How rich is Warren Buffett? So rich that he just hired Bill Gates to spend his money. That, paraphrased, is how Stephen Colbert described the $31B gift to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And I think that's a good joke.
And a weird tidbit from the above article: Buffett owns Dairy Queen.
After about an hour offline, the blog is alive again. Stupid database issues. WP usernames not talking correctly to MySQL. But the friendly tech support at WestHost helped me get back on my feet. They rock.
If anyone's in the market for a hosting plan, I'd recommend them. Uptime's been very good over the last two years or so and their customer service is top notch. And if you like what you see, put dragonballyee.com down as a referrer and I'll get a nice three month hosting credit :)
I made a ton of great new friends during the Pennacchio campaign in the last year and I've been keeping in touch with most if not all of them since the May 16th primary. Scheming about what we would commit our energies to in the coming weeks, months and years. Locally here in Philly and statewide. Most of us have already signed on to various campaigns across the state from running for lowly seats [and winning with a grand total of 1 vote!] to getting involved in campaigns already underway to running for bigger district seats as Tony Barr is doing out in the 9th District which is about 3/4 of the way across the state towards Pittsburgh. I'm getting more and more involved in Tim Kearney's run for PA Congress in the 172nd District up in Mayfair in the Northeast – more on that another time.
Fifty-six of us made the trek out to State College, PA on Sunday in the pouring rain. From Berks to Beaver, from Philadelphia to Allegheny, and plenty from the Center County region as well. Many of us had corresponded via email or phone, but this was the first big face to face for most and it's always great to put faces to names/emails/blogs/voices – afterwards, it adds so much to the discussion [very much like the norgs discussion back in March I was, and still am, involved in].
With that many committed, strong minded and proud [alright egotistical] opinions in the room, I knew we wouldn't be able to cover everything the agenda laid out. Actually, after taking an initial look at the agenda, I put it away with a little laugh knowing that there was no chance in Hell we'd stick to it, damn liberals. Danie joked that with fifty-six people, we were bound to get fifty-seven opinions; I think I counted at least eighty. But we did get some things accomplished. Coming together to meet and brainstorm for an afternoon was a great first step. Updating everyone on the various races and issues-driven agendas from places I've never heard of was great. I know I'm not the only one concerned with a lack of healthcare coverage, voter integrity and the rotting of the Democratic party from the top down, but it's always good to see other people who feel the same way and are doing things to combat just that all across Pennsylvania.
We most definitely will stay together as some sort of organization. Exactly what kind of organization and what we'll call ourselves is yet to be determined, but we're determined to determine that. Will we be seeking money to put towards campaigns or issues-groups? That's yet to be determined. Will we have some sort of web presence to help link us even further and let us keep tabs on what's going on across the state easier? Damn straight. Maybe we'll even start educational seminars linking up with more groups along the way.
A movement was started with the Pennacchio campaign. A movement that lots of people didn't get involved with until later on in the campaign, but they liked what they saw and they liked the people they were working with and they stayed on. It's been over a month since the primary and Chuck's been having meetings across the state with various candidates. They know he's a valuable organizing and educational tool. They know he has the support of a large base across the state which is not afraid of pounding the pavement for what they believe in. We're already part of an undercurrent flowing across the state and I can feel the group gradually risng up. This is gonna be fun.
And where am I in the photo? I'm the one holding the wide angle lens fitting fifty-five people into the frame in a medium sized room. I forgot to lug along the tripod, arg.
This nasty set of thunderstorms here in the northeast is pretty nasty. Driving to and from State College, PA [~3h each way] on Sunday was miserable. The winds down in D.C. were strong. So strong that they felled a 120-year-old Elm Tree on the front lawn of the White House. I guess that's Mother Nature's way of telling BushCo to get the fuck out of Dodge.
Photo Credit: Jim Watson/AFP — Getty Images
It's just a good beer. On draught at the bar, from the bottle at a party, in a glass at home.
Yard Brewing Co. makes a bevy of brews up in Kensington/Brewerytown/No. Libs? and this one is available just about anywhere you can get a beer in this town. It's a clean beer with no lingering badness. It's crisp in a way that Lager [a.k.a. Yuengling] isn't, lighter. I've hoisted many pints of Yards at bars, pubs and restaurants all over Philly, but this was the first one I had poured from a bottle. I was surprised how well it held an airy foam. It wasn't there for too long, but long enough to serve as an intro slurp for the first few sips.
Easy to drink in the summer heat, but that doesn't really matter to me, I'll drink heavy stouts in the middle of a heat wave [not to be confused with a Chicago meatwave].
And it's easy to order a Yards and know that your money isn't being sucked into a socially horrible company like say, Coors or Anheuser-Busch. One look at the kind of events they highlight and hold at their brewery on their Social Agenda [double entendre!] page let you know they're pretty cool.
