track record of putting young men with dreadlocks and dark phenotypes in wheelchairs by shooting them not enough to convict this man of murder. To put it in extreme, if a brown man had committed the same crime, he would already have been executed.

I don't want Mehserle to be executed...far from it. His death would only serve to his advantage. He would be getting off easy. He ruined a family, a community, and a city that works so hard to pick itself up after the white world of cultural capital labeled it as a wasteland, drug zone, and food desert. It would vindicate a community of policemen and only serve to increase tension. I believe Mehserle should be sentenced to a lifetime of community service in the communities he saw so fit to destroy. I'm talking building gardens, houses, repairing roads, apologizing one-on-one with Grant's family every year, teaching anti-oppression, etc for 12-16 hours per day for the rest of his life. Something drastic like that. I also cannot condone the destruction of property and the subsequent lack of legitimacy.

I have to imagine that none of the community leaders or organizers engaged in that behavior but rather gutter punks. People trying to use it as an excuse to break shit in the name of destroying capitalism. Either way, there's a bunch of cops out, I hope everyone stays safe.

Spring

2010-05-27T18:19:00.000-07:00

I've been a busy boy. Summer is soon upon us and as such stone fruit are making their comeback in the Bay Area both in Farmers' Markets and on the streets ready for the foraging and I mean plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, etc. As you can tell I'm keeping the dumpsters hopping, but other things are going on.

I'm still teaching and boy oh boy is it hard. The more I've gotten to know these kids I've realized how truly disrespectful they are to one another. As cool as Montessori is, I've really thought a lot about how it was really conceived for street urchins in Italy who were thankful to have a pencil and an adult not wailing on them with a club. On the contrary, these kids I teach are mostly privileged and really poorly parented. It's pretty sad. Sometimes I feel like I teach special education with the amount of problems these kids have and then project on each other.

I've made a little panorama of my co-op. Check it out.

The Essential Gear for City Biking

2010-05-12T12:43:00.001-07:00

It may seem like a lot of stuff, but in reality you'll know where your efforts go once you're stranded miles away from a bike shop, friend's house, or any other safe place to stop and work on your bike. This is a list of things I bike with every day and everywhere I go.

Helmet ($30): Self explanatory. Though I agree that death does not happen exclusively from dome shots when falling from a bike or hitting something (hitting your chest can crush your internal organs and there's no helmet for that), having something for when you lose your balance and hit the pavement can be the difference between life and death, choose life. They're only $30 new.

Patch Kit ($5): Nothing is more important for peace of mind and recovery from tube problems than a patch kit. Patching your holes can get you back on the road in 15 minutes.

Spare Tube (New - $5-7): Find the size of your tubes and go buy yourself a spare to ride with that is new and fresh. Sometimes holes cannot be patched, in which case you have to be ready to place it or walk home.

Spare Tube (Old - Free): When you know that you don't want to take the time to add a new tube or if you want something to use to tie something down in event of emergency, having an old tube that you've used and patched can be a lifesaver.

Set of Allen Wrenches ($10-15): If you get the all in one, it's a bit easier to deal with. Anyways, ranging in all sizes is important. You never know when adjusting your crank, brakes, seat, handlebars, etc will be necessary.

Socket Wrench ($15): For those of you who also have nuts and bolts still instead of Allen, it's useful to be able to use in order to fix your crank.

Lights ($10 each): Get a front and back light. Even if it saves you once, it will be worth it. Also it legitimizes you as part of traffic.

Tire Levers ($3): You need to be able to get your tires off somehow, that's why you've got em.

Magic Marker: You need this to mark where you need to patch your tubes. Sometimes it requires a water test and it's easy to lose your place when patching a tube. So mark it with your marker.

Hand pump ($15-30): Thanks for reminding me, Dan-O. I ride with one because without it, your re-inflations would be for not. You need one of these. Preferably with a universal head or an adjustable head for shraders and presta valves.

Safe riding!

The Dumpster Dictionary (Part 1)

2010-04-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

Spot: Dumpster.
Example - "Let's hit up that spot."

Spotter: Someone who watches for security or helps you gain access to dumpster.
Example - "Will you spotter this spot?"

Bust: Dumpster with nothing good, locked up, or tight security.
Example - "Man, that Semifreddies moved to Bay Farm and has a trash compactor. Place is a bust."

Johnny Q.: Security guards or people from a neighborhood who care enough to give you shit.
Example - "Will you spotter this spot in case a Johnny Q. comes by."

Burgle: Taking from a loading dock and not a dumpster.
Example - "Now it is time to burgle, but don't be surprised if you get arrested."

Swim: To jump into the dumpster and dig into the lower depths.
Example - "If you swim to the bottom, you'll find pastries."

Drunkstering: Dumpstering while drunk.
Example - None needed.

Dumpster Etiquette

2010-04-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

Dumpster etiquette is important. You simultaneously do not want to bite the hand that feeds you (piss off the owners of said dumpster) and also leave some treasures behind for your compatriots who will follow you in there thereafter. Achieving these two etiquette steps are fairly simple but remember that not everyone is logical.

Remain Unseen and Unknown:
The less they know you are there, the less problems you will have, and the more chances that they will not bother the treasures you seek to find. If no customers see you, if the managers don't see you, and if employees who care don't see you, there's no reason to change anything about the site. The problem with the much vaunted dumpsters (Such as the late Semifreddis and the grocery store whose name rhymes with Fader Clothes) is that everyone made it their home base and because the gettin' was good for so long and for so many, there was no need to remain unseen. Those were the salad days. No one gave you guff, no one cared to hide or get in the dumpster and remain out of sight. People talked to employees. Of course that came back around and managers caught wind and started slashing bags, bleaching, and putting things on lockdown...or worse yet, move 10 miles away and have only a compactor *sigh*

The best way to never have this happen is to go only at night or hit and run during the day. When you get to the dumpster, stash your bike or transportation out of sight. People at Semifreddis had the horrible habit of parking their cars and bikes right next to the dumpsters thus cutting off the one-way traffic and pissing people off...also being incredible visible. Take your bike and put it behind the dumpster thus out of the view of passersby whether they be concerned citizens or employees. If you drive, park elsewhere and bring bags because parking a car in front does not help anyone and induces the tragedy of the commons and loss of a spot. Make sure you jump in the dumpster. Don't be scared, it's part of the game. Jump in and close the lid on top of you. Seems gross, but you've gotta do it. Take your light or flashlight and illuminate while you dig. Find and then peek out to see if anyone is coming. If not, open up, get out, and briskly walk away. This can be the difference between busting a spot or keeping it a wonderful lifeline for all.

Leave some behind:
Nothing sucks more than getting to a spot and finding it empty. The unwritten rule amongst dumpster divers is that you leave at least 60% of the total of what you find. Sometimes keeping 40% is more than too much if the dumpster is really full, but at least give your fellows a sporting chance at finding what you both want. It's a nice gesture and something you'd want to be done to you.

Good luck.

If I had one wish...

2010-03-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

If I had one wish, I would destroy the part of media that causes people to be afraid of...well everything. Why is it that the common perception of a person of light phenotype with a gun is that they are patriotic Americans with a concern for safety, whereas a person with a darker phenotype with a gun is considered a gang-bangin' criminal? Well, my answer is that because we are marketed fear (which includes fear of others, diseases, animals...everything) we appropriately stock ourselves with goods/opinions to counter the dangers. Afraid of coyotes? Buy a fence. Afraid of robbers you see on the news? Buy a heavier lock on your door, a security system, an uzi, and a guard dog. Afraid of anyone with a darker phenotype than you? Buy or rent in the suburbs ie. Afraid of Inglewood? Move to Brentwood. Afraid of West Oakland? Move to Montclair. Afraid of the Taliban? Buy into the institution of politicians that will blow every man, woman, and child who looks mildly from the middle east until they're all gone and you're safe. Or give the money and weapons to a counter group to fight the war for you. Afraid of immigrants? Buy into racist rhetoric. Afraid that expansion of health care for your fellow country-person will cause the catastrophic downfall of all freedom because it will inevitably lead to socialist utopia of despotism and death? Hate on health care, etc.

Now you may be wondering why at 7 AM this morning (I woke up around 4:30 this morning for some reason) I am writing this, well it's because every so often I remember why I despise media and marketing. Marketing is one of the greatest ills our world has ever had to suffer through. You know like how in the early 2000s violent crime had decreased 20% but news reports about violent crime had gone up 600%...yes that's what I mean.

Marketing of products: build your fear of not being cool, incomplete, or in danger without a product and promptly go and buy it to fill that hole of consumption in your life so that you can be appealing enough to fuck, complete instead of void, and safe instead of hanging by a thread. Read the gruesome murder story, or that sitting on public toilet seats will give you AIDS, then never take a shit in a public restroom and go buy yourself a new Acura...then you'll feel better. Fear then consumption, fear then consumption, fear then consumption.

Marketing of ideas: Immigrants are evil, lazy, immoral, free-loaders who do nothing but spoil it for all of "us" real Americans. All people from the middle east look, act, and think in one way...and it's diametrically opposed to us in every way. The so-called "Black community" is full of rapist, murderous, culturally insane individuals who act in tandem with one another. Why? Because you see it on the news, read about it (who the fuck still reads anyways?...Podcast that shit), see it in movies, etc.

Since when has everyone with the same phenotype thought the same, had the same history and background, or been able to be represented by one person? Why do we constantly use Jesse Jackson as the voice of all people of color? No disrespect, the guy works real hard, but he doesn't deserve to screw everyone over by being the one VOICE of all people we group with him. Last time I checked people from the certain places in the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia etc. also have fairly dark phenotypes as well. Why do we think they're all "black people" in the "Black Community?" That they hate everyone and only want welfare and fried chicken? Call a horse a pig and it's a pig; enter marketing.

That image has been marketed through all mediums as the one singular reality rather than a possible existence not sought out by all or many, or anyone. And if so, why? Why does cyclical poverty exist? One could point to education, cultural capital, social capital, food deserts, lack of services, dehumanization, apartheid...you name it, we got it for cheap.

I swear if anyone so much as tries to insinuate that immigrants (and I know people are talking about people from Mexico on down to the tip of Chile with darker phenotypes) are lazy, undeserving, free-loaders, I might snap. It's unreal how hard it is to emigrate. To leave your country, family, and friends. To be stuck in a state of illegality because doing it legally is damn near impossible if you don't have money. How can you compare coming here on a boat in the 16th century on, killing the inhabitants, and then calling it yours? Can you imagine how appropriate it would be if immigrants just decided to start bringing guns with them and shooting us all out of the sky for their benefit? Yeah, we'd be pretty pissed. How do you think the millions of Native Americans felt when that happened to them? I'd be pissed the fuck off too if you killed my family and friends, then separated me from the culture of my relatives and those who came before me, dehumanized me, then used me as a second class citizen...yeah pretty pissed.

So I am now going to focus a lot of energy on changing people's perceptions on Marketing...here we go energy...start NOW! My next post will be about how I fall victim to what I decry as deplorable.

Food Recovery 102

2010-03-15T23:56:00.001-07:00

Food waste is insane and sad. It was calculated that Americans per year wasted over $40 billion dollars of food was wasted including almost 200 pounds of food per person, over $500 dollars per household (14% of food purchases) in the mid 2000s. Do you think that went down? So do like Snoop said and step your game up in shine...or rain...?

Depending on the precipitation factor of your hometown, you may or may not want to use climbing shoes and/or boots for your mission. All too often I will be taking someone on their first run to the bakery dumpsters or other potential spot and they will be wearing sneakers, which while being comfortable and light, can end up getting you stuck.

If you end up having to climb wet fences (here in the Bay, the fog can drastically increase the difficulty of scaling a fence) slipping is no fun, not safe, and gets you nowhere closer to your prize. Slipping high is very dangerous. Make sure you have good holds on the fences and in certain cases the dumpsters.

If a dumpster is wet and slippery, open the cover up, jump onto your stomach against the upper edge then tighten those abs cause it will hurt otherwise. You can hang there and grab what could otherwise be barely out of reach.

Because you're going to be heavier on the way out, you may want to think of chucking your bag over the fence before you climb it again. As well, find yourself a good hold and point of attack, go for it, and hang on...once you're there, go the distance.

Get yourself some dumpster mangoes!

Haiti

2010-02-22T17:36:00.000-08:00

I had for a while wanted to remain silent about this issue because I wanted to know a bit more about what was going on before I wrote about it, but after a good amount of time and a bit of information processing I've got something to say on the matter.

We can't rightfully blame the earth for its tectonic plates which has made a lot of our planet's evolution possible but it's striking how a 7.0 crushes Haiti and barely scratches Japan. Haiti was an economic disaster before the earthquake, the worst in the western hemisphere. However the poverty of Haiti is not a mystery. It is the result of a global economic system of stripping the natural resources and lives of human beings for the benefit of few elites. This system is enforced by military power. The US military has a long history of being in Haiti. In 1915 at the behest of US banks which had overtaken the Haitian banking system in 1910-1911, US marines invaded and occupied the country until 1934. Quickly, Haitian legislature was dissolved and a new constitution written by US officials; adopted with a shoddy vote in 1919. Things such as prohibition of land ownership by foreigners was done away with. US forces used a law adopted in 1864 that required peasants to engage in free labor on roads instead of of paying road tax, forcing thousands to build hundreds of miles of road for increased access and mobility. This was a return to slavery shed so long prior. When Haitians revolted US marines killed up to 15,000 people. The US Navy admits killing only 3,250. Despite leaving in 1934, the US kept control on external finances until 1947.

Before, during, and after the US occupation, transnational corporations and local elites stripped all values from the side of the island of Hispaniola. Military dictatorships went one by one. Businesses such as Brown and Root of Texas (now a big defense contractor) built a super-sized dam in the Arbonite River valley, flooding fertile agricultural land used mostly by small farmers. Those farmers were displaced and due to miscalculation took out a large percentage of the island's forests and left it a breeding ground for malaria. Without trees the land washes away and water reservoirs are impossible to clean while roads and homes impossible to keep from being buried during natural disasters.

It's sad, it sucks, and I commend all people who have donated and soldiers who are there trying to help distribute goods.

Some great Haitian-run organizations in existence prior to the earthquake that can be donated to for help include the following.

Aristide Foundation medical facilities run by Haitian and Cuban doctors
Partners in Health
Working Together for Haiti

I thank the article "US Troops Play 'Heroes': After Natural Disaster In Haiti The Real Disaster is Global Inequality" written by PB Floyd and Jezebel from the 2010 Issue of Slingshot, page 3." for great leads on information.

Teaching once again...

2010-02-06T11:15:00.000-08:00

Wednesday January 27th, 2010 I started a new job as a French Immersion teacher at a Montessori school in the Dimond neighborhood of Oakland. I started the job after a two week interview process wherein I thought I would not get the job at all, but ended up succeeding and now I can't really imagine what I was thinking beforehand.

This job involves the following responsibilites:
1. Speak French (Got that, native speaking family, merci maman et papa!)
2. Teach kids (Done that, less good at it than #1 though)
3. Teach little kids (Done that)
4. Teach little kids everything in French

So this is harder than I had imagined previously since I was told that many of these kids had French Immersion through their pre-primary and primary education. These kids are 6-10 years old, and I don't know whether or not I was capable of learning new languages that well when I was a young lad but to say that these kids have various levels of proficiency would be an understatement. Pretty much none of these kids have proficiency beyond...well beyond a small non-native child. I don't really know what I was expecting. These kids write decently (not surprised) but speak and understand terribly. Just awful. Sometimes I repeat myself 3-5 times before I just buckle and get another of the 3 teachers in the class to help.

Oh did I mention that each class has 4 teachers (including me) and 22 kids. With the freedom we offer these kids to move around and work believe me, 22 kids is more than plenty. Apparently my classroom is the worst in terms of behavior and I believe it. Even so, it's not worse that public school, this is light years better. And I've got all the resources I need. Each "classroom" is really an apartment with a kitchen, a science room, a cultural room, and math and English room, a bathroom, a million books and math helping tools, etc. Kids eat lunch quietly with proper seating manners, they have a tablecloth, mats, utensils, plates, water cups, and their elbows don't touch the table. Sounds crazy to me. I was even offered money to start a garden maybe a mural project.

Two issues have come up. First is that one of our kids has serious social issues. She says she has no friends, sometimes lashes out violently, is frequently a distraction, has threatened suicide, and hates work. Why is she in school? She needs a psychiatrist. She does the classic thing where if you're trying to get to her to do something by asking her, she'll crawl into a ball and try to get difficult to grab, if you grab her then she'll unbutton your shirt or something or grab your hair, etc. You finish by picking her up and carrying her out the door. The second is that one kid is just defying his gender norms through and through. To say that this kid is fabulous would be the only way to describe him. He expresses his feminine side and many kids have gotten confused because they're already gender programmed, but we encourage this kid to express himself and the kids to stop being ignorant. I like that.

Basically I get to hang out all day, speak French, teach kids a thing or two while they suffer through the difficulties of responding to me in French, sometimes even understanding me, and hang out with great teachers, laugh, and learn. These kids are teaching me a thing or two as well. Learning geometry at 6? I would have never thought of it. Times tables? Grammar? It's far beyond what I could do at that age. And it's all in cursive! I had not written cursive since elementary school minus my signature. It's coming back but damn the first day was hard! I've even started teaching French lessons, let's see how that evolves.

Other great things about my job include:
1. Kids say crazy shit such as, "I'm not white, I was born in Boston!" WHAAAAAT?
2. The art teacher in the loft above my classroom is also a freegan.
3. I'm getting paid dollar bills.
4. A 9-3 30 hour work week is awesome.

MLK Day (Confronting Violence of the Body and Mind)

2010-01-19T02:59:00.000-08:00

"Violence seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers."

This paraphrased (by me) quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. has stuck with me for some time now. I was not really into MLK until I got out of college. I respected him as a person who confronted many aspects of injustice in the world including American society while simultaneously being aware and paying attention to international issues of injustice as well. Though rife with struggles in his personal life, he focused so much of his life force to break down common-sense rationality with regards to racism, murder, and violent resistance to change in the American apartheid to people of phenotype color.

Some would point to Gandhi as his inspiration for non-violence. Regardless to what or who actually pushed MLK to stand with non-violence (even self-defense) is a useless question to ask since the end result was the important thing.

He disassociated his fear of those who hated him and stood in the face of death time and again in order to stand in diametric opposition to a world-wide (but specifically American) exploitative, degrading, and brutal system of ignorance and fear perpetuated by an oppressive group (in this case white Americans) which had been rendering black Americans little opportunity to attain upward social mobility or feel comfortable or respected in main stream American society since the end of slavery in the 1860s.

These words, despite all that had been done to him, his loved ones, and his community, are truly inspiring. They come from a place of love. They are well crafted and professional and they are something to aspire to. As a person who used to feel hatred towards Anglophone Canadians for their dominance and degradation of the Québécois from 1763 to 1980 (Yes it took that long, but look at South Africa for goodness sake), I look at those words and try to be what they imply. I'm trying to shed my hatred of those who told my grandparents and my ancestral bretheren to "Speak White" when they tried to hold on to their French dialect and traditional values (Catholicism, which I do not condone aside from the fact that it was a unifying force in the French community until 1960), but life is too short to be pissed off.

Like MLK said, I'm not going to forget what happened, but I am going to forgive and evolve forward rather than stay in the past and shed my hate, because that baggage is too heavy. A society that stays stagnant in hatred does not evolve properly and shall always be weak.

I can thankfully say that I no longer feel hatred to Anglophones, but it still hurts to see that my cousins born to Québécois mothers and Anglophone fathers have largely neglected their French and much of the dialectic nuance found in the region. I'm dealing with that, and I will learn to stop feeling to so bad about (aboot) it. Being separated from the homeland made me try much harder to maintain what I was missing about it and to see them living there and be less than perfectly fluent as I was disappointed me. I was prideful, but pride was baggage too. It was inflation of the ego and I work to keep it in check.

In the end, MLK did a lot, but he was not the first nor will he be the last fighter for social justice, he does not have a monopoly on that. It's good that we remember him, but let's also remember the others who did so much to try to make this world sane (let's get real, it never has been) and less brutal, if only for a little bit of time. From the Black Panthers to City Slicker Farms, let us not forget. To me that is what MLK Day should be about.

The Types of Dumpster Runs

2010-01-07T00:25:00.000-08:00

Dumpstering is a way of life, all day every day some would say...I'd be one of those people. However, not every day is the same. There are variations upon what someone can pull off in a given week what with the changes in the daily needs of one's life. Say you have to feed yourself, say you have to feed nine people and then some, say you are hitting a spot that requires hiding, jumping, crouching, and athleticism; what do you bring? What is your game plan? Well, here's some thoughts on that.

There are 3 types of dumpster runs that I consider when I'm about to go out, and they are based on the following factors (not in any particular order):

-Distance: How far is the dumpster?
-Reward: What do I hope to find in the dumpster/How much is it worth to me?
-Timing: How reliable is the dumpster/Is there a schedule/What time should I go?
-Danger: Is there security/have I scoped it out?
-Work: Is it locked/Will I have to or can I even bust undo this lock?
-Exertion: How much climbing/hiding/jumping/crouching/crawling/diving will I have to do in order to be safe from negative consequences and not be seen?

1. The first kind of run is what I call "Hit-and-Run"

Hit-and-Run is the kind of run you go on when you need or want to work fast. Experienced dumpster divers can do this in pairs or groups but usually this is best for a solo mission. No one to slow you down or make noise but you. The idea is get in, get out, do not get spotted by employees or guards. For these spots there is usually no lock, but there is most likely a fence or someone watching from the societal panopticon. These runs are good at any time of the day because conceivably you'll be out before authorities can stop you. For these runs you have to know what you want before you get there so that you can either find it immediately or leave empty-handed but free. There is no room for waiting, digging, and searching because as soon as you're there, chances are you've already been spotted or you're hiding, and trying to make the least amount of noise possible. Jumping into the dumpster and closing it on top of you is a great way to buy more time and when you pop out of the dumpster they'll probably be confused giving you time to get away without catching any flack. Usually you're looking for one or two items so a smaller lighter bag is more than ideal. Bring a light, you'll need it. Think of this as running through a sprinkler to cool off in a yard where you've been repeatedly told not to go.

2. The second kind of run is what I call the "Casual Swim"

The casual swim is a run where you know you're not going to be rushed, employees don't care, or there are no consequences for being caught. This is a great sort of run for first-timers to get acquainted with the concept of diving or groups to go and have fun, joke around, and even make a little noise. Bread dumpsters are usually ideal for this. You can jump in or hang on the outside and slowly dig deeper and deeper looking to find whatever you can down below, perhaps there are some jems down there. I used to take a casual swim at Semifreddis once I had snuck in to the dumpster without being noticed. The lower I dug, the more I would tend to find awesome pastries and cinnamon twist bread. That gets me thinking, perhaps I should check Semifreddis again. Sometimes this is the best for a produce dumpster because you simply cannot expect to know what you'll find and there's usually a layer of boxes and lettuce to get under before you find good stuff like berries, cauliflower, or bunches of leafy greens and herbs. You're not looking for anything in particular but you don't need to take too much, you're just looking for what's good. A nice backpack or messenger bag will work. Think of this as a quick dip in a kiddie pool.

3. The third kind of run is what I call the "Full Tank"

This type of run is predicated around getting a lot of goods. You're feeding or trading with a lot of people here, you're going to need many people, a bike cart, or both. Cars can work but illegally parking your vehicle and vehicles in general just draw attention, the idea is to not be seen here. You really need to map this one out correctly such that you're heading home on a flat or a downhill slope or else you're going to find yourself struggling to get home with all the goodies you've found uphill and it sucks. Anyways, this kind of run is a mixture of the two, you've got a lot of people to feed here so you need to hit many spots, the hardest ones first and the easier ones later because I promise as you run out of steam, you're not going to want to do it right or anything that is difficult once you've been out for two hours or more lugging between 10-50 pounds of goods on your back or in your bike cart. Hiding from security is much easier when you're fresh than when you're exhausted. Bring in backpacks to the dumpster, if you've got a team (which I suggest) have one person wait with the bikes and bike cart, if not lock them up. Fill your backpacks and bring it back to the cart, then fill up and get going. Think of this like jumping in a big huge pool to cool off then running into a hot tub or something, you get the idea.

These past few weeks have been wildly successful for my dumpstering, check out this haul from a Hit-and-Run

Also this Full Tank run from two days ago. Sometimes I even surprise myself. Done with two friends and a bike cart.

Turning Pages...

2009-12-29T14:28:00.000-08:00

A new year is upon us. 2010 promises nothing different.

I've lived in Oakland for a year and a half now and I don't think I could be happier anywhere else. The knowledge I've gained, the friends I've made, the self-realizations I've had could have been accumulated anywhere I suppose but I'm glad it's here.

