I’ve been going through my Google reader this afternoon trying to catch up on what seems like millions of posts that have made their way into the ether over the past two days. Once I made it through the April 2 posts and got to the April 1 posts, something funny happened: the news became mostly fake. I’m not surprised — the idea of getting people riled up over “Google Night Ads” — headphones you wear at night to listen to ads as you sleep – and other preposterous company announcements created in the wild minds of geeks can be funny. When it is done sparingly. When you only have to read one or two. But when you have to scroll through every tech bloggers idea of a great goof, it can be a little tiring. I finally just stopped and erased all of the April 1 posts without reading them.
It’s vaguely like Halloween. Every once in a while you see a truly inspired costume that makes you think, “Why didn’t I think of that?” But mostly, you’re bombarded until you want to puke by girls dressed up in streetwalker garb living out some kind of weird fantasy and hoping to titillate. I’ve stopped going out on Halloween full stop because for me, it’s become mostly an evening of eye rolling and silent judging. Better I just stay home.
I think I’ll do the same when it comes to reading tech blogs next April 1.
My morning reading is leading me down some very fun paths today. Here’s another great video by Improv Everywhere. Apparently, REM ripped this off in their new video. I found a story about it on CNET by Daniel Terdiman and several videos by this group are embedded, but for the sake of instant gratification, here’s the Grand Central experiment one:
I went to YouTube to find the REM video so you and I could judge for ourselves. Perhaps it is not a rip off, but an homage? But alas, it’s not there. Sorry folks.
I’ve been in a funk since getting my taxes done on Saturday and discovering that I owe the government a big chunk of change. How can this be? I clearly need to get my deductions in order.
I would’ve been totally lost yesterday had it not been for the spotlight on KUSF — music about and by the radio. I can’t link to the podcast of it yet because it’s not up. I know it’s supposed to be available soon, so I’ll try to remember to get back to it. Deejay Schmeejay compiled a playlist of songs all about the radio and mixed them in with live radio sounds and a recording for short wave radio enthusiasts. My friend Lucas and I drove to Fort Funston to listen and watch people and dogs blow in the wind. Then we drove south as far as we could without losing the signal (South San Francisco), and then turned around and went back.
I’m heading to my tax appointment today with the Tax Ninja, a tax preparer I found on Yelp. Not sure if I should trust my taxes to the opinions of a bunch of millennials. This could come back to bite me, indeed, but I absolutely need help with filing so I had to take a shot. I don’t believe in doing your own taxes unless you’re a CPA or really good at math and/or really patient. I am none of these things. I used to use a tax preparer in Bend, Oregon, where I lived for a year, called Margaret A. Atchison. For two years after my move back to the Bay Area, I continued to package up my documents, fill out my questionnaire and send it via FedEx back to them each spring. Sometimes it’s just easier to stick with what you know, you know? They also sent me birthday and holiday cards. (Hey, I’m easy.) This year, however, I waited too long. Deep down, I think knew it was time to part ways and find someone local. Long distance relationships are hard.I’ll be back to let you know how my meeting with the Ninja goes. Wish me luck.
Why? Because you read minds — a quality that most of my human boyfriends have sorely lacked. When I give you the teeny tiniest hint about the music I like, you always, out of the kindness of your music genome project, come up with song after song that I love. Like right now, I’m listening to my Pandora mix — a mix of the stations I’ve created which include Joy Division radio, Guns ‘N’ Roses radio, Malibu radio (Hole), Modest Mouse radio and A.C. Newman radio, to name a few. And you, you just goosed me with a live version of The Scorpions’ Rock You Like a Hurricane. I chair danced. (Nobody saw.) After that you played K.T. Tunstall followed by a band I’d never heard of (hello, discovery!) Glitter Mini 9. You never bore me. You never let me down. You are better than an iPod on shuffle. I like me when I’m with you.
So you may have noticed that I’ve been uploading pictures without any kind of explanation. My bad. On the rare occasion that I leave my apartment and walk the streets, I sometimes encounter something that I feel compelled to photograph with my camera phone. Mostly, at this point in time, that thing has been sidewalk stencils. A few weeks ago, I came across a Barak Obama stencil on Haight and Laguna (it’s at the bottom of this page). I believe I snapped that and sent it to my mother or my sister (both of whom tend to be on the receiving end of random stuff from me) without a caption or any kind of accompanying information. Again. My bad. Next came the LEGO mini-figure stencil that I found on Potrero Hill on 18th Street. I sent that photo to the LEGO team at Flashpoint and the partner who works on the account sent it on to LEGO HQ in Connecticut. Finally, on Saturday, as I walked along Sanchez to the yarn store, I found the Jesse’s Girl stencils that I posted below. The series caught my eye and even tho the sun was shining too brightly for me to get really good snaps, I bent down and gave it a go. Only problem is that the stencils are not as well defined as others I’ve seen. I can’t tell who the people are. I definitely see the lyrics to Jesse’s Girl accompanying each photo — reason enough for me to take photos at that point and to see later if anyone could make out the faces. Anyone?
I’m heading to my tax appointment today with the 
