Monday, November 22, 2004

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Yesterday Nathan, Linda and I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was, as always, amazing. I had plenty to do at home (studying for the GRE, getting ready for Thanksgiving) but who knows how many chances we'll have to see a great white shark up close? The aquarium's female white shark is the only one in captivity in the world.

This is a good time to remember all the things we can do to help ocean environments -- even if we don't live near an ocean:

Marine biologists eat seafood, too -- but they make sure what they eat is good for the ocean. You can too!

Just pick one of these101 Things to protect wildlife today!

And here's some info about my favorite ocean animal, the sea otter, including how the Monterey Bay Aquarium works to study and protect these cuties.

A story by me

Friday, November 19, 2004

Crimes Against Nature, by RFK Jr.

This is long, but worth it.

Here's a shorter version.

The stuff this administration is doing is truly aggregious. Like he says, little kids can't breathe! Even if you do believe that the End is near, how does that justify trashing the planet? As my coworker just said to me: I know I'm going to die, yet I excercise and eat right and otherwise take care of my body, so it's in good shape while I have it. It's just amazing to me that more people aren't outraged and that the administration doesn't even attempt to defend itself. (And I can't believe Kerry didn't slam Bush on the environment in that second debate.)

Here's a Mother Jones interview

PLUS: Republicans and the Environment

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Gov. Ahnold

This is a great column by David Broder. It really is a suprise to many of us that he's doing so well as governor.

From a pure writing standpoint, this is probably the best final paragraph of a newspaper piece that I've read in a long time:

'The "changed climate" that President Bush promised but did not achieve in his first term in Washington is on display in Sacramento.'

J-school

Woo hoo! Someone's reading my blog! At least one person, anyway: my blog-crazy bro-in-law, Peter.

On to j-school...

There's no turning back now. I'm signed up to take the GRE Dec. 1. That, I imagine, will be the toughest part of applying to Berkeley's journalism masters program.

The fun part will be my "statement of purpose." Why I love journalism...

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Corporate greed and single-payer

Recently I've become convinced that the biggest problem with the U.S. isn't Bush or Arnold or Republicans or Democrats or red vs. blue or whatever. It's corporate greed. Greedy corporations control the government, on both sides of the aisle. Greedy corporations are ruining the environment, screwing people out of health care and creating a class of poverty workers.

This morning on NPR I heard part of an interesting interview with the authors of a book who believe our health care system is totally broken and that a single-payer system is the way to fix it:

"Critical Condition"

In looking around for other info on single-payer I found this blog by a Stanford med student, which I thought was interesting and well-crafted:

www.grahamazon.com

Back to books... If you haven't read this one, you should. And you'll never shop at Walmart again:

"Nickled and Dimed"

And for a laugh:


Museum of the Middle Class opens in Schaumburg

At least one good thing about Bush

So cute!!!

Saturday, November 13, 2004

Shop till you drop

Wedding dress shopping, Round Four. Today it was Vera Wangs at Saks 5th Ave. (This was preceeded by Unique Bride and Eve's Bridal in Burlingame and Bridal Emporium in SF, all in the past six weeks.)For those of you who don't know, Vera Wang is a famous designer who makes shiny, pretty, expensive things like dresses and shoes. Her dresses are the most expensive ones Linda has tried on so far.

Now, you can't just walk in off the street and try on Vera Wang dresses. You have to have an appointment. So there we were at 10:15 on a Saturday morning. (Actually, it was 10:45; we were late.) As far as things to be doing on a Saturday morning with a monster hangover, looking at pretty, shiny things isn't so bad.

We only tried on five or so dresses. At this point I would go into the details about the dresses, including the two that were Linda's favorite, but that would make Linda very pissed at me, because Adam might read this and then get some inkling as to what the dress looks like. I have learned that that would be very bad. So I will only say that one of the front runners cost $2,700, and the other one $4,900. The veil was only $150. (My job is generally to hold the veils, which is fun, cause I get to put them on :-) )

We shall see if Linda decides to buy the lower-priced dress, and if she is able to get it "cheap" online.

After we were finished with gowns, it was time to shop for shoes; specifically Jimmy CHOOs! (Linda really likes to say that.) These are very shiny, pretty, expensive things. At Saks they live right next to the Manolo Blahnik. For those who don't know, Manolos are the shoes that Carrie made famous on Sex in the City. (I would never have known what they were but for the show.) So I thought I'd try some on. I tried on one pair about which I no longer remember any details. Then I tried on these little sandals. They were pink. They were gorgeous (or "darling," as one fellow shopper said while I admired how cute they made my feet look in the mirror). They must have been crocodile, Linda said, because the tag on the bottom said $1,050. A thousand dollars for a pair of shoes! The sales guy seemed pretty disappointed when I said I was going to pass on them today. I could have made some quip about coming back after Google stock had split a few times, but I instead reflected upon the Jimmy Choos Linda was trying on. Very shiny and pretty.


My first published stories this year

Click on "Police address rash of breakins" and "Rengstorff improvements delayed."

They swear they're going to spell my name right next time...

Kathy's blog has moved

to:

http://schrenkrap.blogspot.com/

Friday, November 12, 2004

Peterson guilty

My coworker and I drove five minutes to downtown Redwood City at lunch time for Peterson pandomonium. Hundreds of people were out there gawking and waiting for the verdict. There had to be about two hundred reporters and photogs. It was nuts. We got there right about 1 and people were just milling around in the street. One woman had brought a portable tv and all the photogs were crowded around her taking pics.

At about 1:15 the crowd right in front of the courthouse erupted in cheers, as if we were at a ball game and someone had hit a home run. Everyone was talking into their cell phone. The word of the verdict(s) spread across the crowd: "First degree for Laci, second for the baby!" One guy had a sign that said "Finally, peace and justice for Laci and Connor." (The back of the sign, incidentally, was a pro-Bush placard!) Additional cheers went up as people left the main doors of the courthouse. As far as I could tell, the cheering was just for TV anchors.

Most of the reporters were doing man-on-the-street interviews. Three helicopters hovered over downtown. There were cops everywhere. I've never seen anything like it in my life.