The dumpster diving did not end with the death of Semifreddis (which I actually believe might still be alive, but more on that later). I have successfully gotten a rhythm of getting to another bakery for less rewarding yet still fulfilling baked goods. The Whole Wheat Walnut Bread is delicious and I picked up some olive bread yesterday but I have yet to taste it. Last night, during a dumpster mission I recovered the following:
2 Whole Wheat Walnut Loaves
2 Olive Bread Loaves (these are deliciously savory)
1 Country Levain

Last week I hit up the grocery stores and got:
3 Cauliflower Heads
15 Tomatoes
3 Peppers
6 Pomegranates
10 Apples (Made apple butter)
3 Pounds of Brussel Sprouts
1 Bunch of Collard Greens
1 Bunch of Chard

With the tomatoes and cauliflower I went ahead and made Indian Lentil Soup with a Vegan Fritata and a 3 Seed (Fennel, Mustard, and Cumin) braised Cauliflower dish with Tumeric as the main spice. Delicious.

Trade has virtually stopped but I've been volunteering more with Food Not Bombs and bringing home some more greens.

I wrote a novel. It was for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and it probably wasn't all that good, but I was happy I tried. Many of the chapters were like independent short stories so I started a blog to work on them.

Http://dmcwriting.blogspot.com

There's no way I could calculate how much money I saved with my dumpstering and frugality, but I am proud that I carried it out and now have a big house of 9 people to share it with.

Next year I plan on getting some steady work and continuing my life here in Oakland. Who knows what that will entail.

Quotes from Last Night...

2009-12-23T13:34:00.000-08:00

Policeman: "Why were you running?"
Me: "I was excited."
Policeman: "Excited for what?"
Me: "Karaoke. Jaguar Karaoke."
Policeman: "Well grown men do not run in the streets."

Waiter: "Hey we heard some people say they saw people shotgunning beers outside, was that you guys?"
Me: "Nawwwwwww, that wasn't us."

Me: "WHERE THE FUCK ARE MY GLOVES!??!"

Last night I went disc golfing with Prof, Brian, Kma, Bonds, and Dollar. We got tipsy (I got drunk) and I lost my gloves. I found my gloves. We went to Lanesplitters after throwing discs at the clock tower at Cal for fifteen or so minutes. Afterwards we went to Jaguar Karaoke in Temescal. I lost my gloves again. I guess since I found them in the free pile it's okay. After that we went to Kitty's and we had some great $2.50 PBRs. After that we went back to my home and had a slumber party. It was one of the best nights I can remember having maybe ever. I was just so happy to have a good group of friends out there having fun over the course of seven or so hours. Boosted.

Putting the Jersey on the table

2009-12-10T10:30:00.000-08:00

I fear change.

Three words when put together reign so true over me. I like my routine. I like my few possessions. I have a few jerseys. I have never traded a jersey away in my life. Friends of mine like 808 and Cuzzi are way down for trading but I'm scared of it. Today I secured two jersey trade with my good friend Smalls from Riot in Seattle. We're doing a two Jersey switcheroo, I got a Riot jersey when I visited last summer for a jersey to be named later. Now she's come back from Colombia and she got me a Dominican Republic Domino Jersey which she claims (and I believe in full) is just absolutely filthy. I'm trading her one of my most coveted jerseys, the white Cruz jersey, I'll still have the green, but I love that white one. This is the first time I've put it out there and I have wanted to put all of my jerseys on the table before, but here we go, there's a first for everything, right? I'll make a post about that domino jersey sometime soon.

Reading the News

2009-12-10T10:19:00.000-08:00

Being in San Diego taking care of my grandparents the last few days, I've had the displeasure of reading one of the worst newspapers on earth, The San Diego Union Tribune. Really the only redeeming quality of this newspaper is that it relentlessly writes articles about the Chargers, and I can appreciate that being a Chargers fan.

Reading the newspaper was something I learned to do with a grain of salt, or maybe a whole salt shaker. Reading two articles today about these young Americans who have been arrested in Pakistan after they disappeared from the States and were thought to have become radicals potentially joining up with some radical groups. The article does not touch on the alienation that people experience in this country, the fear and hatred of white christian Americans towards anyone with a darker phenotype than theirs, or the fact that these young adults likely had larger problems than the simplistic view of hating Americans if they were in the mood to join up with groups of un-sanctioned non-government supported violence.

The second article that caught my attention revolved around a prison riot where they said that the riot was caused by rival gangs of "blacks and Latinos." They did not touch on the difficulties of prison life, the stresses, or the fact that society largely abandoned and turned its back upon people who are from low socio-economic status.

Why would anyone actually say that in a media outlet? I don't know, but I'm just pissed off as always...too bad for me.

Injury

2009-12-05T15:48:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago I injured my right quadriceps. For ten days I was bed ridden. My quadriceps atrophied horribly. I got a massive contusion and subsequently could not bend my leg and to this day I'm still only at about 90 degrees, which is actually a huge step up from where I was even a few days ago. Now I can walk up and down stairs and I'm slowly becoming more and more capable of stretching my leg. The physical therapy is painful. It hurts but I know that the more it hurts now the sooner I'll be back on my feet. I can't bike, this means I can't dumpster or work at the farmers' market. Life is hard when you injure yourself. I can't wait to get back on and start dumpstering again.

Thanksgiving Morning Social Theory

2009-11-26T09:03:00.000-08:00

It is generally regarded that Austrian-born Economist Rudolf Hilferding was the first theorist to describe organized capitalism or the monopolistic finance capitalism that is predicated on the use of credit finance and capital that is based in no actually currency. It was not until the US dollar became the international standard currency in the early 1970s (Smithsonian Agreement) that the United States could rise to prominence so heavily with an aggressive platform of finance capital. This move was pushed heavily by Richard Nixon. Deregulation of banking under the many presidential administrations but most notably Ronald Reagan. This deregulation coupled with supply side economics, supported by anyone without a brain for economics (including democrats mind you), allowed for the swollen credit economy and the current situation of mass debt and the collapse of the financial system because of credit allowing for unsound investments that in the short term made a few people very wealthy leaving the rest of us to shit our pants when everything went to shit. Since the international economy is based in the US dollar and the fact that US, China, Canada, and other large economies are all intertwined, if one fails, they all shall fail. That doesn't necessarily mean the elites of these systems will be poor, it just means our financial systems as we know it shall be turned upside down. Oh boy.

I took the time to wonder today what would occur in event of this. If something falls, something else comes in to take its place. I wondered who would take the place of economic prominence. What will be the new currency? All I know is that if we do enough community building and try to make ourselves as self sufficient and sustainable as possible, we just might not send ourselves into dystopic hysteria and be able to survive.

Capitalism succeeds when it disconnects us from the skills to understand and employ the means of production to help us achieve our basic consumptive needs to survive. Get crackin' on those skills y'all.

There's a new spot in town...

2009-11-22T17:45:00.000-08:00

There is a spot not far away. That lies much closer to the Bay. In which you find great treats no wait. Once you jump over the gate.

As the title of this post suggests, there's a new spot in town. This spot makes my old dumpstering a bit of a joke. There is no schedule, it's hard to know the pattern, I don't even think there is one because you can only go under cover of darkness; or so I think. Basically below San Pablo in West Berkeley, there lies a bakery I'm quite keen on. I've just recently started hitting them up and I haven't had a chance to consolidate or find something people like at the farmers' market so I have yet to start trading but prospects are good. Walnut bread is a hot commodity. And who even knows if they've got pastries, but I'll find that out soon enough.

To hit this spot you have to lock your bike up, then climb a side fence about ten feet high, then scale a smaller fence and hide behind trucks. Then you sneak into all the dumpsters and check it out. Then the reverse. It's all fairly sketchy and I have no idea if employees give a damn, but I'm sure as I do it more I'll find that out.

Rest in peace, Pro.

2009-11-09T00:04:00.002-08:00

Though I never actually met Protik Mia, he touched my life. I have heard many stories about what he has done, the way he has touched others, even how his first child was conceived and a subsequent team was created. He sounded like an awesome guy and I learned of his lore at Kaimana in Hawaii. If that's not personality then I don't know what is.

Last May I was talking with Quinn "Chucky" Kinnett at an ultimate function and he told me about how Pro was in a bad situation. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I immediately decided to contact him and send him my thoughts. He quickly responded, I had no idea whether he would or not, but I certainly not expecting one thing or another. I figured the inundation of correspondence he was received would have made it difficult for him to respond, but he did it all the same. He told me that he was glad that I had a great time at Kaimana (thanks to Alice Chen by the way who helped me out big time with getting onto Almos Pau, Try Wait when I had no idea that I would even go) and in the Bay Area. He expressed his appreciation for my effort to send him a note and wished me the best. It's the only communication we've ever had. Yet when I found out of his passing from my friend Korin this evening I knew that I and many other people would be sending their thoughts and love to his loved ones while simultaneously missing him dearly. He put a long hard fight against one of the most aggressive and lethal cancers we know to exist and spent the time at the end of his life near his wife, children, and many loved ones. Despite the harsh circumstances, he remained positive and gave all he could to this world.

You will be missed, Pro. I send my thoughts and love to your loved ones.

The day the pastries died.

2009-10-25T22:41:00.000-07:00

On October 21st, the pastries died. The dough stopped being made. The flour was never even delivered. Semifreddi's Bakery, the location of all of my underground economic adventures for the last 10 months has official shut its doors and moved. Instead of being about 3 miles away and on the way to everything, it is now 8.5 miles out of the way, making it a 17 mile round trip. It moved to Bay Farm Island, an island adjacent to Alameda where a bunch of golf courses exist and a corporate park in which it resides. Sad. I went to check it out and I thought there was a chance, but it was DOA. The dumpsters just had trash in them. None of the old bread dumpsters were there. I checked the loading docks and would have had to steal in order to get what I wanted. One might tell me to "Boost It" but I'm just not in the mood to burgle. Robbery takes this game to a whole new level. A level I'd prefer to not be taking it to.

Over the course of these past 10 months, I have to guess that I've been getting hooked up with an average of $30 of produce per week. I'm thinking I got produce that would have cost me $1,200 to buy, and all for a collective 30 hours that I'm guessing I spent obtaining the goods(15 minutes at a time, 3 times per week). Worth it? I think so.

Now I have to shift focus. Where am I going to direct my energy for my underground economic ventures? There's plenty more dumpstering to do, but none of it will beat the 100% organic Farmers' Market trade. I might just going to stores and buying Cinnamon Twist loaves to trade, it still comes out to my benefit.

Either way, Semifreddi's is now dead. The spot is now officially a bust. I can bet I'll keep my ear to the ground for the next big spot.

RIP Semifreddi's (This was my last haul)

Claremont vs. UCSD (Finale)

2009-10-13T01:43:00.001-07:00

The 2007-2008 season was my senior year. I, along with Stout and Jughead, was a captain of the team. Another tough fall season and early spring season made me wonder about how far we could take the team. We had lost Joaquin, Haddock, Fuji (to UCSD), Peaches (to UCLA), Dorsal, and Wonderboy to graduation. I was feeling optimistic about my game. I had managed to stay healthy the entire pre-season whereas Jughead and Stout both had to recover from injury. Another dismal showing in our early season tournaments (SB Invite was cancelled and we went an unimpressive 2-8 at Vegas due to copious amounts of drinking, which I had some of my most epic moments and moments of excessive self-destruction that I have put behind me...and nudity. which I have not put behind me hehe) left me to hope we would have a better Prez Day. 2 3-day tournaments back to back was no joke. We were barely in shape and we had some tough games to play. We were lacking offensive handlers with confidence and experience, this void left us at a disadvantage but thankfully Maniac and Markham stepped up to be two of the biggest assets our team has ever had along with Stout and Jughead. The improvement both of them made from when I first met them to when the 2008 season rolled around was mind-boggling. Maniac went from being a tentative young player with good, crisp throws, and a huge pull to being a go-to cutter in the middle of the ho-stack with incredibly precise monster hucks in any situation the mark threw at him. Markham between the summer of 2007 and the spring of 2008 developed upwind and downwind precision on his hucks and had a mesmerizing ability to break the mark. We all know his defensive woes, but at times he managed to surprise me with his ups and poach Ds (almost never effective).

We came into Prez Day fired up to disprove the naysayers. We promptly went 3-1 on day 1 by beating Cal Poly Pomona, UC Irvine, and Arkansas handily crushing them without Weston or Markham, but losing to Arizona (who seemed unbeatable after their run at Vegas beating Florida and losing on cap against Wisconsin in the finals). On day two we smoked Kansas and came in to our second game knowing we had a fight coming. UCSD Air Squids, no doubt disappointed about 2007's shortcoming against us, coached by Dollar, and boasting a roster of many athletic players seemed like it would be anyone's game. Their Vegas was much better than ours, and they had picked up one of our best handler/cutters of the past few years, Fuji.

We start the game out on O. Stout, coming off of his lebrum and collar bone reconstruction has neglected his hamstring and pulled it on day 1, so he is out. Markham and Weston are there however. We are moving the disc quick between Gordy, Riley and I along with the cutters and I hit Jughead on a crossfield blade for the goal. 1-0. Fuji gets the disc on the sideline and Weston continues his domination of Squid cutters and layout Ds Boont.Gordy picks up and puts an IO flick to Maniac a bit too far. They get it back and put a disc over Frosty's jump for the goal. 1-1. We come down and Gordy runs a sucker cut from the handler position to the deep and off the bounce, Markham lights up his cut and hits him perfectly on a laser backhand. 2-1. On D we are poaching the inside lanes and forcing their handlers to swing it repeatedly . Nero is forced to put up a huck in an effort to get the O moving but it is too far for Biel to get. We work the disc up with Gordy, Jughead, and Weston in the hands (I know right). Weston throws an arcing backhand to Jughead who lays out and grabs it just before it hits the ground. With a head spike in motion, Jughead has given us the 1st break of the game. 3-1. On the next O, Nero gets greedy and puts a throw and go backhand behind his receiver and Rook Jr. comes up with it. We move the disc around and I get it on the flick side. Seeing Weston I immediately rip the hammer to the back corner and he catches it uncontested but a pick is called, so it comes back. We work it around the front of the stack and Weston hits Rook Jr. off a swing for the goal. 4-1.

The next O is uncontested. Biel, Boont, and Roget work it up the openside and swing it once on the goal line to Pumba who hits Biel for the goal. 4-2. The next series, a crazy lefty bounce pass from Weston to Riley works out and he puts a great throw to space for Rook Jr. who burns his guy and hits Gordy on the upline for the goal. Gordy with a nice throwback spike gets us up once again. 5-2. The next O, Roget sees Boont headed deep off a swing from Fuji, the huck goes up. Weston literally runs right by Boont and grabs the disc. Thus continuing Squid abuse from Weston. Weston hits Maniac on the under who contiues to Jughead. Jughead, Logan, Weston and I keep running the in cuts completely uncontested. Weston sees Jughead on the SD cut mid-pick call and Jughead comes down with it, but the play was unaffected so it stood. 6-2.

On the next Squid O series, Pumba, about 20 yards out, sees Biel open but puts it too far. We get the disc back and Maniac runs deep, I put a big back hand that goes about 50 yards before getting tipped by Boont, just a little too low. They get it back and Nero hits Biel for a quick strike goal. I was throwing very few turnovers per game that year, I was a little bummed. 6-3. We throw a turnover and Nero lights up a huck that travels over my head to break side and I can do nothing about it. Goal. 6-4. On our next series they come down zone, The 4 man cup. After moving the disc quite well we get stuck on the sideline and Jughead floats one up that gets carried out of bounds. We get the D and do a quick move jack to Jughead but it carries and Roget is there, another turnover. The huck goes up and I'm stuck choosing between two defenders, another goal. 6-5. On our zone O, the hands (me, Riely, and Gordy are moving the disc well. I throw a risky blade that Markham keeps in bounds. After working around a bit more, Markham is left alone down the line and I hit him with a 20 yard flick. He's right outside the goal and he calls time out. Off the timeout he hits Logan on the open side for the score. 7-5. Half time.

We come out on D and get the turn three times (the third on a desperation strike by Rook Jr. on the goal line). The fourth through sixth times we get the disc back were on drops or miscued throws. The seventh possession, Nero hits Biel for the huck and goal. In this point I also threw a huge break scoober to Jughead on the endzone, but it was neither here nor there. 7-6. On Offense they come zone and we break through the cup but a bounce pass from Jughead is misread by Prude and results in a turnover. On the mark I go 360 and on stall 9 the throw goes up and Jughead snags it, he fast breaks with Logan and Gordy who ends up throwing a lefty backhand to the break side while being fouled to Logan for the goal. 8-6. On the D, Fuji puts a huck up and Prude almost gets the D on the bid but Forge catches it and flips it to Biel for the goal (common theme?). 8-7. On the next zone O we launch an over the top attack on their zone. Riley, Jughead, Gordy, and myself all throw scoobers in a row then a few hammers and the last one a huge IO scoober to Jughead from Gordy. Jughead hits Rook Jr. in the front of the endzone for the goal (common theme?). 9-7. On the D Boont puts a huck a little to far for Fuji. On the O Gordy hits Maniac on the in who hucks it to Markham. Markham skies Pumba who then puts it to Jughead who skies some chump. 10-7.

On the next D, I mark Biel and catch an underthrown huck to him. We work the disc up and huck it to Gordy who skies Nero, calls timeout, then gets stalled after the time. Frustrating. Logan gets a D but foul is called. The next throw goes too far out of bounds despite a nice grab. I was marking the guy who grabbed it and saw it would go out, so I let him go and he caught it and everyone in the stands (Squids fans were there) cheered, but to no effect. I hit Gordy on the upline and he rips it to Weston who grabs it in a pile and flips it to Logan. 11-7. On the D Markham gets a piece of a D off a huck but Forge comes down with it and hits Fuji in the endzone. 11-8. Now we would turn it on.

Squids stopped going zone. But their man was doing little to stop us. Gordy put an IO backhand to Markham who bids in the breakside corner for the grab and the score. 12-8. On the D I marked up on Forge. The huck went up and I got on the inside and Ded it. Gordy picked it up and hit me on the swing. I hit Prude we swung it around and got small gainers. Maniac got the disc and lit up Rook Jr. for the wining goal. 13-8.

This game solidified our dominance over the Squids. We would see them again on their home turf at regionals in pool play and soundly beat them in front of their fans 14-9. Weston would go on to abuse the Squids with 3 layout Ds in that game and a few assists. Jughead would continue to rule on Forge and company with some big grabs that you can see in his highlight film. We beat the Squids without Stout at Prez Day, we would win again with him and win the C pool to play Arizona in Semis. A game in which we would come up short again 15-11 but have chances to bring it back. Either way, that would conclude my career against the Squids with a 4-1 record. In 2006, we would have lost every time we played them. In 2007 and 2008, we were simply the better team. The Squids were one of my favorite teams to play and would end up being some of my good friends in the ultimate world. This is the end of the Brains vs Squids love story in which I was involved. May the future between the two teams be bright.

Claremont vs. UCSD (Part Two)

2009-10-12T00:42:00.000-07:00

2007, my junior year, Prez Day at UCSD. It was February and the beginning of the season had been a bit tumultuous. We started off the season with Stout returning to Claremont after winning Spanish mixed nationals. We had high hopes, we looked fly in our black jerseys (yeah Black) and we had a powerful core of returners. Our O line consisted of Joaquin, Fuji, Myself, Scott "Wonderboy" Mahr, Stout, Peaches, and Jughead. We were running dynamic vert stacks, planning on implementing our ho stack by sectionals, much like Oregon. Our dynamic vert was predicated on Joaq or I catching the pull as us running a two man dominator up the field until we called it off and jacked it or put it to a cutter who jacked it. We practiced with 4 second stall counts so we were throwing passes quickly. This is where Joaquin and I's call for "games" originated where we would beat zones together just us two. We had been training as hard as we could but after an 0-4 run at Santa Barbara Invite, we were feeling low. We had lost a close game to Santa Cruz, in awful conditions and gotten drunk and mailed it in vs. Humboldt, Colorado State, and Irvine. Not a good start.

A few weeks later we were in San Diego. We came out flat and eeked out a victory, 13-11, against Duke on some huge skies by Stout and Jughead and some of my first examples of on point jacks left and right. This was the tournament where my hucks first blew up big time. My favorite of which is this. This next game we came out awful and just lost to Humboldt. I was wondering what was to come. Our next game was against CSULB who we quickly defeated. The last game of the day would be against UCSD Air Squids. I had not played them since our regional match up in May 2006. People know me for being an epic pessimist before games start and once my adrenaline kicks in, a stubborn person who demands victory when I feel competitive. This was no exception. I thought we were going to get trounced, but this Squids team had no idea what was coming to it, nor I for that matter. We started this game on O, but a quick turnover results in a break for the D. 0-1. After swinging it back and forth a bit, Joaquin boosts it to Haddock who pancakes and scores a fairly contested deep shot. We're on the board, but I am still pessimistic. 1-1.

We pull and the are working the unders. Nami and Quatro are getting open at will. Nami gets the goal. 1-2. Off the pull Joaq and I run give and go and I hit Rook on the under who boosts his massive flick to Jughead for the goal over Forge. 2-2. On the D we come down hard, poaching the lanes. I bid on Dangle's under and Gordy D's the next throw to Boont. I pick the disc up and loft one to Stout who skies Boont for the goal. 3-2.

Squids come down and work the unders eventually hitting Forge again for the goal after a bid from Jughead. 3-3. Joaq and are running the dominator in the next point. Stout gets an under and throws it to a D but he gets fouled, disc goes back.. I boost it but Jughead farms it. Prof gets the disc and boosts it down field himself, but Joaquin comes through and skies Fuji and two Squids for the D. He puts it to Peaches who bounces it to me. I throw a backhand huck to Stout for the goal. 4-3. Again the Squids are working the unders. Dangle gets a bad bounce and drops the pass. Gordy hits Haddock on the under, Haddock dumps it to me, I loop a swing around to Weston who throws a hammer to a young Gerber who bounces it to Gordy who finishes it by putting it out of Prof's reach to Rook on a loopy OI flick to the open side. 5-3.

On O, the Squids continue to work the unders until Thoopa gets a swing and hucks it just over Weston's reach to Quatro who catches the goal. 5-4. The Squids come down zone with the 4 person cup and et a turn but turn it on a drop from Samadi. They go man and we work it up but a pass hits a streak defenderin the back. Prof puts up a big blade and Samadi scores. 5-5. We get the next goal. 6-5. Off the turn. they come down zone again and I throw hammer that bounces out of Stout's hands. On the turn Prof launches a hammer that Boont cannot get. Stout hucks it to Jughead and I run down the field. When Jughead hits me I quickly throw it back to him, he's standing in the endzone. Goal. 7-5. Half Time.

In the huddle we talk about how important it is to stay focused on our goal. If we can maintain, we'll pull one of the biggest wins in Braineater history. We take that with us onto the field.

On the O, Thoopa puts one just a little too far for his receiver, but we quickly throw the turn back. Nami forces an upline pass to Roget who beats Gordy to the spot and scores. 7-6. Joaquin comes out on the next series fired up and puts a sweet break filck to Peaches who boosts a full field backhand huck to Jughead for the score. 8-6. Again it's all unders from the Squids. A lofty pass results in Rook and Gordy and a Squid getting skied for the goal. 8-7. In the next series Joaquin is running down a swing and mistakes a line mid field for the sideline and misses the catch. They quickly get a goal. 8-8.

Our O line needs to buckle down. We need to get the D back out there. We do and score the next 4 straight to the win. Here's how it went down.

They come down zone and we quickly beat it but in the red zone, Joaquin puts one a little too far for Prude to grab and the Squids get it back. But Prof puts the boost a bit too far, then one of the craziest plays I've ever seen happens. Peaches gets a swing from me and rips another full field huck to Stout who is double covered by Prof and Nero. Stout pancake lay out grabs it and lands knee first for the goal. Unbelievable. 9-8. We get the next D off a drop and Stout hits Haddock in the zone beating Nami to the last 5 feet of the front part of the open side of the endzone. 10-8. On the next play, Quatro forces an IO flick to Thoopa and he can't come up with it. Then Stout just demolishes Quatro in the air off a huck from Joaquin. 11-8. Gordy comes down hard on the D series and hand blocks Samadi. I hit Jughead on the swing and he hits Gordy for the goal on the horizontal cut. 12-8. We call time out and get ourselves fired up for Game point. Weston follows up on the next D series and layout Ds Quatro on a bad throw from Dangle. He takes and injury sub as he starts cramping. Peaches comes in and throws a low hooking backhand around Nero's head to Stout for the goal and the win. 13-8.

The armor was pierced, the infallibility was over, we had beaten them. We would meet again on Warren instead of Rimac for sectionals at UCSD. There we beat them again in a short game to 9 in the waning hours of Sunday April 15, 2007. Peaches would sky Nami for the game winner. We did not have Joaquin, Stout, or Jughead for that game. I barely played. But our young guys made it happen. I would carry this mentality into the next season when we saw the Squids again at Prez Day 2008. Now we were the ones to beat, now we had the mental armor.