Where's the Pac-Man glass you ask? He was dirty and I was too hungry for dinner [the Philadelphia Ale went great with our homemade burritos] and thirsty to bother washing it out and drying it for the ale.
What a fucking knucklehead cop is what I thought while I was reading this Daily News article about a cop allegedly escalating a non-physical confrontation to a physical one in Love Park this past Wednesday, June 21st – Go Skateboarding Day.
The story focussed on a woman, her 12-year-old son and his 12-year-old friend and a seemingly overly aggressive cop. To clear things up, skateboarding is not allowed in Love Park and is an offense which can result in up to a $300 fine. Virginia Harris dropped off the kids at Love Park to pick up some literature which was supposed to direct them to skate-friendly areas in Philadelphia. Ten minutes later after finding a nearby spot [holy shit is that a miracle] she came back to the park to find her son's friend, crying, sans board, with a $100 ticket.
Harris tried to take a picture of the sobbing kid next to the cop when she said he grabbed her camera and threatened to break her camera and arrest her if she didn't leave the park. Then a "shaggy-haired teen," as writer David Gambacorta described him, was arrested for no apparent cause and Harris said she was going to report an assault by the cop on the "shaggy-haired teen" and then she said she was in turn assaulted
"Then, he grabbed me by the shoulder and threw me across the park," Harris said. "I'm a 49-year-old woman in business attire and he threw me across the park."
"She didn't lay a hand on the officer. She wasn't a threat to him," said [Peter] Steinke [another parent there with his son]. "There was no need for any physical contact. There was probably 100 better ways to handle the situation."
And then I got pissed at Harris. If she's in "business attire" should she be immune to an ass kicking? Fuck no. Say she were 79-years-old and was dressed whatever. Then, I'd say she be immune to an ass kicking. Why? To quote Chris Rock, "Ain't nobody above an ass whupping. There's a good reason to kick an old man down a flight of steps, just don't do it."
I was at the "Wild in the Streets" event last year in Love Park. I took photos and the final edit can be seen here, here and here. Last year, the skaters [I'm not sure under which umbrella organization] were allowed to skate in Love Park which has become a mythic icon of a forbidden skatepark since Tony Hawk's "Pro Skater" video game series premiered years ago. If I recall correctly, Philadelphia urban planner Ed Bacon, with the help of friends, stepped on a board for a whirl in 2002 [at the age of 93]; he was a supporter of letting the kids skate in the park. DC Shoes even agreed to put up $1M in funds to repair anything that skaters allegedly damage if the park were to be returned to a pro-board park, City Hall told them to go fuck themselves.
The cop could've very well have been taunted for hours on end that whole day by a bunch of skater punks. Egged on and called names with kids feigning the beginnings of a skate run. But they're supposed to be trained to disregard punk kids and their stupid, idiotic taunts that I should be more likely to take action and swipe a board or toss an errant stick at. If what was reported is exactly how it went down [I'd say highly unlikely] the PPD has got some stupid issues to work out.
In our little courtyard we share with six other buildings, there's a good amount of stuff growing. There's a good sized tree towards the back which provides some nice shade if one were to take a seat at the little [now scuzzy] picnic table underneath it. Fireflies live in the ivy running the length of the mini-complex – they all come out after dusk these days lighting paths and attracting mates. And then there are these huge blooming flowers.
The stalks are a solid three or four feet tall with bunches of pink, yellow and orage blossoms at the top. They're pretty cool looking. But they haven't attracted any bees yet. Good for us humans, not so good for the flowers which need cross pollination unlike these orchids.
I'm off to State College in a few minutes and I won't be able to watch the England v Ecuador or Portugal v Netherlands games today. Arg. I think that Ecuador will beat England and Holland will topple the frail house of cards Portugal can be, but if Portugal turns it on and plays to the level of Holland, it could be the best match of the Cup.
And speaking of photography, I can't get enough of this shot by Kathleen Connally up in Durham Township. I've been gawking at it for the last two days. I can't stop.
As an added bonus, she let's us in on one of her newly found trade secrets on color to black and white conversion. It's pretty cool and beats the pants off of a simple conversion to greyscale. Haven't put it up to a side by side test with the Rob Carr .atn yet.
I've wanted to go to the Coney Island Mermaid Parade for years now. But for the past two years, I've lived down here in Philly and previously, I could never remember the date or I'd find out the day of. Arg. But I always love looking at the photos people post in the following days, there's something for everyone.
I didn't see too many people in mermaid gear, but there were a few. I've looked at this shot a few times now, but I'm still not sure what the hell he's supposed to be. Whatever she is, I don't want to undo those chains. But if those chains came undone, I'd like to see her take on this guy and his teeth. And while it is a mermaid parade, sometimes you just do as this girl did and pull out that aqua blue wig, the tiara from the bachelorette party, peacock fake eyelashes and the lipstick that doesn't seem to ever go with anything and head on out with a sash with everything hanging out.
One of these days…
Flickr tag: mermaidparade2006.
