For the fashionistas

If you know who Hamish Bowles is, then you will flip to hear that I ran into him at the Famer's Market on Claremont. I was so giddy, you would not believe it!! In fact, I could not even say anything clever after he confirmed it was him. I just said "Thanks" and ran away :(

Oakland Over Adversity

A lot of folks and news outlets have talked about the verdict of the BART officer involved in the death of Oscar Grant, but I'd like to focus on the frustration that multiple close friends have voiced about the expectation that Oakland would simply erupt. What I find even more disturbing is the number of highly intelligent and otherwise rational people who still stereotype Oakland as the badlands.

If you listen closely to the language used by some news e.g. "still no violence yet", "so far everything is calm", etc., they make it seem incredulous that people are not running mad and undermines all the great citizens of this proud city. And the late night problems that occurred were propagated by non-Oakland residents.

I've lived in Oakland for 10+ years, have amazing friends/neighbors and seen the influx of idealistic people wanting to shape this city into the jewel that it really is.

[PS- Time flies and that's no joke. I just saw that I've not posted since Sept09. Boy do I feel like a slacker.]