Claremont vs. UCSD (A Three Part Series)

2009-10-11T22:57:00.001-07:00

The UCSD Air Squids were, from 2006-2008, one of my biggest rivals. The first time I played against them was my sophomore year. When I still had a huge beard and big hair. It was Regionals in San Diego and we were still running a 3-man German Ho-Stack. At this time I was either the set (guy who catches the pull) or on D, guarding mostly handlers. We had seen the Squids beat the unbeatable Black Tide in finals of Sectionals after we had just lost to tide 11-13 and would lose in the 2/3 game 12-14. We knew they were going to come out hot, but they lost to UCSB the day before in Semis. We really didn't know what to think. In this day and age I can contemplate the talent they had at the time to a greater extent. Wormser, Dollar, Flakes, Nas, Big Mike, Phelps, Quatro, etc. We had a young Stout, Jughead, Alex Wells, Dorsal, Haddock, Joaquin Nagle, James K Polk aka Sam Miner and a rookie Weston Miller. Realistically I wasn't much of a factor (just a swing and in-cut handler) to the contrary of what the future would hold for me and Claremont Ultimate.

This was the first game of Sunday for us at Regionals. We had just come off of beating Arizona State, losing to Colorado State for a 3rd time that season (check out my blog post about how the 4th meeting went between us I wrote earlier this year), beating Air Force and SDSU to get a spot in the 2nd place bracket. We start on D. Phelps drops a discin the endzone but Dollar's mark causes Gordy to throw a turnover. UCSD looks a little rushed and Dollar throws a turnover to Alex. Skippy throws an IO backhand to Dorsal who swings it to Haddock who keeps getting called for travels. Persistence pays off in a turn and on the transition Dollar gets the goal on Gordy. 0-1.

On offense we're seeing Squids throwing some junk zones. Joaquin shoots a lazer IO backhand to Peaches who fakes and gets Flakes to bid and thows an open shot to Alex. 1-1. UCSD, still looking a bit rushed manages to get a first possession goal on their next O. 1-2. Our O works against the zone. well but Stout drops the shot in the endzone. Off the turn Sam Miner gets the poach D and Joaquin flips it to Alex for a goal in the front of the endzone. 2-2.

On the next possession Big Mike hits Wormser who chucks a hammer to Phelps quickly. 2-3. On the subsequent O we turn it quickly in the zone but Joaquin tips a quick strike from Chucky and we get the disc back. Jughead rips a deep look to Stout who can't come with it on the lay out. Chucky ends up beating Alex on the upline for the goal. 2-4. On the next O we are working on that tough UCSD upwind and uphill at Warren fields. Joaq throws a hammer to Alex who is caught waiting for it and Flakes Ds it up. A nice grab over a bidding Sam Miner and it's a goal. 2-5. On the next series we work the zone and get it to the goal line where Stout puts a flick to Jughead who makes an opposite foot toe-in that you can see at 1:39 in the Jughead Greatest Hits Vid. 3-5.

We come down in our special V cup. I've never seen another team run this. We flat mark the middle with poaches in both lanes along with 2 wings poaching the mid range throws then two deeps. Then we offer the swing to the huck and if they don't the wing pinches in and we 4 man cup with on deep coming in to stop the cross field hammer and the off side wing coming in to stop the scoober over the top, which got us one of our two back to back callahans from Joaquin. Dollar sees Big Mike going long and puts up a huge huck but Stout Ds it. We turn it on a ill-timed throw. Boont gets the disc on the open side and puts what looks like an easy goal to Dollar, but Stout comes through and Ds it to save the day (as seen at 0:33 of Stout for Callahan 2007. Gordy starts out with the disc and swings it to Joaq who jumps higher than I had ever seen him before and saves what would certainly have been a Callahan for Boont. Joaq puts a big huck to Stout who catches it but it is called back. Ds are exchanged and Dollar finishes it off with a big jack to Wormser for the downwind goal. 3-6.

After dicking the cup around a bit I put a big swing to Alex who rips one of the biggest IO backhand hucks I've seen to this day, it was a perfect throw and sky over Quatro. 4-6. The next series we come down Z again, but UCSD is looking very calm and slowly works overs and swings until Chucky puts up a hammer and Stout Ds it. In what seems like some type of dramatic irony, Chucky responds with a layout catch D when Joaq and Stout do not connect correctly. He flips it in for the goal. 4-7. In the next offensive series we massacres the zone ending with a nice put from Alex to Sam Miner for the goal. 5-7. The Squids respond by making short work of our zone and Big Mike puts a hammer to Quatro. 5-8. Half time.

We come out on O and Peaches throws an ill advised upline pass to Jughead that gets Ded. Phelps decides to jack it to Boont and Peaches Ds him. Peaches then puts the huck to Stout and we work it upfield. After a stoppage Joaq puts a beautiful flick to space over the stack and Jughead runs it down for the goal. 6-8. On D our zone causes Big Mike to fumble a pass but Squids get it right back when Gordy throws a turn. Another turn from the Squids but Flakes gets it back after some patient red zone O on a layout D. Dollar then hucks it right out of bounds but we repond with an equally bad turnover from Gordy. Wormser gets lit up and skies Skippy. 6-9.

On the O I see Alex in the zone open. I light him up on one of the top 10 hammers I've thrown. Right in the space down the line, 30 yards on a dime. Alex turns and lights up Stout again for the goal. 7-9. The Squids march the disc down and after a time out patiently work it into the endzone for a goal. 7-10. The next point Peaches is not looking when Joaq tosses him a little high release backhand and it's a turnover. Thoopa puts a nice blade to the endzone. An upwind break. 7-10. The next point I just straight up drop a pass that I had to monkey walk for. Quick strike, the situation is looking bad. 7-11. The next point, our O works it patiently and Peaches hits Jughead for a sweet space throw and a goal. 8-11. We come down zone again and the Squids put a huck to Mike again, but Jughead forces the turn, unfortunately getting fronted and some less experienced throwers allows Dollar to get the under catch D and he quickly hits the endzone for the goal. 8-12. Needing some goals and fast, Alex gets the first pass and rips a massive huck to Jughead who skies Chucky for the score. A perfect pass again. Our captain was on fire. 9-12.

On the next O, Dollar sees two receivers wide open in the endzone but they both go for a hammer and a turnover ensues. We work a few passes in and it's looking good, but Chucky gets a chest high foot block against Stout as he's about to rip a backhand huck to Weston. Thoopa catches a flick from Phelps, goal. 9-13. Running and gunning Joaquin decides to throw up a big arching flick. Jughead rips it down so hard over Flakes. One of those rips where the receiver pulls it out from the defender's face over the top. Just nasty. 10-13. Another patient O leads to the Squids pulling to within one from game point. 10-14. They do, game over. 10-15.

The Squids would go on to beat UCSB and grab second place out of the Southwest region. They would go on to lose in quarters at nationals and the wild card game against Oregon. Subsequently the Squids graduate a strong pool of talent and the southwest is left with one bid. A bid that would be decided in one of the best games I've ever seen. Steve "Daze" Prodan's video of the SW regional final proves it. After this game, UCSD would have a mental armor against us, which we would have to beat out of our systems twice in 2007.

Claremont vs. Pittsburgh (Stanford Invite 2008)

2009-10-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the most pivotal game of my college career was the game that allowed us to break into the prequarters and subsequently beat UNC to get into the top 8 at the Stanford Invite in 2008. I've watched the game footage of this match many times, mostly because we went from being way ahead to trying to eek out a double game point victory. I'm referring to none other than our game against Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh has for a long while been the only good team in the Metro East, and good might be an over statement, the only team worth a damn is better. I say this and I stand by it. While I was in college I thought it was a travesty that the Metro East get two bids due to the size bid when other regions like the NW or SW get one. Just totally lame. I admit, in 2009, Pittsburgh did get to quarters at nationals, but beat regional rival Cornell (also not worth a damn) in pre-quarters and boosted their stats after Vegas (which was just not ultimate according to those who suffered through it) by smoking shitty teams in the metro east and northeast. All that aside, they came into the Stanford Invite thinking they were hot shit and we changed their minds, it was a wonderful victory fraught with frustration and anger but ultimately leading to relief and happiness.

By the time we got to the fourth game in our pool play we had gotten flattened by UBC 13-6, beat UCSB for the first time ever 13-9, and mailed in the game against Arizona to save energy 13-6 or 7 I believe. We knew that if we won the game, UBC would be 1, Arizona 2, us 3, Pitt 4, and UCSB 5. We would go to prequarters and have a shot at breaking our seed by 12 or more.

The game started, and I knew a few of the guys from when I spent my summers in Pittsburgh with my ex. The first point we are moving the disc decently well, but a bad bounce from rookie Logan Schumacher to other rookie Reed Hogan resulted in a turnover. I know that Reed knows this, but when he was a freshman, I had a lot of expectation of him because we were short on handlers. I did not want Gordy on offense, I wanted him on D and I thought his style of taking shots was too risky for the O line. Reed was tentative and did not meet all of my expectations, which I admit were high. This turnover was another example. Basically I had to bench Reed and bring Logan back to handle with myself and Prude (who I also would not have preferred in the handler spot but rather as a cutter). The turnover results in Pitt quickly transitioning to a goal 0-1. They pull, we and we again are not getting the disc to our cutters, but swinging the disc easily. Prude gets the disc to Markham in the middle and he hucks it to Jughead who gets fouled. The call is contested and sent back. We get the disc back, it's centered to me and I put it ot Maniac who lights it up to Logan for the goal , the D had no chance. 1-1.

We come down on D, we nearly contest some of their in cuts. Finally one throw to space results in a D by Maniac in their half of the field (which was about 90 yards for some reason). I start with the disc and put it to Maniac who puts a beautiful flick huck up to Weston to space who burns his man with no chance for the D. 2-1.

We come down on D, they do a quick huck play and Markham gets out of position and burned. They work the disc around, but on the trap sideline Weston puts a nasty 360 mark and Logan shuts down the dump and the Pitt player puts up a throw towards the endzone in desperation. Stout Ds it easily. We work the disc around and Markham gets the disc on the open side and puts a massive 70+ yard backhand to Stout for a goal, but travel is called. Markham gets it back and lights up Stout again, who skies his guy and puts the disc to Logan for the goal. 3-1.

We come down on D and they huck a disc to Stout's guy who along with Jughead Ds the put. I start with the disc on our goal line and break the mark to Weston down the line. He hucks it to CGU Rob, he dumps it to Logan who hits Jughead on an in cut. Jughead puts a nice blade to the flick side but Stout was not expecting it and it results in a turn over. Pitt then puts a terrible huck out of bounds. We get the disc back and Maniac puts one up into Stout's wheel house, and he promptly skies the balls off the Pitt guy. 4-1.

On D, Logan comes up with a nice D on a floaty 20 yard fade. A turnover on our part results in them knocking on the door again. We get the D but they call a foul and they work it around the goal line and put a floaty space throw that Logan Ds again. We turnover on a huck but Jughead footblocks the first pass and we run Stout on an iso. We score. 5-1.

They work the disc up the field and score in the front part of the endzone open side. We respond with 4 hucks, 3 called back on travels, the last one Markham boosts it to Jughead who makes the catch. 6-2. The game gets chippy here. They call fouls on a layout D and a desperation throw. They end up turning it over anyways. We work it to Maniac in the vert stack who hucks to Weston. He calls timeout about 10 yards out and throws a hammer to Stout for the goal on the play in. 7-2. Half time.

We get the D when Pitt farms a huck. They come down zone. Here begins the problem. Our team was completely absent of any theory behind playing zone. Our handlers would just hang out throwing over the top until one of our pops (Markham and Maniac) would jack it to the wings (Stout and Jughead). Weston throws an ill advised blade resulting in a turn. They work it down and score. 7-3. After throwing some cheeky over the top throws I throw one hammer a bit high and a bit tight that hits Jughead but bounces out. They throw a bad huck, get Ded and call foul. Lame. Prude pressures a tough throw and they drop it. We break the zone and they go man. Jughead puts up two break backhand hucks to Stout who farms both shots. They put up a huck that floats just enough for a receiver to get a bid on and grab for the goal. 7-4. We turnover quickly and they score quickly. 7-5. We work the disc faster with 4 handlers instead of 3 and Markham hucks to Stout who skies for the grab and isos Jughead for the goal. 8-5.

We work the disc with some crafty breaks and over the top throws. Weston puts a great huck to Stout who just farms it when he was all alone in the endzone. They get the goal. 8-6. We work it minimally and Maniac rips a huck to Stout who skies right outside the goal, Stout turns over the pass. They get the goal. 8-7.

We are working the disc on the trap side, they call a bullshit call of me being out of bounds, it goes back. Markham hucks it and we score but they call it back on a negligible travel. I throw a scoober that gets Ded. I am furious inside. They score. 8-8. We get a goal, called back on a travel. Maniac does it again and Jughead cleans up the trash when Stout farms it again. 9-8. They run a pull play and I get burned on the out cut and they throw a goal quickly after. 9-9. We score somehow I don't remember. It must have been the anger. 10-9. I am super pissed. In the next O we get their zone to break down and on the first throw we've seen them go man after I throw a backhand a split second too late as Maniac has already begun rounding off the cut for which we was wide open, turn over. I am livid. I get also get scored on, I am exploding. 10-10.

This guy on Pitt now busts out the most dick moves I've ever experienced. He just starts throwing clotheslines at crashing handlers in the cup and hitting people. It's ridiculous. We turn the disc over again. They could have caught the go ahead goal but instead they dropped it. We start working the disc fairly easily. We're passed half field. Markham hucks it to Stout who does not get it. In the transition, they have a wide open receiver for the S cut but Maniac comes through to pressure the catch and the guy farms it. New life. Vatz clotheslines Logan. We call foul he says these words verbatim "Actually I was going for the disc and you ran into my arm." Wow what a dick. He tries to do it on me and I'm two seconds away from blowing up. In the words of Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction when he's asking Brad what Marcelus Wallace looks like, "Say what one more goddamn time!" Instead of saying "what?" it would be clothesline. I put the crossfield hammer to Markham who lights up Stout for the goal . 11-10.

They work it up and put a nice blade to the open side for the goal. 11-11. Hard cap blows on the second throw after I catch the pull. They are in zone, pressure time, don't mess up. I fucked up good and proper with Markham threw me an IO flick through the cup. I remember this throw like it was yesterday. I felt like lead. I had played almost every point that day since Gordy was not there. I legs felt heavy and my concentration was low. The throw was head height but to my right and I tried to pancake it, resulting in a drop. They picked it up needing only one completion to win. A Pitt guy yelled "Smart with the disc!" They throw to what looks like an open receiver, but out of nowhere, Jughead swings though and swats it for the D. New life. In 2007 at Regionals when I had a similarly awful game against Arizona (well to be fair I at least had assists in that game and started the game off on fire) I was frustrated and Scott Mahr picked the disc up instead of me because he saw in my state I might make a rash decision. He was right and he started the string that won the game. But in this game I was the go-to handler, I had to start it all, no matter what. I hit Logan on a swing, he throws a high stall count curving OI flick (he's lefty) to Markham who picks it just before it hits the ground and he swings it to Maniac who rips the backhand 50-50 to Stout who catches it and flips it to Jughead for the win. 12-11.

I have never felt so much relief to win before. I know other victories have been bigger, but I hated this Pitt team at the time. They were dicks, well Vatz was a dick. I even gloated like a jackass right to him about how Pittsburgh is a shitty place to play ultimate and how I remembered that, but I felt justified. All the fury went out of my system and I relished in the win. That night we relaxed and got ready for our next biggest game of the tournament. Victory over UNC the next morning and a spot in quarters against Stanford.

Times of Plenty

2009-09-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Another day in life of Food Economy. I've been thinking recently about times of plenty and times of not plenty. I guess times of little is a better way to say it. At any rate, yesterday I did my normal trades. I had gotten a hold of 3 cinnamon twist loaves, a bad of morning buns, and 4 vegan donuts from People's Donuts (the donuts just showed up at my house due to leftovers from a conference) and I turned it into 2 Eggplants, 3 Onions, 1 Bulb of Garlic, One Bak Choi, One mustard bak choi hybrid, a kale mustard hybrid, a peach, a few bunches of parsley (since I'm so into soups), 2 mellons, 1 bag of green beans, a crown of cauliflower, and a few other things.

Come the end of the market, Kyle and I met up and we distributed boxes for Food Not Bombs donations. Usually all of our boxes are half to 3/4 full. Very rarely are they bursting through with produce as they were yesterday. 2 Boxes of loose grapes, 1 box of green beans, Elephant collards, 2 boxes of cabbage, 2 boxes of cauliflower, 1 box of broccoli, 1 box of stone fruit, 1 huge box of corn with leeks, kale, and herbs, along with 4 other boxes that we were given. We had easily over 200 pounds of vegetables and maybe 50 pounds of fruit. It was ludicrous, but at the same time I appreciate that farmers would be so ready to give us their goods so that we can help feed the East Bay's hungry. Regardless, this is the most plentiful donation I had seen for the Tuesday market, don't even get me started on the 30 box days at the Sunday market in North Oakland when it's necessary to use a truck to move the 500 or so pounds of food that we receive and 3 people organizing for an hour.

This always brings me back to the ideas of surplus. Peoples were once gatherers and hunters in almost every context that we, as humans, have come to know about. As early as 30,000 years ago, humans were banding together for the sake of survival. World over the peoples who lived on this earth sustained themselves for many centuries on the principles of gathering and hunting. In the gamete of geographies in the African continent, the !Kung San (Southern Continent), Mbuti (Central), and Hadza Peoples (Eastern), or Afrasan-Speaking people such as Iberomaurusians (North) were not necessarily nomadic but would travel to find food sources; settling down if a good food source was discovered. They would stay there if situations permitted until the food sources was depleted. With so few people in each group or so few aggregate individuals period, food sources easily replenished and could be returned to at a later date. Population was kept low because it was inconvenient and difficult to care for multiple infants at a time as they slowed the group down. Cultivation of wild beneficial plants did exist, but not to the extent of conscious agri-pastoralism, especially since domestication of animals occurred at various times depending on what sorts of animals existed where (ie. Swine and Chickens in Asia, Alpaca in South America, Horses in Eurasia, etc.)

As early as 9000 years ago, Sudanic Civilizations were cultivating wild grasses. Around 6500 BCE they and Niger-Congolese Civilizations began a conscious cultivation of plants and animals, including a mixed economy of agripastoralism, animal husbandry, arts, crafts (pottery), tools, residential patterns (similarly built structures), settlements, a leadership structure, but also maintaining a gathering economy. Before this, evidence points to many societies being egalitarian, quantified by equal work relationships in order to maintain survival and sustain the modes of production. At this point, a new relation of production evolved from egalitarian to producer/consumer/controller. With the sedentary life style and the creation of a surplus therein lies the capability for increased population. Not being on the move helps sustaining more children. However this surplus also creates the necessity to control the surplus, and a class of controllers evolves and weaves their necessity into the social fabric of a society. Hierarchy and lineage develop, classes become more stratified and we arrive at inequality. Producers produce and controllers control and distribute.

We're a few clicks away from hardcore capitalism here, but you can see, our veered toward what we have today at this point. All caused by surplus and cultivation. The very thing I use to help the hungry of the East Bay.

The Last Month: Freeganism and Farming Intensified

2009-09-08T01:05:00.000-07:00

To all the folks who like to read what's going on with me and don't feel as though I'm just saying the same stuff over and over, thanks a bunch, sorry for being MIA for a bit.

The last month has been sort of hectic between traveling to Seattle for a wedding and having the frisbee season hit critical mass. It seems as though every June-October I just drop off the face of the earth.

In Seattle I managed to go out with my friend Kate and hit up a spot in Seattle that was pretty nice. I feel as though it's okay to divulge secrets about other cities because I don't have to compete with all of you out there who go an monkey see monkey do after reading but still wonder where everything is. This spot is in the neighborhood of Ballard in the West of Seattle. It's called Top Banana. Top Banana according to Kate is a Produce Stand that features some of the most affordable local and in some cases, organic produce outside of the farmers market. I was pleasantly surprised to find this spot had cosmetically challenged foods. I even broke my silence and bought a bunch of chard from them. Upon leaving I noticed a bunch of flats and boxes along with an awesome produce dumpster. Not really wanting to do too much diving I grabbed up a plum, white peach, bell peppers, a big crown of broccoli, some potatoes, and a few carrots. We made some great fajitas and balsamic sauteed chard which we brought to a Seattle Mariners vs. Oakland A's game. Thanks to Kate for showing me the spot.

Back in the Bay Area, I've been going to the farm regularly and brining home a few pounds of heirloom tomatoes per day. These tomatoes are just waiting to rot in between the rows of growing tomatoes in an adjacent farm. Okra, Siberian and Red Russian Kale, Collards, Sweet Peppers, Basil, Zucchini, Squash, Melon, Eggplant, and Leeks are just a few of the plants we've been harvesting. In the gardens, apples, lettuce, collards, strawberries, chard, and buckwheat are the normal fare. The people of West Oakland will be fed with those yields.

I've also kept up my trading at the Tuesday Farmers Market (Crossing my fingers for tomorrow). Last week I brought home 3 bags of cinnamon twist bread and 3 bags of pastries which became trade for a few eggplants, 2 ears of corn, peppers, kale, squash, peaches, cabbage, pluots, grapes, and string beans. Having just got home from a weekend in Santa Cruz, I have no idea what is still left in the fridge.

The Food Not Bombs yields have been good. I manage to bring home a few vegetarian sausage sandwiches, hummus tomato and cucumber, veggie pasta bolognese, and some half gallons of organic Columbia Gorge juice. I did a Cheeseboard pizza pickup and brought about 40 Peach and Gorgonzola pizzas to the drop-offs.

Images of greatness

2009-08-17T00:09:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post these for quite some time on my blog but I've been a bit busy. However, here are some of the photos of the foods I've been dumpster diving and trading for. Enjoy!

The Battle

2009-08-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went to the Bakery to get the usual pickup of pastries. I was watching the cafe close down and waiting for the moment when the worker would put the pastries in. I had gone up a few minutes earlier and found some stray morning buns in the adjacent dumpster to the good one, but almost immediately been sent off by a security guard (this certainly was troubling). I went back in for a closer look and this time instead of being careless I hid everything I had behind the vertically oriented dumpsters, which offers refuge from the lot where the guard comes from. This time I had not even cracked open a lid when the guard came rushing up and I fled to a park across the street. I was a bit discouraged.

I decided to ride up the block and take a pass to see what the security situation was. Upon returning I noticed the guard talking to police. When we made eye contact he rushed for his cart and I bolted off down the street and hid for 20 minutes. I took another pass and saw the coast was clear because another guy was dumpstering sweet loaves, but I thought it was too dangerous once the cops had been involved (for what I don't know). Either way, 2 blocks further down, I stopped said "Screw this!" and bike-sprinted to the dumpster, hid again and jumped into the good dumpster, closing the lid behind me. Inside, 3 bags of flour had been dropped in. The bags of flour weigh little but they explode and cover you in white powder. There were also a few bags of flour that were expanding inside, these bags of flour weigh about 70 pounds each. I saw the black bag of pastries I wanted, tore a hole in it, emptied out a bread bag, filled it with pastries, tied it up and waited. Slowly I poked my head out of the lid, I saw the coast was clear. I pushed it open, jumped out and closed it, ran to my bike and sprinted away...victorious.

Certainly the hardest bag of pastries I've ever earned.

How will we move forward?

2009-08-01T18:29:00.001-07:00

This open letter was written by an individual who believes some things that I would like to address.

This writer sees the organization of Food Not Bombs as a problematic organization that offers charity rather than empowerment and notably is a white supremacist group. This letter beyond the diatribe, generalizes all Food Not Bombs chapters to fit into the context of what is making the writer frustrated notably about how the Food Not Bombs leaves (the term the writer uses is POC for person of color) people with darker phenotypes disenfranchised and leaves the "underground food network" inaccessible. Rather it is controlled by style-anarchists or fake anarchists, a group which the writer is diametrically opposed to. While it is possible that this is the case where the writer is from in Philadelphia, I don't see it as the case in the Bay Area. Food Not Bombs is not an organization for people with light phenotypes. There are no requirements in that department, and since it does not reflect the East Bay Food Not Bombs chapter is a bit of an obsolete notion.

The letter takes a harsher tone when it states that no "white people" can possibly be an ally to this self described "queer, trans, black, brown, anarchist" or any for that matter. This is where I start to be a bit disappointed and critical. This writer does not advocate violence, but rather that only a "race-traitor" could ever be an ally. This is just wrong and reeks of racism.

Martin Luther King said something that has been one of the most profoundly eloquent discourses I've had the pleasure to read:

"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers."

The writer did not advocate violence, but certain parts reign so true. The stance the writer takes is seeking to humiliate the opponent rather than win understanding, based on hatred and not love, thus destroying the chance for community. I believe that hate between individuals stems, in some part, from the inability of people to understand that they share common goals and lives. Everyone wants peace in their lives, to live, to be happy, potentially raise a family, but most of all have community. Community is built upon common interest, language, goals, history, experiences, etc. When a shooting happened in my old neighborhood, the people there did not turn around and look to create hate and express it, we came together, mourned, and for a few months were vigilant in our streets. We spoke much more to one another, got to know each other, and spoke of creating a neighborhood watch and having block parties. Community was being built. I believe that the creation of community from a place of love can allow people who see others as enemies to become allies and friends. Having been a Quebec nationalist myself and having felt the anger and pain of 200 years of oppression at the hands of anglophones I know that it does not help, it stays in the past. While I agree and I know my history, I want to evolve and move forward with the ones who brutalized my family and friends and evolve positively. I want to have my tax dollars go to their child's education, health, and infrastructure just as I'd want the same in return. While I am no longer a nationalist, I am in favor of the expression and preservation of Quebecois history and language, and I'll give anglos a hard time if they don't know French, but that's a far cry from the Quebec Liberation Front.

In the US, to win the understanding my opponent is of utmost importance, and I believe it should be so for all of us. We all suffer under the same bankrupt government, utility companies, and health care system. If we can find the common ground, the common experience and come together rather than drift apart, we can create a strong community, strong enough to even help each other out some day.

This was an ideological post that went kind of far, I hope you enjoyed it.

Same old song

2009-07-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

Today I was working taking all the donations at the Sunday Temescal Farmers' Market for Food Not Bombs and loading into our FNB truck (that truck deserves it's own post, but another day). I got so much produce out of it. Awesome. However, what struck me is that what my friend Joaquin and I have been discussing and others that I met in the DTB circle at Potlatch was manifested in such a precisely emblematic way that I have to post about it.

Race issues are clearly a large issue. We are not colorblind. No one is. Except for the actually colorblind, but they can still distinguish features and language, don't get me wrong, the colorblind are cool too (maybe a poor joke). Either way we're separating the food to go to the different cook houses when one of the workers (I'll call her Jamie) was approached by a few men working on the DMV, giving it a new paint job just 10 feet from us. She was nice, and she was by no means being antagonistic. But the workers wanted to get some of our peaches, which was awesome because that's the point...feeding people. When one of the men spoke, his english wasn't perfect, oh well, but Jamie immediately began to speak Spanish to him...one of the other guys said, "No no, we're Armenian" and she just kept on speaking in Spanish, re-iterating that she spoke it. Finally another FNB worker and I stopped her, apologized and explained that they spoke Armenian, not Spanish. Immediately I sensed the awkward feeling between everyone.

Here was a perfect case of common sense rationality. She just assumed that since he didn't speak perfect english and that he was doing manual labor that he was Mexican or at best South or Central American. Granted we gave them peaches, they were happy and smiling, but I could tell the tension was thicker than butter as soon as that happened. I said to one of the guys that I was sorry that she messed up like that, but she just went about her business like that was a perfect sort of assumption to make even from one of the most politically liberal people I've met...there it is. Infuriating.

Feels Good to be back

2009-07-15T22:48:00.000-07:00

Monday was an interesting evening.

I went dancing at a club in Emeryville and since I was close to Berkeley I figured I'd go for a dive at a grocery store in the area. Dressed nicely, I figured it would be at least humorous. I also figured that since it's my dumpster week on the house chore wheel it would be worth it. I climbed the 15 foot fence armed with a backpack, flashlight, and plastic bags. I found 3 bunches of chard, 1 bunch of collards, 1 container of strawberries, 1 container of Squash, 2 Zucchini, 3 Carrots, 1 crown of broccoli, and a bunch of cilantro before I decided I had enough. I jumped back out and noticed intact milk and yogurt containers and cheese, but I resisted the urge to bring it home. Primarily because despite my freeganism, maximizing veganism is still the goal...and dumpster dairy is just a risk I don't feel like taking. Also I don't like dairy, but as I've previously stated, the excitement of getting it for free is more than enough for me to get my rocks off.

Tuesday was a big day.

I waited outside the bakery for the perfect pastry swipe. After a solid 30 minutes of waiting, watching, and reading the East Bay Express, the worker at the bakery made the move. I mobilized on my bicycle and went around back. Once he had cleared the line of vision, I sped to the back of the dumpsters and hid my bike, after which I jumped in and closed the lid. Inside grabbed 4 bags along with 3 more bags to add to the one bag of cinnamon twist bread I had grabbed the day before. Stockpiled with all of this, I decided to head to the Tuesday farmers market to make a return to the trading I'd been missing for the last two weeks.

Upon arriving I immediately traded for peaches and nectarines at the stand where my buddy Noah works. There I mentioned that I had moved to my new house, and funnily enough a woman working at the same stand turns around and exclaims that she lives two houses down from me. Amanda (and Becky who also works at the same stand) as it turns out is a great conversationalist and I've taken to strolling up to her porch, where she frequently sits and hangs out, and chat with her (more on this later). Either way I made out with a bag full. I later went to my friends from Santa Cruz who run their farms' stand and traded Stella for 4 cabbages, 5 cauliflower, 1 bunch of leeks, 1 bunch of carrots, and 1 bunch of basil. Right after I went and saw Rafa. We've been trading for months and I love how we hook each other up. I grabbed more purple cabbage, 1 bunch of carrots, 2 Nectarines, 1 Eggplant, 3 ears of corn, and Collards. Afterwards I strolled over to Amanda and Becky's place and chilled with them on the porch where they gave me a box of peach culls (cosmetically challenged fruit) which was used in 2 pies by my housemate. The day was a great success.

Between these two days, I've managed to pack the house fridge. Things tend to disappear quickly in this home, and between 10 people, it make sense.

Peaches

2009-07-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the Saturday market and traded 2 bags of pastries from yesterday and a bag of cinnamon twist bread for the "cosmetically challenged" peaches and nectarines. Total I got 15. Then I went over to my friend who was working at another peach stand and got another 10, ate 3 with my friends, then took the rest home along with the carrots and chard I traded for. I'll likely make a peach crisp or can them, I'm undecided.

This trade was less slated towards what I wanted in the sense that I couldn't get collards and that my exchange rate was not so strong, perhaps there's inflation on the price for pastries. Tuesday shall hopefully be different. My hope is that the Early Girl Tomatoes will be in season.

After One Year.

2009-07-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

On June 18, 2008 I moved to the Bay Area. I was 21 years old and had recently graduated from college. A few days before, I had found out that I had gotten a job with SEIU and was optimistic about finding a place (in the beginning I lived with my uncle in Albany) and my new living area. The air felt cool and refreshing, the world seemed endless, and my bearings were shot. I would try desperately to find myself new community of ultimate players and reconnect with old friends.

My job started, I felt like a big shot. I was playing ultimate with the team I now captain and making some new friends. I reconnected with a friend, Val, who subsequently became one of my best friends by random chance and was hanging out with my buddy and teammate, Jughead, from college and then club. I then found myself a place to live in Eastlake, which is the southeast Asian immigrant neighborhood with a mix of black Americans and south and central American folks in a big mishmash. I lived with a Burmese refugee, a guy from Thailand, my cousin's ex-boyfriend, his friend, and a handyman named Miko. I began my quest toward sustainable living. I got a bike and rode it until kingdom come. Work became more tedious. My parents moved to the Bay Area for 4 months. I got laid off. I started working with Food Not Bombs and People's Grocery. I reconnected with the earth and started dumpster diving intensely.

I have done many things in between now and then. After 7 months of unemployment I think I'm ready for a part time job. I moved two days ago from my first place here into a co-op across the Lake. Things are good here for sure.

Addiction

2009-06-15T00:31:00.000-07:00

One of my friends once told me that "addiction is sexy to a girl like me." Well, she was talking mostly about addiction to her lover and wanting her lover and this was a song, but in my mind, it never was made to encompass anything like drug or alcohol addiction (past vices) or my new addiction, dumpster diving.

It's no secret that I'm in to waste cycle food recovery, but I have found myself exhibiting tendencies of personality that resemble behaviors of past addictions. When I think about it...why wouldn't it? I am addicted.

I have found myself exhibiting the following tendencies: competition, frustration/anger, and needing a fix.

When I show up to a grocery store I've made a 7 mile commitment to getting there and I looking for only fruit when I go there for fruit salad since fruit is a tougher commodity to trade for at the farmers' market. I often find cantaloupe, strawberries, bags of organic grapes, pears, peaches, nectarines, avocados, etc. When I go to the Bakery I now I have learned the pattern to getting all the pastries I could ever want and cinnamon twist bread aplenty. However I am certain that others would like to have this information/know about it already. Whenever I am stalking the pastries as they are waiting to be taken to the dumpster I am across the street watching (kind of creepy I know) and if I so much as see another person coming close to the dumpsters I immediately kick into competition mode. I just sprint harder, look faster, jump in, grab and run. Then I don't like to share quite as much. It's no good.

When I show up to the bakery at the time I'm supposed to be there and yet what I'm looking for is not there, whether it's there waiting to be put into the dumpster or just taken I get excessively angry and frustrated. Last week on Tuesday, I waited for 2 hours for the pastries to come out. When my friend spotted me and came to see how I was doing I was disgruntled and frustrated waiting for the guy who was working to get on with it. What a dick it made me into. When you think about it, I subsist off this barter plan, I need those pastries to get my produce. Beyond that it just makes me feel good.

The clearest aspect of my addiction is the necessity of a fix. I find myself needing, wanting, demanding my dumpstered gold. I feel alive when I'm not supposed to be there, when I play the system like a fiddle, and then benefit so strongly by my ideas. As much of a smartass as I am, I am truly impressed with myself for being able to pull off this system of trade. Not only impressed but it makes me so happy to take a step back and see that I looked at a situation, used my social capital and accomplished what no one else I know does. It's quite the rush, so of course I want it.

That's that. I'm addicted. Does it hurt anyone? Not really. Is it fun? Yes. Do I take it too seriously? Absolutely. First step to solving the problem is admitting I have one.

The Ants Have Arrived.

2009-05-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up and went to the bathroom. While in said bathroom, I noticed 4 or 5 ants. I thought to myself, "Oh man. In about 2 weeks this place is going to be crawling." I walk out to the kitchen and see a trail of ants leading to the trash...Oh great, the ant overlords have already made their move. From now until 6-8 months from now, my home and every other home in Oakland will have an ant problem. Oakland just has an ant problem, and it sucks. I won't use pesticides in my home, but I will sweep the shit out of those things. For 6-8 months I will not be able to leave a morsel of food out or anything to sit, lest I desire an army of ants all upon my business. And I had not even had a chance to eat my toast yet. How rude.

I have started to learn the patterns with the dumpster at the Bakery. Tuesdays from 1-4 PM are great times for diving, many pastries and cinnamon twist bread were found within 5 minutes. Thursdays are good for the same thing. Fridays have featured cookies in the dumpster, whole bags of them. Sunday morning is consistently strong, but by Sunday afternoon everything is gone; everything I want anyways. Mondays have been an on and off find, I'll have to do more research. Anyways yesterday's barter for the aforementioned items got me:

1 bunch of collards
1 bunch of chard
3 nectarines/apriums
1lb of potatoes
2 large crowns of broccoli

I also buckled down and bought 1 massive leek stalk for $1.15.

Claremont Braineaters vs. Colorado State University SW College Regionals 2006

2009-05-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

2006 was a magical year. It's perhaps why I keep wanting revisit it on this blog ultimate-wise. Of course my person life sucked at the time and school was not AMAZING, but things got better and this is not the place for me to complain about that. I am going to revisit one of the top 5 games of my life. And while I don't feel that I did all that much (I did get a layout D as you will see) it was still the team coming together (we had no B team that year) and being victorious at the end; unlike any of us could have imagined.

The story behind Colorado State University is a strange one. I hadn't really heard much of them when we played them the first time at SB Invite. The weekend was strange, we should moments of greatness, but when it came time to play them in the crossover, we were depleted and took the mail-in after hanging on for a while. We lost 15-9. Not encouraging. On the third day of Vegas 2006 (still the best one to this day), we played them in a game for 19/20 place out of 64 teams. We'd already made great strides and half our team left after day 2 to go classes on Monday. Half a squad (most of which was stoned as hell, which included Weston and Stout) took it to double game point and lost 12-11. It was encouraging. So much so that after that game a great rest of season including an epic Stanford Invite Qualifier win and showing at Stanford Invite we figured that when we were slated to play them in the second game of regionals (there were 3 bids that year, this is when there were 16 bids to nationals) that we'd have a tight game but prove victorious because we would actually try. Instead they beat us soundly 15-10. Our cutters looked ineffective and their offense and defense was just ruling on all of us except Stout and Jughead. I have that game somewhere, perhaps I'll analyze it when I want to feel sorry for myself. Not good. We won the two games to stay alive against some chump teams then started Sunday with a loss and a booting from the second place bracket at the hands of UCSD (who was ballin' that year). We followed with a solid victory over Arizona (as always Loppy was a little hurt so he didn't really play) 15-7 and then knew that the game to go to nationals had one big obstacle, CSU. I can honestly tell you that I was scared shitless throughout this entire game. I was just waiting for them to turn it on and ruin our day, but it never happened...let me show you.

The game starts out with us on offense. Joaq, Sambone, and I are handling in the zone. We swing it a bit and Joaq jacks a huck to Stout who toes it in the back. 1-0 us. I was shocked that it worked out so well (note I always am pessimistic so as to motivate myself to play harder). I was sure that CSU would respond. We come down with our unique V-cup trap zone that baits hucks to 2 deeps and shuts down short passes with 2 wings. Haddock, Dorsal, and whoever else was in the cup would run this so well. Jughead and Stout ruled the skies (most of the time), Icecock seemed born to play that position, and Peaches was a great hammer stop. Sambone is still the best short deep I've ever seen. They are throwing scoobers left and right and eventually they surprising just drop the disc. Alex gets to the disc and goes 50-50 fade to Haddock who pulls it down after a deflection. I thought surely this was another fluke that would not be replicated. 2-0. They're pulling down the crazy stuff, moving the disc well, and breaking our cup occasionally. I thought they would run away with it, but instead Gordy gets a block on cup break attempt. Joaq throws the third most crazy throw I've experienced from my team (two have been thrown by me) and Icecock somehow pulls it down over before two defenders close on him. 3-0. This seemed like something that wouldn't keep working. Instead the next point begins the most ridiculous two consecutive point play I've ever seen. Joaq creeps up after an amazing pull that circles out past the front cone in the endzone. The CSU handler takes a scoober look and Joaq, who was crouching a bit and cheating a bit, spring up and catches it for a callahan. 4-0. We are flipping out, unfortunately the celebration of Joaq launching the disc 100 feet in the air was not caught on film. Fortunately we come down again, and after a great pull by Peaches, the CSU handler picks up, throws it, and the receiver instead bounces the disc out of hands only to have Wells come through and pounce on it for ANOTHER CALLAHAN! Prude said it well behind the camera..."OH MY (insert whatever the hell you want)" Wells launches the disc up in the air and celebrate insanely. 5-0. At this point they are not seeming so invincible to me. Instead they are looking panicked and distraught. The next play Weston cuts off a crossfield pass and without hesitation rips a sweet 10 yard IO backhand leading Haddock for another goal. 6-0. Wow. They work it downfield and drop it again, however we turn it over quickly and they work it back up the field and get it to the break side and score. 6-1. The attempt of the guy who scores to pump his team up makes me laugh to this day.

The O line walks back out. Facing a zone we work it up, and Alex puts the cross-body backhand to Jughead for the goal. We are cruising. 7-1. After some turnovers we score again. 8-1. Skippy played really well that point, leading the hands and throwing the goal for an assist to Jughead (perhaps an ill-advised throw). Now they are in desperation mode. They are ripping it downfield just trying to score and not turn it in their zone, maybe get some quick goals and get back in it. Instead the points start to drag on. Eventually they get the score. 8-2. We reply quickly with a huck from Stout to Jughead. At this point they were through playing zone for the most part so we ran our German 3 man ho-stack and it worked damn well that game.

After 4 of our worst throwers somehow work it up the field (sorry guys) a punt works out and they score 8-3. For some reason I keep slipping in this point. Joaq gives a little drop to Stout who scores. 9-3. Also in this footage, there is Feddy from Arizona being commented upon by Prude...good times. Another punt n sky that works out. I'm getting a little worried. 9-4. Again Jughead just torches his guy and Stout gives him a good huck for a score 10-4. Another CSU goal after some silly turns. 10-5. Oh the turnovers in this next point. Silly.

This part starts out with a just SILLY hammer that is caught. Yours truly was not really in position to get it, but I was definitely surprised. We prevent from scoring on many occasions of patience on our goal line, then they throw it away. Stout farms a huck. I get a layout D and in classic old-me fashion I run around with my pants hanging at my ankles...we still don't score. I take an injury sub (as usual when I was a sophomore). More turnovers and some great D by Haddock and Wells then Stout. Eventually after more turns Peaches rips a backhand to Stout and Jughead who are both beating their defenders. Stout runs it down like a beast and scores. After a turn, Weston gets a swing from Wells and he just rips a backhand huck upwind 50 or so yards to Icecock who gets the bid and catches the goal. 13-5. Sick Icecock spike by the way. Another uncharacteristic drop and Gordy puts a nice IO backhand break to Sambone for the goal 14-5. The punt works out and Rook gets burned (sorry Rook). 14-6. After a D Fuji gets the disc on the upline and rips a sweet backhand to Stout who catches it. Skippy runs the S-cut and tops out his last college victory with a goal (the footage cuts after he scores but not before you hear me say, "YEAH SKIP!" 15-6. Game.

Afterwards I see CSU sitting on the sidelines with their heads in their hands and a lot of anguish. I'll admit it, it's tough to be a team 4 times in a season...or 6 times (et toi 808?). I am sure that we won because before the game started one Chris "Ra" Gomes who had a knack for being an awesome dude, and still is, told a story of how he slept with one of the CSU guys' sister...many times. That made us laugh so much and I think gave us the winning edge. There it is one of the best games as a Braineater.

Barter, Farming, and some ideas.

2009-05-15T10:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday Barter: At 9 AM, in exchange for pastries and cinnamon twist bread from the Bakery, dumpstered a few minutes before, at the farmers market I obtained:
1. 2 pounds of brown rice
2. 3 pounds of jumbo artichokes, and
3. 3 massive heads of broccoli.

I also bought 4 pounds of organic valencias from my favorite vendor for $3.80. I love that deal. To show my appreciation I offered them pastries for free.

Tuesday Barter: I dumpstered more pastries and cinnamon twist (3 bags full!) bread the day before from the bakery and traded at the market for:
1. 1 Pound of potatoes
2. 1 bunch of collard greens
3. 1 bunch of chard
4. 1 bunch of carrots
5. 1 bunch of cilantro
6. 1 flat of strawberries
7. 1 bunch of huge leeks

Ten minutes' work, 2 weeks of produce. All in all, this cost me...$0. All organic...all delicious. I promptly made my dish of the moment: sauteed garlic and leeks with stir fried potatoes, broccoli, collards, chard, and cilantro. That will feed me for two days.

Yesterday morning I woke up at 5:30 AM and went to the farm in Sunol with the van from Peoples' Grocery with a friend, the farm coordinator, and the greenhouse coordinator. From 8 AM until 4:30 we were planting collards and about 7 different types of pepper in the row beds. This food will go towards the CSAs that feed about 60 families the greenhouse coordinator told me. It was fun to be out there. I got bad allergies to pollen so that wasn't fun, but singing songs, chatting, planting, digging, eating, and relaxing was awesome. The pace of farming is wonderful. Plants take their time...so should we.

I'd like to bring up 1 thing: Adhocracy

Adhocracy is best explained in my old professor's book from the Sociology of Work and Occupations because it contextualizes it in terms of a work space. It is participant based organization...which in terms of Food Not Bombs or wikipedia there are many. Participants make it up as they go, there is no hierarchy, the group or individuals decide what to do, who will do it, and how to define success or failure. It is a perpetual learning mode where feedback from the environment continually influences action. The principal vehicle for this is the list-serve with FNB. Someone wants to do a pickup or deliver somewhere they ask the list and get feedback. Last week an individual wanted to reroute my wednesday pick up to benefit the bike-to-work-day people at the energizer stations. I argued that they were not in dire need of food, the people who are hungry and waiting are, I received some support from other members and ultimately was able to do my normal duties. Pretty good example.

Frugality Rationalized

2009-04-17T02:30:00.000-07:00

I felt like expanding on the idea that we don't need to work so much.

Truth be told, depending on where you live, you can survive (key word being survival) on as little as $4000 dollars per year. With a $240 per month rent (for example at the home I'm planning to move into on 11th and Wood in West Oakland) that's $2800 per year. PGE and Water is a different story, depending on where you live it can be a little or a lot. If you barter or pay very little for food (for $20 per week because of supplemented diet of Food Not Bombs, dumpster diving, etc $1040 per year) or live completely on food from the wastet cycle, you are left with $260 to spend on bike parts when you need something new, and though I won't go much into it, BART can be ridden for free too if you know how to and willing to risk a fine.

Not glamorous by any extent of the imagination indeed, but it can be done. Just imagine if you worked for below California minimum wage at $6/hour (I worked for this much at Blockbuster in Nashville, TN circa 2003). If you worked 20 hours per week with that, you'd make over $6000. That's 4 hours per day 5 Days per week (1/6 of every day). The rest of that waking time can be spent following your dreams of farming and gardening for the neglected people of your community, fight the prison industrial complex, read books in the library, or just be a lazy shmoe if that's your prerogative. I don't know too many places that pay an individual $6 in California right now (legally), and if they exist, I have yet to see them any time recently.

This weekend for example, I'm riding down to Claremont, CA for free with a Craigslist rideshare. Once there I'll be a naughty boy and splurge on a $23 dollar ticket for a train ride to San Diego where I'll help an elderly family member through knee replacement surgery. I don't have to live on $4000 if I don't want to and neither do you. I'll be the first to admit that I live on approximately double that (A little over $7000 at my current pace, mostly due to a $400 per month rent). I would have to work for a dollar more per hour 20 hours per week. Not that difficult I'd say.

Suffice it to say, without insurance (which certainly costs money), which I'm happy to say my tax dollars contributed to (yes I paid taxes, and boy did I have to pay a pretty penny of my earned income), that knee replacement would not be cheap. I certainly wouldn't be able to afford it or an ACL surgery on my budget. But I'm not anticipating too many of those in the near future or in my entire life.

Of course life throws some curve balls at you, but why spend time worrying about that. Worry about the sociological phenomena and socio-economic injustice around you and affecting you. Worry about wars abroad or worry about school (which thanks to this country's desire to keep education a very expensive commodity thus making cultural capital inaccessible and upward social mobility more difficult). I'm not advocating we all run to Canada screaming for social services (trust me, as a Canadian citizen and an American citizen I've experienced both) because the US has so much potential for it, just a misguided sense of purpose caused by a multitude of things from the country's past. Those can change. However those T.E.A.-baggers aren't helping anything.

Now I'm going to wrap it up in 2 paragraphs. We need education, unfortunately we must pay for it. We need medical care, that too we must pay for. However what is most integral to us is food and water. That's what keeps the motor going, therefore if you can handle it, you can be a squatter, couch surfer, or find a cheap rent and put a roof over your head and feed yourself for very little money. If you want to make money, that's fine, if you want to work 40+ per week, that's fine too, hell that's quite admirable. I did it, I hacked it for a while, but then I stopped wanting it so badly. I then realized that 5 and a half months of hard work = 2 years of life without much worry.

I admit it full well. My life-style is immediate, it is made for someone who doesn't have dependents (ie children or family to take care of), it doesn't concern itself with the future (such as children, education, or medical bills, besides the fact that eventually I'll have to get another job probably), it's not glamorous (I can't remember the last time I spent money on something that wasn't food or a beer or something), it constantly seeks networks and finds them (hopefully), depends on a mild climate (just to keep my sanity because if it were 32 degrees or less for long periods of time and snowing, I'm sure I wouldn't bike so much or be happy), and someone who is willing to deny themselves luxuries such as cereal in boxes because of plastic packaging. However there are some things to take out of this. Frugal life can be a reality, in some ways more than others sure, for those who do have children and do want a more glamorous life, but you just have to find what works for you. If none of us slow down a bit, the engine that is society will break down at the cogs due to fatigue, I don't want to see that.

Work and Barter

2009-04-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

Give yourself time. Fact of the matter is that in this work-a-day world, we're busting our asses 1/3 of a day's time doing someone else's shit for money. Sleeping for somewhere around another 1/3 of the day's time. The rest commuting, living, surviving, and trying to build and maintain relationships...also have a little fun. I take this directly from my friend Chris when I say, "I don't have time to do your shit for 40 hours per week." Now, I must admit, we all need to somewhat fit into this economic exchange or else we'll be at a loss. Even I worked a full time job (albeit very half ass in retrospect) for $37,000 per year. Since human necessity is food and water (I would argue that meaningful human interaction is pretty key) I don't think we really need to be working all that much. Having kids is another story of course, and this opinion is not applicable to all due to different psychologies brought up through different symbolic interactionalist sociologies, but I worked from July-December, and I now have enough money to support a meaningful life for two years. I don't necessitate of course a large living space or have other mouths to feed and sell out to a new dawn of corporate care of life from the womb-to school-to society-to the grave (thank you very much neo-liberalism and super privatization) and were I to have a medical emergency, my lack of insurance would (for lack of a better word) fuck me. However I believe that something can be taken from this. Americans work too much...slow it down and do a bit more of what pleases the mind, simple things. That's money in the bank and more leisure time. Unless you love working...in which case, by all means keep it up champ! You don't have time to do someone else's shit for 40 hours per week every week of your waking life.

I also recently started bartering for food. The best part is that I'm bartering dumpstered bread and pastries that I otherwise acquire for 5 minutes work and half of the trip to the market. I've managed to barter with **** ***** Farms and my friend ******* (get your own barter) for broccoli, collard greens, kale, grapefruit, sugar snap peas, and potatoes. Great.

Once Again.

2009-03-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

Once again the city of Oakland has felt the staggering reality of violence in its streets. Now I understand that what happened is a tragedy, but it is tragic in more ways than one. Of course it is tragic that 3 police officers were killed, another left brain dead, and the gunman committed suicide. Many people have been hurt by this event. Yet I believe that an equally large if not larger tragedy lies in the prison system, the parole system, and the way the media portrays the event.

Lovell Mixon was a man who had been in the prison system for a while. At the age of 26, Mixon had been involved in the penal system since 2002 when he was arrested and imprisoned for an armed car jacking in San Francisco. After serving 5 years he was released in November 2007. He was arrested for parole violation in February 2008 and was released in November of that year.

Many of those who came into contact with him said that after he was released he was trying to fly straight but a weak parole system failed to provide an avenue to be able to do so. Unable to figure out where to start about getting employment and being stood-up by his parole who was supposed to help facilitate that, he became depressed. This is the psychological aspect of the case for sure. However the sociological aspect is that the prison system and our society does not serve to rehabilitate prisoners to be able to re-integrate and rejects them as un-wanted. Coupled with a recession, it seems difficult to imagine that it would be easy to go on. After skipping a February meeting with his parole officer in whom he had no confidence he became a fugitive. He said that he would prefer incarceration if only to get a new parole officer. When two of the now-deceased police officers stopped him, he decided to open fire and killed them both. He then barricaded himself in his sister's apartment and another fire fight broke out claiming the life of another two police officers and wounding a fifth. Mixon then turned the gun on himself.

This is yet another case of many social ills. Poverty caused by a variety of social variables such as structural racism in the workforce, debt, weak social programs to help get people out of debt, lack of education which leads to desperation leading to crime, leading to imprisonment. We don't know the exact situation of Mixon's life such as if his family had massive debt due to medical bills or job loss or what, but what I can tell you is that since our economic system (such as loans) virtually don't exist without a thousand strings for the impoverished and education is underfunded and not geared towards teaching the needs of students the ability to attain generational upward social mobility was almost impossible for this man or those like him. He lacked the social, cultural, and economic capital to break the glass ceilings and make it in this world or be lead (such as with education) appropriately to do so. For those who can attain this, it seems second nature, therefore why someone else can't do it for any reason seems like a case of laziness and stupidity. This is not good. This is tragic.

Also the way the media portrays this as a race issue since none of the cops were black American and Mixon was coupled with the tension over the BART system Police shooting and killing of Oscar Grant in January 2009 is misleading and un-informed. It was the Seattle Times (and San Jose's paper) that said:

"Saturday's shooting also threatened the already strained relationship between Oakland's black community and law enforcement. Mixon was black, and none of the police officers were.

Tensions have been high between police and many Oakland residents since the shooting death Jan. 1 of Oscar Grant, 22, who was black, by a white Bay Area Rapid Tranist police officer at an Oakland transit station. After Grant's death, violent protests erupted in Oakland streets."

Why bring race into it. Race wasn't an issue until it was made one. Mixon would have shot any police officer at the time who was trying to stop him, white American or not. Besides two of the four cops were not white American. The fact that none of them were Black American is irrelevant.

Eruption is an over-statement. Having witnessed the "riots" I can say full well that not only were majority of the protests peaceful, but those who committed acts of violence were venting frustrations on windows instead of human beings. Would you not if you felt like those meant to protect and serve you (WHEN YOU'RE RIDING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION!) were killing innocent people regardless of phenotype? I don't even want to write the comments posted at the bottom of this article, read for yourself if you wish. My town is more than senseless violence, and I hope the world can one day realize that.

Thoughts of a Sociological Moment

2009-03-09T18:28:00.000-07:00

Passing by countless numbers of people while biking, I can't help but wonder what they are thinking and what got them there. The though is two-fold. One one side of the fold is the psychology of this person, what's causing them to act the way/look the way they are at this moment in time. Why are they saying what they are saying? The second part of the fold is the sociology of this person. What social factors led to this person being in this situation of life?

Today I came across multiple people yelling at each other. Not one big group, but rather a bunch of different duos of yelling. This is not uncommon, people yell at each other in street all the time of course. However I just bothered to take bigger stake in noticing it today. A man was yelling at a woman who was walking away. They took turns exchanging insults. The man yelled that what he was doing was none of her business, whereas the woman called him something to the effect of a jackass. What led to this? I'm not particularly interested in what specifically caused verbal altercation, but rather the set of factors that made these two people prone to resorting to this method of problem solving. I understand the psychologically, these two people were affected by their biology (building blocks = propensities to exhibit certain traits or behaviors). Perhaps they were children born with genes of some kind or another that makes them particularly unstable in certain ways and think in others. I don't feel like taking much stake in what they were born with in their building blocks. It's clear that these two individuals were brought up in a household and society that either praises or accepts this sort of behavior when dealing with this particular type of situation. In their environment, chewing someone out in broad daylight in the street is perfectly acceptable behavior when you are at odds with someone. Their particular life situations might also make them more volatile and ready to exchange insults at loud volumes in public. I believe that when there are things about your life that stress you out (no not that you lost your keys or your Tomagachi died) such as fear of failure in life, inability to achieve goals, feeling the pressure of providing for one's family, feeling pressure to provide for one's self, fear of death, poverty, hunger, malnutrition, etc and the societal factors that contribute to you being prone to feel the effects of these variables will affect your building blocks and cause your biology to be expressed and cultivated in particular ways. Perhaps the societal factors affecting the variables of these individuals caused them to be more irritable. I believe they were fighting because societal factors led to their context which then led them to react to news or behavior in particular ways when they ran into each other today. Everyone on earth could have been in that position, even me, should I have had their variables and their environments.

I now have a different volunteer post every day of the work week:
Monday: People's Grocery Garden Work
Tuesday: City Slicker Farms Garden Work
Wednesday: Food Not Bombs pickup and delivery
Thursday: City Slicker Farms Garden Work
Friday: People's Grocery Greenhouse Work

This quote is big and sociological:
"The social factors of conscriptions (electoral districts) in Québec can greatly influence the outcomes of general (provincial) elections. Using census data from the last 10 years and the voting results from the last four elections I observe the social characteristics of the 28 conscriptions in Montréal and conclude specific voting trends. I find that English speakers (Anglophones) and other non-French language speakers (Allophones) tend to vote for the Parti Libérale du Québec (PLQ). French speakers tend to vote for the Parti Québécois (PQ) and the Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ). I also find that this exists because Anglophones are the most socio-economically advantaged group in Québec, the Allophones have difficulty assimilating, and the Québécois are united under an informal connection to vote for a party that whose language-politics seeks to run a pro-Québécois social, cultural, and economic platform. These differences of opinion are set in a historical context of linguistic conflict." - Me, December 2007.

This is perhaps the single most important paragraph I've ever written. It is the opening statement to my thesis, which can be found here (shameless plug).

Thinking About The Past 6 Months

2009-02-19T00:32:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a self-centered post...

It's mid-way through the month of February, 2009 as anyone with a calendar may have guessed. I've been unemployed after losing my job in December, it's been 2 months and I'm not trying very hard to get myself another job. I can't help but wonder if I could actually see myself doing what I'm doing now last May. The answer is of course, no. In May, I had a job lined up. The way I see it now is that when I had to potential to get into research so early into my life with the Labor Union I worked for, I got very excited, but in retrospect I'm sure that I was totally unsure as to what I wanted to do. However, the motivation of making a salary that I find exorbitant even to this day ($37,000 per year) and having something to do every day was enough to make me accept the job. Realistically speaking, I was a bit bummed out that I was not going to be working in statistics, but I felt that what I was doing would inevitably help the process of laborers getting union certification and better livelihoods. After a few months I was starting to drift away from that sentiment. Since in my office it was only myself and my boss working in my department (made worse by the fact that almost everyone was campaigning for Obama elsewhere so the office was empty for the months of October and most of November) I began to feel more and more isolated. Then my good friend who works at a local of my union told me of a bull-shit operation that the International Union was doing against the local and it drove me crazy. How could we move forward if we're fighting each other? I realized that nothing is linear and progressively better, things come and go, get better and worse, etc.

By November I was starting to not like my job so much. I liked the bike ride though. I thought a lot about what the differences were between living in college and living in Oakland on my own. I was 100% convinced that college was really fun, and it was, but that it had its time, and now I was happier living off of my own income rather than the tuition benefit I received from Vanderbilt University. I didn't depend on the dining halls anymore (not like I had to, I was just too lazy to do otherwise and it was all I could eat). As much as I will admit that I loved the dining halls, I have to admit that by the end, I was tired of them. 4 years was a long time for predictability. I also wanted to eat more sustainably and cook for myself. I hated the amount of waste the dining halls produced, and the meager amount of composting the schools did was overshadowed by the trash it produced. I missed the people and social networks, but I loved the independence of life in Oakland, the routine I'd built up, the friendships I'd cultivated, even a romantic relationship had developed in my life. Therein I was succeeding in staying away from old mistakes. Frisbee was fun. Biking was fun. My parents were living in the Bay Area until January, I was cloud 9ing for sure.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving I got my pink slip. I was to be let go by my employer on December 31st. I stopped caring about what I was doing. A profound sense of self-loathing overtook me. The boredom I felt crunching numbers was terrible. I can say with certainty that I was jealous of my friends who had meaningful jobs. I resolved that I should have one too. Even if it meant not making money; I had saved a lot of my income so financially I was and am doing incredibly well due to cheap rent and lifestyle choices. My Thanksgiving was great because so much of my family was around me, I saw my good friends, my girlfriend and one of my best friends, Phoebe, came to my dinner. Phoebe and Val both moved. Val to Cleveland Heights (commonly referred to as China Hill) and Phoebe to the Mission in the City.

By January I was eagerly awaiting my severance package which took a long time to get to me. I was playing lots of frisbee and I had rediscovered more sustainable lifestyle choices. I started working with Food Not Bombs and started putting my efforts towards reducing waste in my community both with my stomach and the stomachs of others. My good friend Christopher Sitzman showed me the Food Not Bombs ropes in our community. We are cogs in the wheel that makes up this network that is as large as I don't even know. I can't ever really tell. Chris, Monc, Kyle, and myself are the cell that make up my network. We borrow a cart from the Acton House co-op in Berkeley and pickup food at different times and places and delivery it to the hungry. Of course Food Not Bombs is stereotypically an organization that not only encourages cooking foods and delivering them, but also vegetarianism.

My chapter is different. Our route deals with a grocery store called Natural Choice in the Temescal Neighborhood in Oakland. This grocery store is a health food store that has really high prices. Inevitably, much of the food in the store does not make it to peoples' homes, so we as a group worked out an agreement whereby we pick up the foods that are too close to expiration or past to sell. This includes sandwiches, wraps, juice, more juice, pasta dishes, salads, etc. This food is in some cases vegetarian, organic and local, but there is a fair amount of meat in these foods. Thankfully they are all pre-packaged, easier to preserve, and ready to be consumed. Food Not Bombs condones vegetarianism because it's a far more sustainable and healthy way to feed to hungry. Meat of course carries the weight of a larger ecological footprint and dumpster meat is of course higher risk of being too rotten to consume. We deliver the food to a few different locations, including the Long Haul homeless network and a park in West Oakland on 32nd and San Pablo. This is in Ghost Town. The homeless, drug addicts, and mentally handicapped people frequent this park, but also a large percentage are the working poor, who have all their shit together, but can't make enough to feed their families. This is an area on the cusp of gentrification. Not even 10 blocks north of it, Emeryville sits. Of course Emeryville is the eyesore of consumption in the East Bay. It houses many corporate headquarters like Pixar and Kodak but features a huge mall and it was all built on a native burial ground. Emeryville sucks big time and many Oaklanders work in it. Yet, Emeryville features two things: 1. The Road to the Cheeseboard Co-op from which we pick up Pizza (and lots of it) 2. The Semifreddie's Bakery. Semifreddies is a local bakery with multiple Bay Area locations. Their dumpsters feature the sweetest Ciabatta, Rye, Sour Dough, Sweet Loaves, etc. Sometimes cinnamon rolls, focaccia, and sliced bread can be found in their dumpsters. I have been living off of this food for the past few months. I should also say I supplement my diet with food from the Farmers' Markets because I want to support them and their superior produce can be bought year-round. I also dumpster dive at Trader Joes in Lafayette when I'm out there.

My diet has become really important to me. I have been concerned with ecological footprint for a long time. When I first moved here, I tried to eat as much from the farmers' markets and as vegetarian as I could. I stopped drinking milk, I ate Tofu, and a smattering of delicious fruits and vegetables. I also bought bulk organic pasta, lentils, and rice. All this food came from less than 200 miles away from where I live. This could be considered Flexitarianism. I ate flexibly to lower my ecological footprint. Then when I started supplementing my diet with the leftovers from the food deliveries of Food Not Bombs, I started to eat foods from the dumpster. This food, whether vegetarian or not, is out of the waste cycle. My ecological footprint remains at 0 for those foods despite there being meat in them in some cases because it was to be wasted, instead I am removing it from the landfill at putting through my body. It was not created for me to consume it with my money then stomach, it's essentially trash. Now I am still a flexitarian, but with Freeganism and it's also defined by a near-vegan consumption pattern (I do eat ice cream from time to time and grated cheese on a vegetarian pasta bolognese dish I get at Food Not Bombs), stopping eating tofu due to the difficulty it gave my digestive system. The only non-vegan things I buy is ice cream from time to time, but the rest is just fruits, vegetables, and carbs (rice, pasta, potatoes, lentils), all from the farmers' markets. So I'm eating locally and organically, then eating dumpstered food to rid the world of waste. My footprint is low, and I'm very proud of it.

Another thing I'm proud about is my neighborhood and my house. My neighborhood is in the Eastlake district which is part of the San Antonio District of Oakland. Eastlake is defined by the famous International Boulevard (the 1st through 14th Avenues) I live on 7th. It's an ethnic enclave, housing a large population of southeast Asian immigrants, my home is no exception. I live with a Burmese monk, a Thailander, and a Vietnamese woman along with my two white housemates. I joke that the area is called the Pho Flats due to the excessive amount of Vietnamese Pho Restaurants in a 5 block radius from me. There are also Laotians, Chinese, Japanese, Cambodians, Thai, etc. It sits on the crossroads of a Black American neighborhood (Highland Park aka Funktown USA) to the east and a Latino neighborhood to the south (The Twomps). The Twomps or Murder Dubbs is the hardest part of town, being one of the major locations of underage prostitution, phony businesses, drug and gang activity. There has been relatively little violence around me. Things have happened but nothing to write home about really. I feel safe when I bike (I don't have a car). The police patrol here all the time but I feel they cause more problems than they solve. They're constantly harassing people here. My home has been cleaned and re-arranged. People come to stay with us, it's great. Our house's basement floods terribly though. My housemate from Myanmar and I pumped the water out this morning by bucket and by pump. It was a sweet little bonding experience.

To wrap this up, I'll report the following.

Things I'm Happy About:
1. My unemployment not bothering me
2. Having gone to Hawaii for Kaimana
3. My Diet
4. Biking
5. Friends
6. Neighborhood
7. Ultimate

Things I'm Disappointed About:
1. My unemployment
2. My parents moved back to Nashville
3. Not having many people to speak in French to
4. I guess I'd like to find a significant other somewhere down the road

Return to The Big Pharma Druggernaut

2009-01-29T11:24:00.000-08:00

This is a an old paper I wrote for my final of American Politics in Fall 2005. It's about Pharmaceutical Companies' exploitation of consumers and how the consumer revolution made it all possible. It shows my sophomoric writing style (kind of appropriate since I was a sophomore in college). I've edited it down a bit, but if you can stomach it, enjoy.

In the United States, the federal and state government has largely supported legislation policies favoring the use private medical insurance, leaving little money to be spent on developing any sort of competent public health care system. If we look at how the largest pharmaceutical companies work we see with corporate lobbying, corners being cut, patents, corrupt private practices, advertisements, freebies to doctors in exchange for favoritism, and a zero-sum game where the people who need medical care the most tend to pay the most for their drugs.

By observing some of the most economically powerful countries in Europe, Asia, and North America, we see that per capita we (Americans) spend more money per year on health expenditures than any other country.

In Spain, the system of insurance that had previously been in place was done away with and in 1986 a National Health System (which by 2001 covered 99 percent of all citizens) was created. It is financed through taxes collected by the central government, distributing of health care is publicly owned and managed. In 2003, Spaniards paid $1835 per person in medical costs.

In Japan, all citizens are under the public health care system. Actual implementation of medical coverage is employer-based where employees of large employers (26 percent of the working population) have "society managed insurance" managed by company/worker boards, whereas employees/dependents of small employers (30 percent of the working population) are in government-run small business health plan, and other persons (retired, self-employed, farmers, which is about 40 percent of the population) are in a citizen insurance program. There is a tight central government regulation of health care providers. In 2003, the Japanese spent $2139 per person in medical costs.

In the United Kingdom, medical care is given to all citizens are under the public system whose budget is controlled by the government. Providers of medical care are publicly owned and managed. 11 percent of people have of people have small supplementary private insurance. 82 percent of the medical system is funded through taxes, 13 percent of the medical system is paid through natural insurance, and 4 percent by medical fees. In 2003, British citizens paid $2231 for their medical cares.

In Italy, all citizens are covered by the Servizo Sanitario Nazionale (public health care), which was created in 1978 to replace the insurance system that existed previously. It is financed mostly by the revenues of central government taxes, but there is still an element of social insurance present. The distribution of services is left to regional governments. Most providers are public, but some non-profit private providers have existed, although they have received scrutiny for having overspent in the past. In 2003, Italian citizens spent $2282 for medical cares.

In France a social insurance system was replaced by a tax-based universal health care system in the year 2000. Employers still contribute to the system, but employee contribution has been replaced by tax revenue. There is also a mix of employer-union health funds and the central government fund. 85 percent of French people also have supplementary private insurance. Providers are all public, some are non-profit and same are for-profit, but either way patients chose who they go to. Access to care is unlimited and is a fee-for service system with no drug gatekeepers. In 2003, French citizens paid an average of $2903 for their health services.

In Canada, since 1971, the system of medicine in the country has been what is known as the "Saskatchewan system," where private insurance is forbidden for basic necessary treatments, Federal (which is normal taxes) and provincial governments (which is employer payroll based) split the costs to cover one-hundred percent of Canadians in the public system. Hospitals are can be private or non-profit, physicians are private and the system operates on a fee-for-service basis. In 2003, Canadians spent $3003 on average for health services.

In the United States, the only public health care system floats upon Medicaid and Medicare, two highly inefficient and ineffective public health care plans; the American medical system rests upon private insurance plans that cover or do not cover medical expenses of all kinds. Americans paid over $2000 more per year ($5635 on average) on medical needs (mostly prescription drugs) in 2003. Over 45 million people are without health coverage.

In order to understand how Big Pharma truly works, it is necessary to break down its spheres of influence and exploitation to a few major areas, patents, the government, freebies (and they relate to doctors), advertising, and prices. Despite inflation rising 3-4 percent in the early 21st century, health care rose 5-7% in that time, health insurance premiums 12-14%, and spending on prescription drugs 20%. Big Pharma has a large hand in this.

Like in almost any other area of business, patents keep companies away from discoveries that could easily be copied. Companies can achieve maximum amount of profit on a drug with no competition. It can be thought of as a reward to medical companies for having poured in millions of dollars in researching and developing the drug. There is logic to this.

US law states that drug companies who do research and development of a drug get exclusive patent marketing rights for about 20 years with no competition. After, other companies are allowed to create generic versions and sell the drug for as little as 1/5 of the original price; after wherever inflation would take the American dollar. This is all because of the 1984 Hatch-Waxman act that had two important provisions: the first being that all a company has to do to sell a generic is prove that their generic drug is the bioequivalent to the brand-name drug without having doing any research or arguments to the FDA, and the second being that the law extended brand-name patent years to present day levels. If a generic drug company announces plans to release a generic version of a patented drug before the patent expires, then the company owning the patented drug can sue the generic company and receive a thirty-month patent extension. This fervent drug patent protection is because once a generic drug hits the shelves, sales for a brand-name drug can drop a far as seventy-five percent. For example when Prozac went off patent in 2001, its generic counterpart Fluoxetine stormed the market and Prozac sales dropped eighty percent that year. Big Pharma companies would (ideally) forget about the old drugs and discover new ones.

Once the patents of many blockbuster drugs were hitting their last legs around 2000-2002, such as Claritin or Prozac, the idea of new development fell through. Rather than illegally challenging the patents to extend, a few new concepts emerged. Big Pharma decided to develop variations on old drugs to continue making profit off old discoveries instead. Like a family of drugs from a mother drug and claiming that these drugs new and improved, including with new possible treatments for originally unseen conditions like a depression drug that shows evidence that it could help cure bulimia. Then the new products were marketed through doctors whom Big Pharma bribed and TV advertising. One not need look further than the story of Nexium.

Nexium is an acid-reflux drug manufactured by AstraZeneca PLC. In 2001, it was released and patented. During study, it was proven that Nexium was nothing but a derivative of Prilosec, its predecessor. The pill was marketed a whole new product that could take what Prilosec could do into the next level, including taking care of heartburn. Many Americans do suffer from heartburn, whose symptoms partially coincide with acid-reflux, but could achieve relief with a six-dollar bottle of generic Tums rather than a one hundred dollar bottle of Nexium. It ended up raking in the sixth highest sales growth of the year. During the research study it was not only discovered that Nexium is a derivative of Prilosec, but also that it does the same thing, and actually does little that is more effective than Prilosec. It was been marketed as "the purple pill with gold stripes" or what AstraZeneca PLC called "the new purple pill." It was completely different from Prilosec, and therefore was patented just as Prilosec's patent was running out. It was a whole new drug that was for AstraZeneca and for them only.

Most research and development shows of all the FDA approved drugs that were put on the market from 1989 to 2000, only 15 percent had new ingredients and had significantly new health benefits. The rest were simply derivatives of old drugs or "product-line extensions." These drugs contributed to most of consumer spending from 1995-1999. These are the "me-too" drugs.

In 2002, there were efforts by Congress to close the loopholes in the Hatch-Waxman act. Big Pharma and PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) who work hand-in-hand justified that patent extensions were within their right as businesses making profit. Big Pharma can basically run free and the government does very little to stop them.

With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the most fundamental change for Big Pharma began their chain reaction. When the pro-business, free market Capitalist agenda of the Reagan administration began, a shift in government policies occurred. Congress began by enacting a series of laws, starting with the Bayh-Dole Act, which was designed to allow "technology transfer," or when small biotech companies or universities entered into the corporate domain. The Bayh-Dole Act enabled universities and small businesses to patent pharmaceutical discoveries during research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, who distributes tax dollars for medical research, and then switch the discovery rights directly to drug companies. Up to this point, such discoveries were in the public domain, and were readily available to any company that desired them. Now small biotech companies would make discoveries and then allow themselves to be consumed by Big Pharma companies that would continue developing, patent, and then mass produce the resulting drugs with at high profits for both parties.

In the Early 1990s, health insurance premiums were increasing every year. 37 million Americans were without insurance. It was an issue that united consumers, who could not pay for health care, and businesses, which ended up being billed extra to pick up the unpaid charges of the uninsured. Some sort of national health care plan had looming desire in the American public. Unfortunately however by the mid-1990s, Bill Clinton had failed in reforming health care, and Congress had abandoned the issue. Big Pharma had lobbied to every office in Congress and state government bodies to try to prevent measures that would lessen prices of drugs, boost the ability of cheaper competition to mass produce, and of course add certain prescription drugs to Medicare benefits.

By the time the Bush administration was in power, Big Pharma had their hands fairly deep in the government. According to David Certner (director of federal affairs for the AARP) from 1999-2001, Big Pharma spent $75 million on lobbying alone, more than any other sector and had nearly a hundred more lobbyists than there are members of Congress. The Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld from GD Searle) and the budget director (Mitchell Daniels from Lilly) of the Bush Administration were former executives for their respective pharmaceutical companies. The government started shifting in the direction of protecting Big Pharma's interests, and Democrats were no exception. In 1999, Linda Daschle, the wife of the Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota lobbied for a bill to extend Schering-Plough's patent of Claritin. By 2002, PhRMA's president stated that the organization had a 17 person lobbying staff, set up 8 regional offices, had united with a many interest groups, influenced a U.S. free trade agreement with Jordan, and delayed a measure in Japan that would have lowered prices for popular drugs. Usually companies make former congressional all-star teams of lobbyists with great influence in delegations from states where headquarters or plants located. Once again, Big Pharma can just run around carte blanche. By owning Washington, no legislation will ever be passed against Big Pharma. The pharmaceutical industry makes so much money that no capitalist government would dare to stop it, that would be against the most fundamental of free market capitalism. Make the money at any cost, and that cost is dire to consumers. The onslaught of television and radio waves that consumers experience are the direct result of the government (more specifically the FDA) loosening up the requirements for television and radio advertisements in 1997.

Pharmaceutical ads have their roots in the consumer movement of the 1960s and 1970s. By giving everyday people more information about products, they could have more control over their lives with a so-called "consumer empowerment." The FDA mandated that consumers should know what was in food they ate and drugs they took in order to make better decisions about the products they bought. Factories had to inform local neighborhoods (in certain cases of course that does not apply in cases such as the Love Canal or disposal of PCBs on poor black communities in North Carolina) how much of the chemical runoffs had seeped into ground water. Empowerment grew over the next few decades, but this meant now that corporate heads could give more responsibility to consumers and less on their companies. As long as it was spelled out in fine print somewhere, it would no longer be the company's fault if you misunderstood. One area of socio-economic life where pharmaceutical companies won was when the 401 (k) plans were introduced in company retirement. This left retirement and medical plans up to the employee to save and invest wisely. Consumer empowerment is all about putting consumers in larger control of their money. Normal consumers are more involved in reading labels and ingredients. This was taken to new heights in 1997, when the advertisement of prescription drugs or direct-to-consumer (DTC) took hold.

In the past consumer pharmaceutical advertising was limited but not illegal. Pharmaceutical companies that wanted to tote the magic of the drugs that they had to offer also had to publish the entire spectrum of side effects that could go along with them. This caused a problem for companies because it became exceedingly difficult to include all that information into a half-minute television commercial. Under those circumstances, advertisements were used as quick reminders. There was not much more than mentioning the product by name. Companies preferred to advertise to the doctors, which entailed taking them out to dinner and other benefits. On August 12, 1997, drug marketing exploded because of the FDA's decision to relax regulation on broadcasting information about drugs. The general population could now find out for themselves what drugs were available without having to blindly rely on doctors. TV and radio commercials could give product name and treatment claims as long as they included a small portion stating major risks, limitations, and warnings for whom should not take certain drugs. Toll-free phone numbers and websites popped up to added to the hype.

From 1997 to 2001, DTC advertising went from $1.1 billion to $2.5. According to a Families USA 2000 analysis, twice as much money was spent on advertising than on research and development. For example 6 percent of Merck's revenue was allocated to research and development and 15 percent was to marketing. Most advertised drugs are for nuisances such as fungus, migraines, allergies, hair loss, erectile dysfunction, etc. rather than serious diseases. Schering-Plough spent $136 million worldwide to push Claritin and got $3.5 billion in return. Big Pharma advertising tactics use an image for a drug that consumers are convinced they want. If you look at elderly people in commercials they always seem to be in their fifties or sixties not in their seventies or eighties and most definitely not bed-ridden hospital patients. Ads can go as far as suggesting that this image of the young strapping lad taking his wife on a ride through the mountains on a mighty steed could be you. This drug is then just for the consumer and the consumer might not have the slightest idea what the drug is even for. People were now making life health decisions based on 60 seconds of music, manipulation, and aesthetics. A New York pediatrician was quoted saying, "I don't think it's up to the consumer to say 'I want Zocor instead of Lipitor because I saw it on the Sports Channel.'" (Hawthorne 161).

Marketing the name of a drug can start even before a drug is approved. Companies can spend up to three years paying from $100,000 to $150,000 simply for market research, legal searches, and phonetic testing. Take for example Celebrex, think celebrate because it relieves arthritis, or Merck's asthma drug, Singulair, air is at the end, so you feel like you can breathe again. It goes right down to certain letters like X, Z, T or K for men's drugs because they are hard-hitting or L, R, and S for women because the words are softer. Big Pharma hires agencies used to advertise companies such as Avis, Coke, General Motors, Burger King, and Compaq.

A survey of 1,222 Americans by Prevention magazine in June of 2000 showed that 32 percent of consumers who saw DTC ads (equaling around 54 million people) talked with their doctor about medicine in commercials. 26 percent asked for a prescription for those medicines. For those who asked, 71 percent walked away with a prescription. Though doctors might not all be out to boost brand-name drugs. Chances are that most doctors consider whether the product is covered by the patient's insurance plan over all other issues. However, if you look at the trend, what drugs patients get has increasingly less and less to do with what a doctor says. Consumers have been so barraged with drug commercials that they want a certain type of antibiotics. Eventually the antibiotics are so overused that bacteria are developing more and more resistance to them. Often times, people will just go to another doctor to get a prescription. Eventually a doctor that gets asked seven times a day to receive Vioxx will give in. Thanks to advertising, ordinary people are influencing professionals of the world. DTC now jacked up the nation's health bill by trying to manipulate patients into buying expensive name-brand drugs instead of over-the-counter generics or competitors, or no drug at all. The 50 most advertised drugs (including Prilosec, Zocor, and Claritin) account for 1/3 of all retail sales in the United States whereas the other 9,850 prescription drugs shard the remaining 2/3 of sales. However, as much as companies spend on their DTC advertisements, they spent five times that on their sales reps to doctors' offices with donuts, drug samples, and theater tickets which is what is known as the horrible world of freebies.

When it comes to prescriptions, doctors are the real gate-keepers that listen to the woes of patients and then, based on an educated decision, are supposed to prescribe a certain drug if any at all to ease the discomfort of the patient. Unfortunately, due to a practice that is known as "freebies," what drug a doctor might end up suggesting, could be based on the company that pushed the most freebies.

A doctor might receive a call from a drug company representative asking if they want free tickets to some event or if they want meals from expensive restaurants for lunch delivered to them. Usually a company representative will take a doctor out and the two will enjoy themselves at whatever event they go to or they just might sit and talk. A representative might talk about his company's drug over a meal on them or a meeting with the entire staff of a particular hospital. It's essentially the buttering up (bribing if you will) of doctors with free meals and knick-knacks. Every company does it. When it comes time to write prescriptions, some doctors (not all fall victim to such blatant persuasion techniques) will write a prescription for a drug that a specific representative pushed very well. Said a doctor; "I try to give everybody a little piece of the pie. If I like the rep, they get a little more. Some of them have said to me 'Two prescriptions a month would make a big difference to us.'" (Hawthorne 116). That doctor might end up giving that representative the extra business one month, as long as the representative's drug is basically the same as whatever else he might have prescribed: the doctor added, "Another company will get it next time." (Hawthorne 116). The doctor's internist once recalled that the doctor asked a representative for tickets to a particular show and the representative "never called me back. His drug [competes with] other drugs that are very similar, so guess what? He's not going to get many prescriptions from me." (Hawthorne 116)

According to the pharmaceutical industry, everything the internist described doesn't happen, but in 2000, according to the IMS Health Incorporated, 80,000-plus drug sales representatives had 300,000 formal meeting and spent around $16 billion "detailing" doctors about their companies' drugs in the doctors' offices, at restaurants, and shows. This is a steep rise from the $2.5 billion spent in 1990. Pharmaceutical companies push this practice from the type of speech that rivals the best door-to-door salesmen right down to the look of the representatives. Representatives usually are young, well-dressed, educated, pushy, learn about the company's products in six week crash courses, and are usually knowledgeable about one or two drugs. Most representatives will try to meet every few months with important positioned doctors from around five to thirty minutes of face-to-face time, symposiums, or over lunch. Most representatives try an approach they talk with doctors of past success with the product, claims, and criticisms of other drugs (such negative side effects). Freebies will be given during these meetings. The freebies can be anything from notepads, coffee mugs, clip-boards, pens emblazoned with product names, and educational tapes and videos. The next level in freebies is food, which can be a box of doughnuts, Chinese food, or deli sandwiches. Around once a month, doctors, nurses, and even receptionists might get taken out to lunch to hear a pharmaceutical company scientist talk about a drug. The highest level is soirées that include tickets to Broadway shows, the U.S. Open tennis tournament, professional football, hockey, basketball games, whitewater rafting trips, wine tastings, etc.

When stories of this came into the public eye Big Pharma had answers. 1. It doesn't happen or it's a few bad apples. 2. It's all educational 3. Doctors work hard and deserve the freebies they are given. 4. Doctors make the companies do it because doctors take it and ask for more. In 2002, government regulation changed the system of freebies so that all promotion had to be changed to educational programs including more symposiums and less Broadway shows.

Freebies do not necessarily increase profits. Most doctors will gladly accept the gifts and then prescribe what they feel is right for a patient, and that is ok but the symposiums and money actually do in part have an effect prescription decisions. It enters the consciousness of a doctor the way an ad would. The name on the napkin at lunch might pop into a doctor's head and cause him or her to think a bit more about that company's drug the next time they write a prescription. These actions cause consumers in the United State to pay a price, a hefty one for their prescription medication. All of Big Pharma's actions lead up being able to do what they want with prices.

At this time, Americans consume more medication at higher prices and it seems that there is no end in sight. By 2003, Americans were spending $170 billion dollars per year on some 3 billion prescriptions. Over 40 million Americans (1/3 of the elderly population) still had no medical insurance which was exacerbated by economic recession in 2001 forcing companies to close or remove medical coverage from their benefits.

In 1990, the average cost of a prescription was about $27. By the early 2000s, prescriptions averaged $65, outpacing inflation. Between 2000 and 2001 patients increased the number of pricey new drugs. When looking at recent oral diabetes medications Actos and Avandia, the number of prescriptions for the drugs increased by 62 and 41 percent respectively. The increased use of the medicines boosted the average price of a prescription from $54 to $62 dollars, a 15 percent increase in one year. The amount of oral antihistamines increased by 612 percent between 1993 and 1998, drugs like Allegra, Claritin, and Zyrtec were the three most advertised medicines and the did see the largest profit increases; especially over generics. In 2001, the best-selling drugs cost around $72 dollars per prescription and the other 9,000-plus cost around $40.

As prices rise, many different groups and people offer explanations. Employers claimed the problem lay in physicians. Since companies pay for whatever prescriptions necessary, they do not monitor their prescription use. Insurance companies were also at fault had long since shifted their coverage in favor of drugs instead of prevention, nutrition, exercise, and other less expensive alternatives. Most of the time patients are given enough time with doctors required to have discussions about lifestyle or diet change. Insurance companies pay for drugs but not for vitamins or health club memberships. They and employers would blame the structure and company-sponsored health insurance. The "Free ride" makes $40 prescriptions cost $10 for a drug that is on the formulary and insurance would pay the rest. Therefore, consumers could not understand how these processes contribute to the overall rise in medical spending and keep going back to the drug store without a second thought.

There are a few more things that we must consider to understand what dictates the price of prescription drugs. It mostly it depends on who is buying the drug. First there is Average Wholeslae Price, which is basically the reduced price that wholesalers. Pharmaceutical companies must do business with wholesalers. State Medicaid is required by law to buy and sell at the best price,; the federal supply schedule. It ensures that the Department of Defense, Coast Guard, Veterans Administration, and Public Health Services pay the same price as drug companies' favorite private customers. The next price range is the insurers and pharmacy benefits managers (PBM), the for-profit companies that are hired by employers to administer drug benefits, negotiate with manufacturers for discounts and rebates, often in exchange for giving the manufacturers' drug preference. Those who would be least able to afford prescription drugs end up paying the most, the uninsured.

PBM is the middleman that employers hire to administer prescription drug benefits. They use the power of their clients' workforces to negotiate price reductions with drug companies and pharmacies, meaning that they can decide which drugs make it onto their clients' formularies. They could go as far as calling up a physician and suggesting switching to a different drug brand for a client. PBMs are supposed to help clients get the best deals possible, and if a drug company owned a PBM, then it could technically negotiate with itself by controlling the demand and the supply. Perhaps the most notorious of these was Merck's Merck-Medco Managed Care. By 2002 it handled prescriptions for 29 percent of Americans, around 65 million people. The FTC quickly tried to stop MMMC for Merck using a PBM to encourage its own products. Merck stood by their claim that they were encouraging Medco members to buy generics and claiming that only 6 percent of the claims Medco handled were for Merck products. By 2002, 7 PBMs clients had filed lawsuits against Merck, claiming that it had entered into prohibited self-dealing transactions under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act along with the Attorney General of West Virginia. Merck had to let go of Medco and confess to hidden workings of fixing favoritism in their subsidiary (Quotes page 187). Later the SEC filed that Merck had booked $12.4 billion in revenue that Medco never received.

When Congress, wanting to equal the playing field, began requiring that Medicaid be paid the "best price" in 1990, the pharmaceutical industry responded by hiking up the best price and reducing discounts to private buyers; they increased the best prices for everyone else as well. A drug that would cost $100 dollars for a normal customer, would cost $58 for federal government, and $70-$95 for PBMs.

Americans pay way more money for prescription drugs than any other country in the world. Governments in other economically superior countries negotiate the price of drugs and buy them then distribute them. Italians pay 53 percent of what cash-paying Americans do, the French 55 percent, Swedes 64 percent, Germans 65 percent, the British and the Swiss 69 percent and Canadians 62 percent. For sixty tablets of Zocor, a Canadian would pay $43.97 in American dollars in Canada, and in Vermont it would cost $109.43 according to Independent Representative Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Some drugs cost elderly Vermonters up to 81 percent more than the Canadian elderly. So the question is, why do drugs cost so much? The answer is because Big Pharma can make consumers pay that much without any regulation. That's free market at its best (or worst as I would consider it). Big Pharma tries to tell consumers that if they loose profits, then the research laboratories will go under and everyone will die. Terror tactics are the name of the game. Keep the people dependent; they'll pay the money. Though out of all the that claims that costs of R&D are too hefty, what could easily disprove that is that Pharmaceutical companies own the Fortune 500, and turn two times the amount of profit of any other industry in the world.

Sources:

Boyle, Nigel. "Comparative Major Economic Health Care Systems" Presented 10/2005.

Hawthorne, Fran. The Merck Druggernaut: The Inside Story of a Pharmaceutical Giant. Hoboken New Jersey: Wiley Publishing (Blackwell Publishing) 2005.

Lei-Out with NICE!

2009-01-26T23:04:00.000-08:00

Two weekends ago the Nice! crew reunited for another weekend of self-destruction, but this time in the beautiful weather of Southern California's capital of beach tourism, Santa Monica. Lei-Out has historically been one of my favorite tournaments, and this one was not disappoint. This year the tournament would only be 2 days, but they were perhaps two of the best social ultimate days in my career that is in its 7th year. This crew looked a bit different than the Vegas squad, but there was a whole lot of love and a whole lot of booze (not unlike Vegas).

Left Insta-Bench (Left to Right): Danny Walters, Enway Hsu, Iris Leung, Jen "Sir Robin" Jacobsen, Anna "Busty" Mebust.

The Pit (L-R): Me, James Yeager, Steve "Daze" Prodan

The Back Row (L-R): Adam Raty, Allen Lai, Robert Gormley, Steve Scardato, Amy "Meeko" Chang, Sara Scheid, Brinn Langdale, Laurent "Sale Quebecois" Lessard

As you may or may not have guessed, the trip began with one of my best friends Joaquin and I meeting up in the East Bay and heading to Santa Cruz, where we waited for Yeager and Brinn to be done with school so that we could leave. Joaq and I hung out, getting some breakfast and then back at his house for cleaning his car and tossing around. We went to pick up Yeager and Brinn around 3 PM at O'Looney's place. There we were met by the dog brigade, featuring O'Looney's big dog, Kiki. I can't help but love Kiki. We talked about the Chargers and I lamented in anger over their loss to the hated Steelers. Brinn and Yeager arrived and we left for Los Angeles. As is usual in our road trips (we have had many) good tunes and conversation were had. Joaq is just a natural at this road seeing has he has done this drive 50 times in the last 4 years for a variety of reasons. Once you hit the 5, it's like he just puts you on a magic carpet and you're there.

On the way to LA, Joaq asked where I was staying, I said I had no idea. Really I didn't. I figured that everyone on the team would have enough friends to find their own way. Whereas in Vegas I was responsible for everyone's lodging, this time I said fuck it, and very much on purpose. As we approached LA, our old college buddy and room mate of Joaq's, Greg "Shaggy" Sandstrom called us and asked if we wanted to hang out via Katie "Krump" McDonald, we said yes. Gordy then called us asking if we could pick him up in Burbank. Of course to be a dick, I said no, but we did anyways. When we got LA, I just wanted a drink. So once we got to Shaggy's and said hi to all the Greenshirts who were there (Rocky, Camille, Krump) Yeager, Brinn, Gordy, and myself all headed out to the nearest liquor store to get booze. I bought an Arrogant Bastard and 4 JOOSES, I wanted to taste the flavors. Little did I know that they would be obsolete the next day. We drank, socialized, and eventually went to sleep.

The next morning we embarked on the journey that would be this weekend, in all of its splendor and failure (mostly of my liver). This tournament features a smattering of bagels, cookies, spreads, oranges, etc on the food front, but maybe the greatest or worst idea ever...free Four Maxed and Four Loko which packs 10 and 11% alcohol per 16 or 23.5 ounce can. Coupled with my 4 JOOSES, I was a little amped/drunk as hell.

We started off the weekend playing a team with many friends on it for me, Lick My Love Pump. We started off the game flat as a board, losing badly to this historical beach powerhouse. The next game we got our composure and played Nerds of Prey which featured some players from Slow White, instead of losing as I anticipated we might do after such a poor performance, we smoked this East Coast team 11-3 (games were to 11). Our next game would prove to be the best of the day in my opinion...Downtown Brown. I have had a great relationship with DTB, not really qualifying to play, but being friends with a large portion of the players. This team featured 808, Frankus, Jaycuzzi, Alma, Jen Chen, Joaquin (not playing), Greg Marliave (token white guy), Ayron, etc. We started down, clawed back, and took half 6-5. This game also featured the future of Claremont Ultimate, Tommy Li. Tommy and I took the opportunity to mark up on each other a lot. Being a crafty old bastard served me well. We both bid on an in-cut with me on D, Tommy caught it, I caught the next one on an in-cut bid after the turn and threw a flarey scoober to Brinn. I then caught a bounce and broke Tommy for a score and broke him on a pass to Laurent for a goal. Brinn was on fire that game. We ended up losing 8-11. I was kind of pissed, but this game featured a spirit circle before the game started and lots of warm, kind emotion and booze. DTB ended up winning the pool, rightfully so. We had a bye so we dug our drinking hole (which would become a new idea that shall be described in the later part of this post) and got silly. I ran into DSUN friends and Arizona buddies like Kal and Joe "Loppy" Kirschner. The next game was against the old LA folks The Monkeys featuring Rob Severson. I was wary of playing them, but we managed to hold them off quite easily for an 11-7 victory. The day was over. I was already exhausted and sad that day one was over, but I had to pick it up for a party of large proportions.

The party was in the Santa Monica Promenade at the Monsoon. This party featured free Colt .45 and a VIP section with the shittiest mohitos on the face of this planet, at least they had glow in the dark stick in them. I hung out mostly with Sir Robin and another UCSD compadre Andrea "Ferris" Cardenas and then was just all over the place. I saw too many people to remember them all except that the UCSC dudes playing with "Sandlot" were amazing. Harry of Scumbag fame was off the charts along with Cassidy, Conor "D McGee" Ranahan, Chapman, and the Sol ladies who held it down. I made it home to Shaggy's after a sweet private birthday celebration for Yeager who turned 23.

The next morning, energized and ready to play we went up 6-3 on Kiran Thomson's "Posse" squad from Texas featuring mostly Chewbacca Defense dudes. Then we turned it around and decided to lose 9-11, crushing. I had the last turnover, I hate that. We then played a game I'd rather forget because it was so chippy before the game even started arguing about rules with a Bay Area dude I'd rather not name. He just made the game suck and I lost my faith for a second. Thankfully Aman, Damian, Mel, and Pug restored my faith. We lost again 9-11. But it didn't really matter. We then played a NICE!, DTB, Pikachu (Asian Team) showcase game for a good 2 hours and a score that we didn't keep track of, but it was like the NHL skills competition at the All-Star game. I managed to score on Tommy again and D him and two others on a huck where I turned around from my endzone and hit Jacob Serrano with a full field hammer for a score. I also threw a break scoober full field to Allen for a score and a failed attempt to Love of ACS fame. I generally showboated for DSUNers and others. There were all manners of fun in that game: snakes in the grass, Ds from off field, extra people, concept points, women vs women, Original Nice! vs Irvine etc.

During this game Nice! pioneered and founded Insta-Inc. with the creation of a fully sized Sandcuzzi capable of seating 6 and prime for the game "Drink the Jaeger." I played cups with Raty against Joaq and Chick and won. We then pioneered the Insta-bench, cheering "INSTA-BENCHES!" as we had all weekend, it pretty much became our cheer. For the finals we then created the Insta-Trench, hopefully some pictures show up for our 20 person effort. The Insta-Trench became our cheer and some awesome heckles from Joaq and I wowed the crowd and the battling squads of Antimony from SB and CGNU from the Bay Area. Though CGNU won the tournament, Insta-Incorporated stole the show, bringing us all a new standard in belligerence. CEOs James Yeager, Joaquin, Danny Walters, and myself had this to say, "INSTA-TRENCHES!" and "This Insta-Trench brought to you by Nice!" we're selling our Insta-Services for $50 a pop, just contact any one of us.

Joaq and I closed out the weekend driving back and getting back to SC at 4 AM. I made it back to the East Bay at 1 PM and rushed to an interview in Berkeley. I didn't get it, I wonder if it was the massive amount of boozing? Anyways, this was the best Lei-Out to date...Nice! once again set the standard of drunken excellence. Best!

Braineaters vs. Slugs (2006)

2009-01-22T10:22:00.000-08:00

Undoubtedly one of the best series of games of my ultimate career were the games where the Braineaters took on UC-Santa Cruz in 2006 and 2007. Though we only played 2 games total against each other, both of those games featured some very talented players playing in total shit conditions. Both times (once in Palo Alto and once in Santa Barbara), rain was pouring down hard, it was windy, and both teams were giving chances to the other to win it. The first time, we won, in what would turn out to be a 3-hour grueling battle of a game in which we were finishing a weekend undefeated with only 15 guys for the whole weekend. The last 4 games of the weekend were decided by 3 goals or fewer.

On Sunday we had just defeated UCLA and Whitman, both were real nail biters (13-11 and 12-11) and we faced the other undefeated squad UCSC. At the time I knew of no one on UCSC, they all looked badass, and I'd heard that it was a travesty that they were even at the qualifier. They were heavily the favorite over us. Little did I know that the future would have many of these dudes be my friends by the end of my college career, but for the time being, I was all enemies with these dudes.

Before the game started, we agreed to not play to a time cap, and make it a straight game to 17. Strangely enough, this was the only college game to 17 I would ever play. The conditions were already shitty and we were ready to play. I am a grand pessimist despite my outgoing and lighthearted exterior. I always go into games thinking I'm going to lose so that I can relax and if I lose no biggie, but if I win, fuck yes! The game starts, some Greenshirts have come over to watch us, people are huddled on the sideline to watch what would be an epic game not to be ending any time soon.

The Slugs went up 3-0 and 4-1 to start the game. Our offense was not clicking so well. Stout and Jughead were doing their damndest to keep us in it. Captain Alex Wells was playing hard and trying to inspire. Sam "James K Polk aka the Darkhorse Candidate" Miner was getting Ds, but we were not scoring. I was marking up against George Van Pelt (who I don't like marking) and this very very tall guy who handled but never took the time to burn me deep (the guy had many many inches on me...see for yourself).

We were down 5-2, when Stout started giving us

a big hand in a comeback attempt with a number of great Ds and marking up on their best cutter, whose name escapes me, but this dude is #51, funnily enough Stout was also #51...coincidence?

Anyways, Stout also manages to help us come back with some nasty skies and some solid O out of Jughead, Peaches, and James K Polk. Seriously though, Alex was at the helm of this. Him and Paul got us fired up somethin' fierce. We pulled it into and led for a short while with a score of 6-5. Slugs call time out. They get the next three and take half 8-6.

The next hour consisted of a literal tug of war with the score bouncing back a nd forth for us and them. Paul "Icecock" Robustelli got a sweet poach lay out D on the Slugs #51. The score oscillated between us going up and them. 7-8, 7-9, 8-9, 8-10, 9-10, 10-10, 11-10, 11-11, 11-12, 11-13. Not good. Despite many good defensive efforts we could not hold the flood gates. We were down, the game was to 15. We receive and Jughead gets a nice score against who would in 3 years be our teammate on the Santa Cruz Scumbags, Steve "Gravy Train" Graves. 12-13. We're going upwind and they have the disc mid-field. I managed to handblock the big dude. We score after a few more Ds. 13-13.

I have to add in this edit. We're down 13-14, game point. Alex Wells manages to layout tip or disrupt George Van Pelt to the point where he drops it when they were looking to easily score and take the game, we score, 14-14. They score. 14-15 game win by 2. We then manage to score. 15s game to 17. At this point the game had gone on for 2 and a half hours. Everyone was cold and exhausted, but not playing with a cap ended up being our greatest savior. We are driving upwind, and Wells cuts to the front corner of the right part of the endzone, he gets the throw from I don't know who and toes it in. Danny Karlinsky is not convinced he was in. Wells is convinced. They proceed to argue for 10 minutes or more in the freezing rain, the TD comes in and says he thinks it was in. DK is not convinced. It goes back, Jughead proceeds to toe in one of the most beautiful goals I have ever seen in my life. It was magical. 16-15, game point. What else should happen except that we get the D down in their

zone and quick transition leads to Peaches toeing in a goal and us winning the epic battle 17-15.

This game would however prove to be inconsequential since the week later two teams would drop out of the Stanford Invite making Chico and UCSC be invited. However it was the posterity that mattered. Of course this game was a good follow up from the majestic Vegas tournament we had and lead quite well for our shocking of the Stanford Invite beating both Brown and Queens Kingston and almost taking down Black Tide which set the stage for 3 years of good competition between us and them. I will never forget this game, none of us ever will.

Some Sunday Goaltimate

2009-01-12T01:04:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a while since I posted anything of any real value, but I will update you on a few things that will let you know why.

1. I got laid off from my job.

That's really the only thing. I've been busy doing other shit to not be unemployed so I stopped posting so much. Also I've been listening to a lot of Hockey because the Canadiens have had a lot of games, and a good thing is a lot of wins, recently.

I bought myself a used desktop for cheap and it will help me edit my videos when I have the time and the tapes, which are currently 3,000 miles away in Nashville, TN. More on that later.

Today I played my first goaltimate since Mikey Grass kneed me in the ass in November making me leave after two games. I didn't really get the hang of it at that point. Granted, I understood the game, but I'm a possession and huck kind of guy, with admittedly an array of silly throws, but my goaltimate throws are just not what they need to be just yet. You know the bending blade scoober that curves in through the arch, yeah that throw. Anyways, today was a good day for coming back into the game, with a 5 mile bike ride and a trip to the farmers market preceding the game. If you've never played goaltimate before, it's exhausting if you actually try, and I was actually trying. Anyways, the game had the following players that are very good: Bart Watson, Gabe, Ryo, Dan Hodges, Peter Washington, Matt Ruby, Corey Lee, etc, needless to say I felt highly inadequate with those guys alone. The other dudes were just good. Anyways, first thing that happens when I get there is that I find out we're keeping stats...fuck hope for breaking even, and two Gabe gets a lazer blade to the face from Rubes...I was not signed up for that. Well, a couple turnovers, getting scored on, scoring a goal, and throwing a goal later, I was exhausted. Only after two games. Then I somehow gained a lot of energy and strength and felt fine despite warm weather and being generally out of shape. Granted, I wasn't burning Gabe or Bart but I wasn't getting burned either, I scored a bit, threw a few goals, reset the disc well, only made a few errors, but was generally happy to be there and had a lot of fun with those dudes, they are good. I played 7 games.

Maybe a game shall be posted sometime soon. Joyeux nouvel an! Happy New Year!

First thing I did in 2009 was jump into the Pacific Ocean naked with a bunch of my friends...then I cleaned my home. Nice.

Lucky 7s with NICE!

2008-12-15T09:55:00.000-08:00

This weekend was Lucky 7s in Las Vegas, NV.

This tournament brings out all the best people I know from LA, San Diego, and to a lesser extent, the Bay Area. After a few months of wanting to take a rest for most people (not me I kind of just keep going), everyone shows up a bit out of shape, but ready to have a damn good time. Sometimes too good as in the case of one of the San Diego teams who simply didn't show up for their first game and got too drunk afterwards to really put the hurt on other teams, despite the superior skills. Either way, I approached this year's Lucky 7s with the same sense approach as the year before, bring out your buddies, but bring out more of your opponents. What that means is that I use this tournament as an excuse to invite the guys I have been notable opponents with on the field but loved to hang with off the field (sometimes on too) along with my good buddies and play a tournament. I would also invite many of the women I have either never played with before or have come to know and love over the course of my years playing the game, this year it was no different. My roster was as follows

Men:
Adam Raty
Laurent Lessard
Aman Ahuja
Nick Raisch
Steve "Daze" Prodan
Allen Lai
Michael "808" Liu
Scott "Wonderboy" Mahr
Jason "Jaycuzzi" Becerra
Myself

Women:
Delia Greth
Jen "Sir Robin" Jacobsen
Melody "Bonds" Gaal
Amy "Meeko" Chang
Iris Leung
Jen "Zip" Chen
Nicole Esclamado
Kate Bayliss (For Saturday)

Booze Hound Squad:
Camille "Boozehound" Sultana
Kate Bayliss (For Sunday)

Again this weekend was the return of NICE! which I give the creation credits to Allen Lai, Adam Raty, Danny Walters, and myself. Though I've been the captain for 2 years, I believe that they best embraced the NICE! mentality. Nice is a reference to the South Park Episode "Teacher Bangs a Boy" in which Ike begins a romantic relationship with his Kindergarten teacher. When Kyle tries to decry this as wrong, the inquiring parties (generally men) ask what's going on. When they find out that a young boy is sleeping with his "hot" teacher, they reply with "Nicccce" emphasis on the Cs. Either way this team was also joked around as being the half DTB (9 people who could qualify for Downtown Brown) half whities and at times the 2nd Asian team (6 Asians on the team), since there was a completely Asian team playing around with stereotypes of all kinds and was hilarious. Brian Chen was dressed as Brucle Lee, etc etc etc.

We showed up on Saturday with some sweet stencils that Allen had been so gracious as to make for us. I knew very well based on weather reports that the weather would be sunny, fairly warm, but that warmth would be negated by gusting 20 mile per hour winds, which became (around 2PM during our last round), 45 mile per hour winds or higher. Friday night, it was so windy that a Jack In the Box sign was 30 feet to the ground and crashed outside our hotel (The Wild Wild West) We substituted actual heat for drunken heat.

Danny had been so gracious as to make a lot of Jungle Juice (one of two team drinks) which was ripely alcoholic and I didn't think it was possible, but we had drank it all by the end of the second round. Our levity was not without reward however because we were having a great time. By the third round however our women decided to have a competition with...well no one because they announced the drinking competition between men and women after they had all gotten wasted, and wasted they were. Camille had decided not to play and just drink all weekend based on her unknown knee injury. She brough Carlo Rossi jugs (her favorite booze) and then got 5 more, she was righteously shit faced all weekend and I cringe to think about how she feels this morning. Many of our women were hung over by 7 PM on Saturday night. They were on the sidelines laughing and playing around and all us guys were coming down and playing more seriously. I have to say, our team was stacked with talent (mostly offensive talent), but we consistently under performed in the first half of each game. We went down 6-2 or 6-3 in 4 different games of which we won 3 and lost one (though losing in the quarter finals was the real bummer and I wish we could have that one back.

Onto the games.

Inland Empire Strikes Back
Score: 13 -1 W
The wind was fairly strong and we were very giddy. This team was made up primarily of guys and gals from Redlands. Les and a few other dudes that I certainly recognize from pickup and small tournaments here and there. We threw boxes, trap zones, and person and they didn't really create much of a threat except for two or three times, and they scored on one. Not much of consequence happened in this game except that we drank and were merry. Nick threw a wicked scoober for a score.

Over Yonder
Score: 12-7 W
The wind was picking up and we were really excited again. Camille was hammered already and everyone was getting their drink on. We went and hung out with the You See Us D (UCSD Alums) dressed up with Patagonia jerseys that had tuxedo shirts as the designs in black. They were drinking PBR out of plastic champaign glasses, more on them later. We saw them play this Flagstaff and Reno, NV team. It had some old NAU and Donor Party players. It also featured the baller dude from the national champ Mental Toss Flycoons. That readheaded dude, yeah you know him. Anyways we started down a few breaks due to a misfortune where we pulled on the first point into the back of the endzone, throw goes up they miss the disc goes right to Wonderboy and he biffs a Callahan, that's the second time I've seen that happen to him. They looked like they were getting the job done. Then we turned it on and got some Ds and scored some upwind breaks. Wonderboy and Cuzzi were playing great. We had fun and pulled it out after a few consecutive breaks.

Dixie Ultimate
Score: 11-9 W
This game, I thought I would bust a nerve because I was so frustrated, also I didn't get their name since none of them were from the south, but they were really nice and brought me my boots when I left them on the other field. This team was from Park City, Utah. This was their second tournament, but I have no idea where they got what they could do. So they had mostly terrible fundamentals in terms of throwing form, ie telegraphic throws, shortarming, and throwing hammers to incuts or psychotic blades. But they were atheletic for the most part and real go getters. They started out breaking us twice. They march and somehow every single one of their throws gets caught or deflected and caught or something ridiculous. I was furious. Nothing was working, we were playing poorly, and these guys were not good. Wind was gusting at 20 or 25 miles per hour and we just couldn't close. Eventually my frustration paid off and we got some upwinders and went up two breaks including a point where we had the disc upwind 8 yards out and Aman was iso'd. The throw and cut were pressured so the disc popped up in just a way where it was sitting at 9.5 feet and I swooped in and grabbed it over 3 of their guys and I sat on one of their shoulders so I got the bump and it felt good. I didn't celebrated too much, no hard spike, but it felt great. We closed it out and won shortly thereafter.

You See Us D
Score: 10-11 L
This game was against last years' champs who beat up in semis. This game was weird because our flip was a craps game with huge inflatable dice, but we didn't know what we were doing it for so when we were informed that it was for the pull and decisions I was immediately kind of pissed at BOFA, but I figured that in the spirit of the game whatever, it was hilarious becuase they were drinking PBR out of plastic champaign glasses, Dollar was wearing a suit, Boont was wearing a clip on bowtie, and they were listening to lounge music covers of pop music. It was hilarious. The game featured 45 mile per hour winds. Even the best of throwers, and there were many on the field, could not put more that 25-30 yards on throws and they bladed terribly. We had the disc on the goal line and 10 yards out to score the only upwinder of the game and likely would give us the win, but the heavy winds caused a rifled IO flick to be uncatchable in the middle of a covered end zone. We lost the craps game, and thus we lost the game. At least we got to go out after that game. The game was really funny though because both teams were just drunk and laughing or joking the whole time, we just solidified our friendships. It wasn't really an ultimate game per se. Day 1 was over.

That night, and don't quote me on this because some details are blurry at best, we did many things. We ate some Thai food at our place on Maryland Parkway, got booze at VONS, and went out for the evening which featured me wearing a 30 rack box on my head, drinking a 40, cruising the strip, and hitting up a party in the Planet Hollywood hotel. At that party I was already drunk and cruising with Camille, Bayliss, Aman, and Cuzzi. Upon entering I walked around, chatted with Dollar, drank a house special, took some Jack Daniels shots for my college band, including the sending of a completely impossible-to-understand text message to Nate Adams, my old housemate, and played bobbing for beers against BOFA's wife Cheyenne (also a Shy) so it was Shy vs Shy. And we did this in the suite bathroom's tub filled with warm water and a Natural Ice. I sucked at the bobbing, it was tough and I lost the bobbing but the loser got to chug the beer and I did so right in front of AJ who cheered me on within 4 seconds. After a half hour of schmoozing I started doing head stands (resulting in a sprained knee) and pulling my pants down or having them pulled down for me. My shirt was soaked with water from bobbing so I walked around shirtless like a dick. I then started getting destructive and pushing chairs over. Preston eventually got me to stop and I decided then and there that it was time to leave. I found Cuzzi and Aman at the craps tables in the Pleasure Pit and we walked back to the Hotel. I was fucked up. I did my normal Shy thing and peed all over the place but this time I got caught by a police officer. In my state I was barely coherent. He said "Don't tell me you just peed on this building!" I said, "Naw man, I was about to puke" he didn't buy it. After asking me why I replied "Shit, there aint no place to publicly pee. What else can I do?" it probably came out worse than that. After some haggling and threatening to take me down and put me in jail I successfully bribed him with $20 and went on my way. I eventually made it back and passed out watching TV.

More Games. Sunday was much better weather with mid-60s and barely any wind at all.

We Be At Vegas
Score: 9-11 L
This was the rematch of last years' quarters against AJ's squad. This year instead of Zid they had Matt Welsh, and Matt Welsh was kicking ass. Scoring 7 goals or something like that, he pretty much was the reason we lost. That and mass turnovers by us, including at 0-0 after grinding O series I beat AJ to the front corner where Daze put it and I had all day to catch it. Frustrated with the length of the point, I decided to pancake it really hard and instead I flipped it out and did not catch it...damnit. That would have set a much better tone since they ended up scoring even after a chippy violation call against another score we had. Instead we went down 2-6. We didn't make any adjustments and instead we just got beat and then decided to turn it on too little too late. Mounting a comeback but only getting 9-11. Allen Lai was fired up and Steve Prodan was too. Nicole Esclamado came up with some big awesome grabs and I got injured. I busted my ankle, but played fairly well on D, not bad, not good. I really wanted to make semis or more this year. They ended up winning but getting crushed by the BCBC team that was there. They said we tired them out. I felt like an idiot because I missed chances for Ds on bid instead I ran through and chumped out, that was the case all day until the end.

Slots of Fun
Score: 15-12 W
This game was essentially the LA coed team Blowhard along with some In N Out and Metro players. We again went down 6-2 and came back slowly taking our time and winning the game. This team featured Rob Severson. Rob Severson, despite being 37 years old, not the most in-shape dude you've ever seen, with a penchant for cookies has some of the most on point throws of every kind I ever seen. This team was hucking a lot, and we were kind of letting it happen. Eventually we turned the D on, got the breaks and won the game. I also had the most gratuitous of lay out D to get myself amped up, and I then threw the goal to end the game. This game also featured some hilarious zone offense points where I got the swing (I'm good as a right wing handler) put a short pass to Sir Robin, went to the races, hit Iris, got it back, and threw Jen Chen the goal, running 50 yards in the process. Hilarious. Also Nick Raisch got a sweet deflected score. I'm kind of losing steam right now.

3rd San Diego Team
Score: 17-16 W
This was the last game of the day. We went down 6-3 and I was again wondering what would happen. Our personnel was dwindling and we were looking a bit low on energy. I sprained (thougtht I had broken) my middle finger on a missed toe in bid. Of course a few big hucks and Iris playing out of her mind caused us to start getting the edge. We were still down of course and Kief of all people was burning us deep as well as Biel and Adam Fagin. We stopped getting broken, Raty got some huge Ds on Arbiter from UCLA. Aman got some sweet scores, Cuzzi fired us up with solid D and O, I injured myself trying to get a D that I have no idea how I missed, Raisch and 808, Jen Chen and Delia played some solid offense to get us to 11-13 game to 15. Our D scored, 12-13, our D scored again on a great lazer beam pass from Laurent to Aman beating Kief to the middle of the back corner, 13-13. Then we traded to 15s and went up a break again 16-15. They scored 16s cap at 17. We run our Ho-stack and look to iso Iris going long. Twice (due to a foul) Wonderboy over throws her. Crushing. We hurry down on D and manage to force a high stall count throw which 808 Ds fakes a few stall counts and hits me in the endzone while getting fouled, game 17-16. Despite not succeeding in taking the tournament we had a lot of fun, and 5th place aint bad.

Some kudos.

I am very proud of this team. I got the people I wanted to play on it to play on it. We ruled Vegas as Vegas should be rules, joked, drank, had adventures, and hyjinx, it was wonderful. I said at the end of the last game that the biggest priority for me was that everyone have fun and not think of me as a person they wouldn't trust to put together a team that is worth going to a tournament with. I think it was a huge success, not too expensive, and full of love and fun. A big shot out to Danny for making the Jungle Juice, it was awesome.

Some criticisms.

I'm not sure why I keep going to this tournament. The TD is disorganized, the weather consistently has 1 miserable day, the fields are the worst...ever (yes worse than at Lucky 7s), and there is little more than a small bit of amenities the tournament provides. That being a small bag of bagles...that's pretty much it...oh yeah some bananas, but I refuse to eat bananas so fuck me. I believe what brings me back is not the massive debauchery, gambling, and treachery of Vegas as a place, but the people that Lucky 7s brings out. The second weekend in December is not a very contested weekend for the ultimate community in the Southwest. There aren't any other tournaments to speak of. Generally many club players have fallen out of training for a while and returned to life as it were. Jobs are being worked at, lives are returned to, etc. You may as well go because what else are you going to do until Lei-Out?

Some thoughts.

On a personal note, I've been playing better. I am playing a lot of beach, goaltimate, and ultimate trying to work on things that I've been losing track of or just not doing at all. I used to be known on the Brains as a great pivoter, and I still am but, I lost sight of pivoting too much in my senior year because there were few marks I couldn't just break. I pivoted a lot and broke a lot of marks really hard this tournament. Receiving a comment from Laurent on how quickly I was pivoting was what I needed to hear. I had very few turnovers even despite the wind game. My hucks were at almost 100% completion and I threw 10 most likely. This is also likely due to the fact that we had so many huckers on the team, I didn't have to throw them all the time, makes for higher percentage shots in my mind. I was cutting well, that's always NICE! The wind game against You See Us D ranks in the top 5 shittiest conditions to play in games that I've had the misfortune to part-take in. Here they are in order.

1. SW College Regionals, 2005 - 50 Degrees, gusting 30-50 mph wind, and altitude sickness
2. NW Club Regionals, 2008 - 40 Degrees, gusting 20-30 mph wind, driving rain
3. River Campus Classic, 2003 - 20 Degrees, Snowing, Swirling 20 mph wind
4. Stanford Invite Qualifier, 2006 - 40 Degrees, driving driving rain, gusting 10-30 mph
5. Lucky 7s, 2008 - 60 degrees, constant 20-45 mph wind

There's what's right and there's what's right and never the twain shall meet.

Braineaters vs. Black Tide (Sectionals, 2006) Part 1

2008-12-11T13:16:00.000-08:00

Today's game that I am going to go over in semi-good detail and thought is one of the most emotional games I had ever played in...ever, even to this day. I would say the most emotional games I played in college. These are games I just wanted to win so badly regardless of what the results were:

1. UCSB 2/3 Game Sectionals 2006 L 12-14
2. UCSB Semi-finals Sectionals 2006 L 11-13
3. Colorado State 3rd Backdoor Semis Regionals 2006 W 15-6
4. UCSB Pre-quarters Stanford Invite 2006 L 10-12
5. Arizona Quarters Regionals 2007 W 13-12
6. UCSB Pool Play Stanford Invite 2008 W 13-9
7. Pittsburgh Pool Play Stanford Invite 2008 W 11-10
8. UCSD Pool Play Prez Day 2007 W 13-8
9. UCSB Finals Sectionals 2008 W 11-9
10. UC-Santa Cruz Finals Stanford Invite Qualifier 2006 W 17-15

It's very clear that Black Tide was my biggest rival in college and though I did not win most of the games I played against them (by a large margin) I still was brought to extreme emotional lengths while playing in those games. My composure and wits were constantly put at stake, and I'm going to go over the most emotional game I have ever played, and I believe that it will be obvious as to why.

My sophomore year was a very crazy year in terms of ultimate and life. Academically I was unsure as to what I wanted to major in, I lived in an off-campus apartment alone, and my team was experiencing it's biggest rise in skill and accomplishment ever. The year before we sucked, no offense to us, I had a lot of fun, but we sucked, and that was clear. We had done very well at Vegas, we had come 2 points away from making quarters at the Stanford Invite, and had an all around amazing season of victories. Those two points were lost to Black Tide. I am sure that I will eventually get that game onto this blog, but it set the tone for all the other matches we would play against them for the rest of the season. I can't speak for my team, but I was terrified of Black Tide.

My sophomore year I was a decent defender (not that good by any stretch of the imagination) and offensively I was really only a guy who swung the disc, I was not a main handler, just a competent thrower in most situations including wind and rain. Playing in Stockton at the time, the wind was picking up and I did not have a confident low release backhand, up until that point I had relied on a high release backhand that had served me quite well, and a good around flick. In that game I turfed an in-cut and a open backhand to Stout one of which was going to be a goal. I also threw away a stupid huck to Prude. I was so stressed out and injured. I had partially torn my quad (resulting in 2 weeks of being inactive and waking up at night whincing as blood and plasma rushed through my leg), getting a miraculous lay out D on Alex "A-Bomb" Roedel crushed my arm, and gotten in a verbal altercation with then hot-headed Ethan Sullivan. We lost the game in cap 12-10. But it had proven that we could dent the armor that Black Tide had built, if not pierce it.

After having a 4-0 easy first day at Sectionals in San Bernardino, CA we were in very different waters on Day 2. Losing to Tide 13-11 in the semis of the championship bracket where we were ahead and getting Ds but just could not close the game out made me uneasy. After dispatching SDSU with our rookies and young players we were to take a freshly defeated UCSB who had just come off of losing fairly handily to UCSD we were ready to take on our newly found rivals head on a second time.

The game started with Jughead and Stout reeling in big scores. Both offenses were doing a good job of maintaing flow. We were scoring with more spectacular plays and skies made possible by our 3-man ho-stack. Yes this is the ho-stack where there's a pull catcher, a front handler, and two side guys who basically did nothing. I was the pull catcher, and have been ever since, I've only dropped one pull my entire career (against St. Olaf in Vegas, 2006). Jughead and Stout were on fire. Alex and Joaquin were ripping huge hucks, we were getting Ds and eventually we converted them to go up 5-2. Tide's coach called a time out. We were fired up, but their strategy worked perfectly. We pulled to them. Their offense scored. Our offense went back out and we overthrew a huck by a bit too much. Their defense converted 5-4. Again we run a huck play that doesn't work to our favor. Their defense converts 5-5. They are pulling, Taiwaz Smith launches a huge pull that I can't catch off the bat. They've covered downfield by the time I get the disc in my hands and CJ is coming in to mark Alex Wells. I see Alex and throw the disc. Alex surprised that I've thrown him the disc is run through by CJ (I basically threw the disc to CJ) and he catches it for a callahan. Wow I am crushed at this point. Not only did they go up 6-5 and rattle of 4 in a row, but I threw a callahan. I went and sat out for a few points and watched as my team regained some of its composure.

It was at this point that the two teams started duking it out in a grinding trade game where Tide was up a break. The hucks were flying and the tempers were high. Jughead ripped a huge huck out of the sky against A-Bomb, we were fired up too. Bad calls were being made taunting was going on. It was not pretty. At 7-8 Tide, they ran a play off the pull where Charlie, whom we referred to in all jest as another name puts a nice huck to Rory Orloff who runs it down for a score. Upon Rory catching the disc the famous "YEAH BLACK!" was yelled along with Charlie yelling "THAT'S MY ROOM-MATE!" as he ran down the field.

At 10-11 Tide, Alex had the disc about 30 yards out and sees Joaquin beating I forget who. Wells chucks up one of his nice IO backhands that is blading and catching the wind. The wind pushes it, but Joaq catches up and toes it in for the score. In jest I yell "That's my capatain!" and give him a big 'ol huge. It's tied at 11s and we are pulling. We trade one more time each side, and its 12s. The Soft Capt is on and my nerves are going insane.

We pull and cover pretty well. The D is grueling, lots of fouls, picks, etc called. Eventually Tide scores and is pulling to us. We go to the well one too many times and turn a huck over, they score and we lose. I could not believe, that we had done it yet again. Lost by 2 points for the 3rd time that season, this time 12-14. We gave them handshakes and tried to forget about the difficulty of losing that game. I couldn't get the callahan out of my head. I still believe to this day that I had I not thrown that disc, we could have regained our composure quicker and gotten back up a break. I don't know, many things contributed to our loss of that game, but I certainly had a lot of blame of myself. This set the tone for Regionals where we would try to prove ourselves yet again and take a spot to nationals. A game that I will go over in the future. For now that is all.

Best of my College Ultimate (Part 1)

2008-11-25T10:01:00.000-08:00

While biking to work today, I was inspired, and although I can't realize the full potential of this project that shall take place primarily on my blog because of the destruction of my video camera in April 2008, I will now begin a series of posts that will cover and analyze my favorite memories in college ultimate through posting full explanations of the most important games I got to play in while a Claremont Braineater. Once I figure it out, I will post videos of the games as full as I can get them to accompany my analysis.

The first game I am going to post about is a perhaps not as popular game for the Braineaters history books, but I still find it to be important.

Prez Day (San Diego, CA), 2007 - Claremont vs. UCLA

This is game is important and memorable to me because it could have been the most mental game we've ever played. We had come off of a 2005 spring season where UCLA had for all intents and purposes, handed our asses to us on a silver plate. During the 2006 season we managed to beat UCLA handily at the SB Invite 15-9 in the B-Bracket on Sunday. In that game we realized that Jughead, Stout, and Peaches could not really be guarded in the deep game since Seraph could not be everywhere at once. Players like Redbull, Beastman, and Kobe could not hang either. We rolled and even had our rookies, like Chris "Ra" Gomes, scored some points against them, it seemed easy enough. Later that season at the Stanford Invite Qualifier we had gone up on UCLA 11-6 with a combination of solid D and many hucks to Stout and Jughead including one where I totally farmed the throw (I didn't really huck in those days) yet I somehow managed to place it way into the air (it was windy mind you) and have it flutter down into Stout's wheelhouse.

At 11-6 they scored. They then did the unthinkable. In a high wind and rain situtation (which would only get worse throughout the season) they threw zone. The combination of Seraph's awesome pulls and a trap zone caused them to pull it to 11s. We managed to score the next two and win 13-11. One of the goals was a great play by Sam Miner and Paul "Icecock" Robustelli with some give n go to win it. Keeping all this in mind, we did not see UCLA for the rest of the season. In the fall of 2006 we got rocked at Sean Ryan (though we were drunk and it was at 7 AM in the pouring rain) and So-Cal Warmup in the Finals. All of these collective experiences made me come to the conclusion that this game against UCLA at Prez Day would be huge and hard fought. I was right.

After coming off of dishing a heafty ass-kicking of Georgia Tech, this UCLA game had me all worked up. We came out trading both sides. It seemed like we should have the advantage but they were getting the best of us. They weren't throwing crazy zones, the points were long and hard. Lots of turnovers on each side but UCLA was getting the upwind easier than we were for some reason. The D lines were having a lot of trouble scoring, but getting a fair number of turns. Before halftime there was a point where the D was on Stout bounced the disc to Gordy. Gordy had the disc and Jughead in the endzone for a 15 yard pass that would have resulted in a score, and it resulted in a turf. We were down, and we had to make up ground. We got the turn and were going down wind Joaquin launched a huck to Jughead who skied somebody, I don't remember who it was. They took half. I was distraught and adrenalized. We were down 7-8 with cap in view. We had just scored an O point. They score 7-9. Jughead once again comes through and skies Kobe it's 8-9, Stout is pulling. After the pull the hardcap goes on. I was guarding Spike, the throw to him was wide and I bid swatted it down. We're going upwind the game is on the line. We work the disc and I have it on the left sideline being forced backhand and I see Stout heading deep on Beastman, but I also see Joaquin wide open. I launch a backhand huck to the endzone thinking that it's out enough for Stout to beat Beastman, but the wind holds it at about 15 feet in the air. The disc is coming down at about 10 or 11 feet up and I'm thinking Stout will get it, but out of the front comes Joaquin skying over both of them, he catches the score we tie it 9-9, game to 10. I don't think Joaquin would have gotten it had it not been for Stout being there too. Stout occupied Beastman to the point where he could stop Joaquin from reaching his full potential for height. We get the next D going down wind. We score. Game. 10-9 Claremont.

Why this game is important is because it started a trend which I am sure shall be described in further detail in posts I shall make in the next months. In these games we have the mental edge and progressively beat UCLA harder and harder resulting in the current state of affairs where Claremont has the mental armor that always pulls it out against them. It started a slew of victories for us. In my years against UCLA our record during the regular spring season was 7-3 with two losses coming in 2005 when we were no match for them and one coming in my senior year during a meaningless Prez Day game where our normal O line was injured including me with a quad injury and a huge colision resulting in a 7 month stint with burcitis. Which we reclaimed our honor by beating them 15-6 at sectionals in one of the most one sided beatings we've ever dished to them. This was more than just a great victory in our first well played tournament of the season (SB Invite was a disaster that year), but it was a call to arms for the season, we knew we had them after that one.

I did this post first because I have no footage of it. Hopefully I'll bring some footage games in soon. Stay tuned.

F*%$ing White Truck to Alameda, Cool Dude, and a Rooster

2008-11-19T15:49:00.000-08:00

While biking to work today three things happened.

The first is that a big truck that was turning left onto Fruitvale headed onto the bridge to Alameda decided to almost hit me when I had right of way and cut me off. That pissed me off.

The second thing is that while on the home stretch towards my office there's a straightaway called Zhone Ave. On Zhone some guy with a very small bike and a huge golden mouthful of teeth gave me a big thumbs up. That made my day.

Also I heard rooster on East 7th Street, I don't know what it was doing around there since that block is full of chop shops and a seafood processing and packaging plant.

It was indeed a long time...

2008-11-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

Ca faisait dûr hein? Nous n'avons pas encore trouvé la réponse.

Yes it was a rough 2 years of having to put up with campaigns and mudslinging and bullshit, but it's over now. A Democrat is the president elect, that's cool, but I'm not confident in the change that a Democratic/Liberal executive and legislative branch will bring. It's no secret that I am more leftist than democrats and that I generally don't like to associate myself with the majority of their accomplishments in the last 50 years.

In California Proposition 8 passed, which is no good, but it's significance will not go un-noticed. California cannot close its doors so soon after opening them, I believe this will be ruled unconstitutional soon and the door will open again. Proposition 4 did not pass, which to me was much more important. 1, 2, and 12 passed, which is all good to me. 9 passed, I am not pleased. At least 6 did not pass, fuck that.

On the more local level. NN did not pass and Rebecca Kaplan is my new representative, I am very pleased, she won my vote with a speech she made during the Bay Area Workers demonstration in June against the loss of contracts to many East Bay Workers.

Certain state level or local Democrats accomplish things I can be proud to associate myself with, sure, but I'm not feeling good about this. For this presidency, I am marginally excited. Call me a pessimist, but let me try to tell you why.

My primary concerns with the United States are as follows:
1. Poverty and the Working Poor
2. Insatiable capitalism
3. Prison system/law
4. War
5. Marketing

Democrats will not solve these problems...save perhaps a marginal solution to the current War in Iraq. There has not been a period of American history longer than 20 years where it has not been engaged in military action somewhere outside its borders in some way. Whether it be soldiers on the ground toppling regimes, giving contracts to weapons companies to arm both sides to the teeth, conquering a nation, or fighting hegemonic powers so that it could take their places, the US has been there. Hell the US was born from war and conquest [Refer to the end of this post to see a few of them in chronological order]

I am almost completely confident that numbers 1-3 will not be solved through this presidency, and although I hate to think about it in this way, my lifetime. 4 will likely not be 'solved' because our Military Industrial Complex is very tied into number 2 and a lot of decisions get made around how to maximize profitability. 5 is not so much marketing as a science, but its implementation in this country or the world. Its aggressive effort to get people to believe or buy things is not coming down any time soon. But when demand is created through marketing, by making people believe they need things that they really don't and start to feel empty if they don't have it, that's just wrong. We're a society of consumption, and once we feel empty over not having things, it's over. The inherent lack of real value of objects (refer to my post on Globalization of Nothing) brings emptiness to people then they are marketed the need to consume more, something new to fill the void. This extends beyond consumption of things, it's also consumption of ideas. That socialism is a horrible and impossible idea in all manifestations, that violence sanctioned by governments is war and what is not is terrorism (even the true meaning of the word terrorism is lost in this day and age otherwise people would realize just how terrorist of a nation the United States is), etc. Everything from objects to race relations is a product of marketing. Ever seen the show 'Cops'? Yeah watch that show and you might end up thinking that all people with darker phenotypes are lazy criminals or that immigrants only want to take American resources and nothing else but ruin the lives of real (i.e. White) Americans. Even immigration and poverty is marketed. That finding enough resources is impossible, that PUBLIC schools and hospitals can't take them in or their children...it's all insane, and I'd like to see it go somehow, because it's crazy and it makes me want to vomit.

Why 3 is so important to me, let me explain. I was a big proponent for the California Proposition 5 and unfortunately it didn't pass. Of course it would not be the ideal option, but would have been a move in the right direction. The culture of incarceration in the United States not only creates a perpetually discriminating system of policing and sentencing, but it also does nothing to help those who are convicted of crimes understand, rehabilitate, and integrate back into our society. Preferring the savvy incarcerate-you-until-you-are-better approach leaves nothing for prisoners to do except create intense social hierarchy, kill each other, remain victims of substance addiction, and loath the society that treated them so poorly in the first place. In my home state, committing 3 felonies (the last can be a misdemeanor if it's a similar crime) will give you 25 to life, it's the 3 Strikes Law, and it's insane. If the US ever stopped to wonder why it is that criminals tend to have poor education and come from poverty, perhaps it would be easier to understand why people commit crimes, most of which are non-violent. There's also a thriving and highly profitable private prison industry that builds and maintains prisons from the food to the guards to the buildings themselves, and governments seem to have no qualms about giving them huge contracts to do this.

When money is the incentive, there is no motivation to take safety or quality into consideration.

Il y aura l'election générale le 8 Décembre au Québec, l'ADQ est faible, the PQ essaie de pousser pour son premier victoire depuis 1998. Le Québec Solidaire pourrait peut être se gagner quelques sièges à l'Assemblée Nationale dans l'effort et l'espoir d'être capable, un jour, de devenir un parti puissant dans ma belle province.

Wars/Conflicts/Military Action from US Military or CIA/Military Action
War Against the Native Populations of contemporary-day United States starting with the Pequot War - 1637-Present Day keeping Native Americans on reservations but to not be a dick the last sanctioned fighting against native people was in 1917
American Revolution 1775-1783
Franco-American Naval War 1798-1800
Barbary Wars 1801-1805; 1815
Florida Wars (Seminole Wars) 1817-1858
War of 1812 1812-1815
War of Texan Independence 1836
Fraser Canyon War 1858
Civil War 1861-1865
Battle of Little Big Horn 1877
Spanish American War 1898
Boxer Rebellion 1898-1901
Philippine-American War 1899-1913
World War I 1914-1918
World War II 1939-1945
Korean War 1950-1953
Guatemala 1954
Vietnam War 1960-1975
Bay of Pigs 1961
Bolivia 1967
Iran-Iraq War Involvement 1980-1988
Sandanistas in Nicaragua 1981
Grenada 1983
Iran Contra 1986
US Invasion of Panama 1989
Persian Gulf War 1990-1991
Intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1995-1996
US Invasion of Afghanistan 2001-?
US Invasion of Iraq 2003-?

To name a few...

Taking Issue with the Umbrella

2008-10-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

There are few things in this world that bother more than umbrella terms or meanings. What I am referring to in this case are the umbrella terms that we, as an American society, apply to people who happen to have the same phenotype. Yes these are the words that people love to use when talking about someone, White American, Black/African American, Asian American, Mexican/Latino/Latina. These terms are innately frustrating and flawed. They group together people of the same phenotype or look and assign them a set of cultural values that by all means they may not even come close to having.

It's no secret, in terms of my sociological beliefs and method, I am by no means a functionalist, I am much more of a conflict theorist/symbolic interactionalist. I do not believe that behavior in humans is innate and genetic, I believe that it is societally determined and influenced and therefore reinforced and perpetuated generationally. I don't believe that people of the darker phenotype which we coin as black or African Americans have a culture of poverty, crime, or delinquency. I believe instead that that culture which I just referenced is what the dominant cultural capital (sets of values and education in this case) wants us to think so that we strive not to get to know, integrate, or understand what the many different cultural values that people of darker phenotypes may have, but rather group them together under one umbrella and blame their rampant incarceration rates, poverty, and general misfortune despite being a smaller percentage of the US population on a weak set of cultural values. This even affects people with darker phenotypes, not just the lighter people like myself or anyone in between. Or look at how Asian Americans are grouped together. Asia is the biggest continent in the world, are we insinuating that they have but one culture? That seems fairly laughable, except maybe to certain Pan-Asian groups, but that's more for the sake of finding diaspora that could help someone not feel SO alone in this world, and what's wrong with that sentiment?

Once people start to believe it or reinforce it, it becomes a commonly held completely anecdotal circumstance, what's called Common-Sense Rationality. It becomes "Common Knowledge" that people exist in groups and act similarly despite stark differences in opinion that run the gammete of thought, therefore it's okay to claim that "latinos" are all out here to steal our resources and give nothing back rather than live normal lives like everyone else, or that all "Asian Americans" are Japanese or Chinese, love rice and mathematics, etc, without much attention being paid to the differences people have even within an umbrella.

Think for a minute about these boys who just got arrested in Tennessee (thanks guys) for plotting to massacre SCHOOL CHILDREN with darker phenotypes shooting one group and beheading another and eventually Barack Obama. If they have a problem with Obama's politics, so be it, so do I in certain ways, but claiming that the work they were doing was to preserve and protect the white American race is just insanity. The umbrella term white American is flawed as well. People with lighter phenotypes come from all sorts of places in this world, almost every continent in this world (minus Antartica of course) has a population with lighter skinned individuals, but they certainly do not have the same set of cultural values. For these boys to expect that people with lighter phenotypes have the same cultural, social, or economic capital as them is ludicrous. Murder in my skin shade's name? No thank you.

I think I may have lost my train of thought, but hey I'm at work. I'll try to close this out.

Let's not assume. Let's be open to the possibilities that capital varies for people, but the fact remains that these capital standards or stereotypes than end up affecting all forms of capital for people are determined by those in the dominant position, which means those with the dominant cultural values have the strongest networks to gain access to economic capital, thus perpetuating their dominance or enabling for upward social mobility.

Induced Labor and an Adoption

2008-10-21T18:31:00.001-07:00

This blog post is two-fold. No, it's not as serious as the title would lead you to believe.

First I want to wish luck upon a new child brought into this world by an induced labor. This child is that of my good friend Phoebe's good friend, which I suppose makes her at least my decent friend. Phoebe is moving out to the Bay Area this week, I am excited as all heck. Bonne chance mon petit, bonne chance.

Second I want to wish luck upon a new child brought into my world through the magic of adoption. It's a red Mizutani, of the Seraph variation. According to a minimal amount of research that I have done the bike origin is in 1973 during what was known as the Bike Shortage. This Japanese bad boy is just that awesome. It weighs maybe 8 pounds, is red, etc but it has a touch of greatness in its rust coloration. I bought it as a single speed freewheel, not a fixie for I am not a hipster, however today while riding home from the farmers' market I did see a hipster riding a sleek new Bianchi fixie, with no break, talking on his cellphone, and riding fast across traffic. Secretly I hoped that chump hipster, who could not have been more than 16 with his tight black hipster jeans and long hair, would bite it and eat some curbage, but I suppose everyone gets theirs, hopefully I don't get mine again after the dooring incident of August, 2008.

To get back to the bike, it was made by a dude I met on Craigslist named Shadrach. Shadrach salvaged the frame and built it back up. It will likely need some work seeing as how it has origins from 35 years ago with new parts, but hey such is life. It assasinates hills, but has a top speed that is less than amazing, however coasting never hurt anyone and I really like this bike so it don't bother me much. I have yet to name it, maybe that's stupid, but the point is that I'm enjoying the hell out of it. It was a deal, and I'm glad I jumped on it. Best of luck Shadrach.

To the child bonne chance mon petit, bonne chance. (Note, this is not my bike, but this is the model)

Spending time at "home"

2008-10-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm spending a night at home, I decided this and I am not changing my mind. I know it's a Saturday night and there's a bunch of things I could do, but I will do neither of them. Instead I will relax at home and perhaps play some music. Why is this important to me?

*Edit, I'm going out with Jughead in Oakland, he called while I wrote this. I think what I mean is that I've biked back and forth from my house to my job to my house to Berkeley to my house to Rockridge maybe 20-30 times in the last 8 days, it's preposterous. I have spent very little time at my home in Lake Merritt, well not very little, just not enough time as I would want. I like my housemates and I like my home, it's just I've had a lot to do.

Over the past few months I will say that I have spent a total of perhaps 4 weekends in Oakland, if that. Between ultimate, trips, and my parents moving to Berkeley, I've just not had a chance to sit at home and relax all that much, and that troubles me. My dad said it's for peace of mind and a place to "keep your shit" that you have a home, but I am not paying *albeit a meager amount* to store my miniscule amount of shit. No sir. I am ready to relax and stay at home a bit.

So my parents recently moved to Berkeley, a mere 45 minute uphill bike jaunt then comparable return. I've gone to eat breakfast with them every weekend both Saturday and Sunday, then gone into the city to do a variety of things, including training with Aman, which we have started a at a slow pace. I hang with them on Tuesdays with my Aunt and Uncle, I speak with them regularly, and I spend time with them during the week. They even came to Margarita Mondays. I truly love my parents and I am so happy that they now get to participate in this new part of my life.

I'm into getting in shape, but not for the club season, for the off-season tournaments, like Lucky 7s or Lei-Out. Which leads me to something else that is kind of cool besides biking in the City. Kind of silly at this point, but when I have fun I also want to play well. I feel relegated to bottom feeding in open ultimate for a few more years and then maybe getting a shot at a bigger squad, who knows.

The other day I was doing laundry and I looked into the other room in the basement that I had neglected to explore for the first four months of me living here. What I noticed is that there are weights and a bench for doing bench press, a skateboard, a matress, a variety of games, a tv, vcr, bike, etc. I have started doing weights for the first time in years on my own desires, we'll see how that pans out. I'm feeling really good about it, and between that, biking a lot (perhaps too much), and working out with Aman, I will be ready to rock this off-season, maybe even the real season, who knows.

One of my best friends is moving to Oakland. I am very excited for that.

Here's a video I've been watching regularly on YouTube

Congé...et non.

2008-10-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

C'est L'Action De Grace
It's Canadian Thanksgiving

It's Columbus Day...and for some stupid reason I neglected to know that I didn't have work today...fuck.

Sitting here with my thumb up my ass...

Fall has fell...

2008-10-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

Today is officially the first day of fall in Oakland. According to whom? ME!

I woke up this morning and felt something...brisk brisk fall air. You could smell it, and I bet if there were trees in the area that they would be losing their leaves as they are in Berkeley. It is a welcomed change. The sun still shines beautifully on a blue sky, but now it's a cool fall breeze, similar to life in San Diego, that enters my nostrils as I bike to work.

A funny things happened while I biked to work today.

I noticed last night that there was a couch on the corner of 15th st and 7th ave. This couch was big and clearly from the 1970s, this morning while I biked the first block of my ride, I saw two guys sitting on it, one drinking a beer. It was 9 AM. Mind you, had I nothing to do on a Thursday morning, I just might be doing the same.

I went to regionals in Burlington, WA playing with the skeleton squad of what was left of SCUC, Yeager Bombs, Scumbags, etc. We had 9 players and we picked up our buddy Oliver Bucklin with whom most of us were staying with. So our roster looked like this:

Me
James Yeager
Jason "Jaycuzzi" Becerra
Nathan Frank
Alec Norton
Harrison Horan
Travis Ladd
Shawn O'Looney
Aman Ahuja
Oliver "Olie" Bucklin

You could say that this wasn't the most ideal situation, but I've already worried my mind over that enough times. I knew when I got there I knew that we weren't going to qualify for nationals, not by a long shot, but that we could still have fun, improve together, and win a few games. That we did.

Sockeye (15-5) - Given that this is the best team in the country (arguably in the world), posting 5 points was awesome in my opinion. We forced turnovers, got some Ds, scored, and played with a levity and swagger that was great. They threw a lot of zone, which in the beginning I promptly would break with hammers and back hands. Then they yelled "That guy has throws" and they stuck Alex Nord and Blaine Robbins on me as well as Tim Gehret every now and then. This made me work a lot harder for everything; perhaps the thing I could ask for. They were all around a great team to play both in levity and spirit but also in skill which they very clearly displayed to us by romping us. However we could have posted a few more points, but hey it was still awesome. Highlights included: Me handblocking Tim Gehret on our goal line then cutting and skying him real hard off a huck but it bouncing out of my hand and macking to the goal line which I caught then had to call time out, with Nord marking me at stall 4. I did not have much of a choice, I had to go up field since my chances of beating Nord with an around break were slim to none. I tap the disc in after joking a bit with Nord and Yeager burns Ryan Winkleman upline and I put it right out of his bidding reach to Yeager who scores.

We proceeded to lose to Thompson High 15-8 or something like that. The wind was gusting hard and we just were not running to snuff against them. Despite their lack of numbers they were all very skilled and quick on transitions. Followed that up with a victory over Cadillacs and Dinosaurs who we had played earlier in the year at Solstice and promptly walloped. This game we won 10-6 I believe due to 40 mph winds and driving rain. The game was fairly ridiculous. I threw a callahan to a guy by telling him to stand in the endzone and catch it so we could end the point. Yeah that bad. We then had to play Voodoo afterwards...not happening, we didn't want to catch pneumonia. So we got on the line and went back and forth throwing callahans to them to end the game as fast as possible. 15-2 was the score believe it or not.

Sunday morning we played the 3rd team in Seattle, Downpour and beat them solidly coming back from a 7-6 deficit after going up 5-1. It took more concentration that that. Then we just played a short game against UBC and went to watch/heckle. 11th place, exactly what we came in as.

A Step Up

2008-10-02T09:10:00.001-07:00

Office culture is strange, but I feel as though it has begun to take hold of me.

Today is my first day in my new office. When I say new office, I don't mean that I moved to another building, I simply moved across the room where my first office was (that was kind of cold and impersonal); I now have two windows, one facing east where I can see the Coliseum and Oracle Arena, not to mention the Fremont BART line and the foothills that surround the Bay and give way to the natural side of things such as the Redwood Park or Chabot Lake. The other window faces due south where I can look towards San Jose, Fremont, Hayward, the Airport if I try hard and of course the lovely 880 freeway. You could say that I've taken a step up.

I don't think that anyone in this office is particularly jealous or impressed that I got this new office, but I did just get one of the premier offices, and I've only been working here 4 months. I don't feel as though I am any more important, but I just find it funny that one day an admin (our fancy word for secretary/receptionist/organizer) came to me and asked me to move my desk by next week. "Where?" I asked, oh take the office in the corner since John (not the real name) is moving out to his new job. Imagine my overblown sense of pride.

I have begun to experience office culture. This is not the first time I've felt my workplace's culture begin to take an effect on me. When I worked at Blockbuster, the night shift had a culture, when I worked as a telemarketer, the day shift had a culture, and even when I worked at Vista Del Valle Elementary or for Education Unlimited, I too felt a strong bond with my co-workers and we definitely had a culture. I have been wary of letting myself become a part of this office culture. My past jobs were temporary at best, this is a more permanent job (though I will admit I likely won't stick with it for more than a year). This office has cubicles, a lunch room, a copy room, a front desk, conference rooms, an open-door policy; although unique to most, it still screams, "I'm a corporate office!"

The day I started I was led through the hallway by my boss until we got to what I call "the bullpen" which is in the middle of the office where all the cubicles are. "This is the first day of the rest of your life," I told myself as I couldn't help but think about Office Space and its largely realistic depiction of life in offices, at least during the Dot Com Boom era of the late 1990s, and although I will admit that some things about it are dated, such as the technology, it still reigns true. Many of us youngsters fear this life. That film came out in our formative years, and honestly if I lived/worked like that, I would likely commit suicide...or find another job, which ever makes more sense at the time. Luckily, and to my utter surprise, I was led to my first office and I would stare every day upon the cubicles (that was my view), cringing at the thought of needing to sit at one...ever.

I have fallen into place in some ways for sure. I dress appropriately, I was shaving regularly, until my ultimate team hit the club series and I decided to grow playoff facial hair, and I eat every day with my co-workers like Pavlov's dog at 1 PM in the lunch room. Where I haven't fallen into place is how I still come to work in shorts and a t-shirt or jersey, sweaty from biking. I brush my teeth in my office and parade around until I stop sweating. I don't wear shoes in the office, sometimes no socks, and I freegan food during lunch. Some people don't like it, some people just laugh. I will do it until someone threatens to fire me. I feel as though I work just hard enough not to be, like my hero, Peter. Actually that's not true, I just work, work like everyone else.

I would like to leave you with a couple YouTube Clips I love. The first of course is from Office Space.

And the second is a clip of Stevie Wonder singing "Close To You" with a talk box in the early 70s. Those of you who know me, know that I'm addicted to songs sung with Talk Boxes from the 1970s such as the entire catalog of Zapp and Roger, goddamn that's good stuff.