And now for something completely useless

I've been wanting to do this for a while, actually, post the top viewed photos from my Flickr photostream that are viewed on a regular basis using the same search phrase. Counting down the top 10 they start out pretty normal but then get kind of weird:

10) The search phrase "Pacific Palisades park Santa Monica" puts this picture taken with my old 1.8 megapixel camera at number ten:


9) "Glass of wine," a common stock photo search I would imagine, brings up the only picture I have with that title:


8) Another common search phrase is "tennis courts":


7) I really like this photo so it makes me happy that so many people appreciate and are searching for "Karman Gia":


6) "Passport control" or more often than not, "Heathrow Terminal 5 passport control." Wow, really?


5) Another search I find curious for its specificity is "SFFD", not fire trucks or fire department but SFFD - San Francisco Fire Department:


4) All of my photos relating to feet - feet in sandals, cheerleaders socks, my friends wedding heels, pedicures - are in the top 25. The most searched term, however is "barefoot street" which brings people to a photo from Bay to Breakers, a crazy drunken costumed all-day parade that follows a 10k run:


3) Third most popular search is "deformed white tigers." I'm not sure if people want to see deformity or are trying to verify the fact that white tigers are the result of inbreeding (not a separate species), and are usually born with deformities. Here's my top viewed photo of stuffed white tigers trapped in a vending machine, under which I wrote the above description to explain why it bothers me that they are revered:


2) "Cracked glass," surprisingly popular:


1) But the number one search phrase is "men in diapers," making this pic from Bay to Breakers FIVE TIMES more popular than any other photo:

I shared my story

Someone on NPR mentioned the amount of unsolicited advice Obama is getting from everyone these days. I hope with all my heart that the guy keeps his eyes on the prize and doesn't get distracted by all the nonsense. I'm so sick of hearing about the parties, party loyalty, party agendas, party majorities and minorities. Do these people completely forget that they're in office to serve us and not themselves? The Democrats are now saying that they think Obama might be getting ahead of his own party on environmental reform. Excuse me? Does he need to ask THE PARTY for permission to serve the American people? With over 2 trillion dollars estimated damage to real estate, a warning by the governor to prepare for rising sea levels, impending droughts and power shortages, polluted air that kills more people than car accidents, this state for one cannot afford to wait for action on global warming.

So I went on change.gov, Obama's website, and added my voice to the mix. Of course he's asking to hear from the American people, proving once again that he cares more about us than party politics. Here's what I wrote:

Dear President-Elect Obama,

I grew up in California, attended UC Santa Cruz and have lived all over the west coast. I'm a brand consultant and a writer/director. I voted for you and was continuously inspired by your attention to the issues. I was a student who campaigned for Bill Clinton in 1992 and met him later while in a Women as Leaders program in college. He disillusioned my generation when he made big promises that he didn't fulfill. Please don't do that to the young people who voted for you. Now IS the time for change. Here are my requests in no particular order. Thank you!

I would like my country to:
- Seize the opportunity to change an economic system based on consumption to one based on production.
- Stop bailing out failing businesses.
- Commit to effectively reducing carbon output, incentivize businesses to be cleaner and greener, encourage green technology R&D and entrepreneurship, and invest in a plan to get off of fossil fuels.
- Provide universal healthcare and eliminate the single biggest financial burden to both American families and American businesses.
- Have a serious debate on eliminating income tax.
- Acknowledge the national health crisis caused by over-consumption of processed foods comparable to health hazards caused by cigarettes and alcohol.
- Stop paying corn subsidies and growing corn for ethanol, and instead support the rise of small local farmers who are growing better quality and ethically raised food in a more environmentally responsible way than factory farms.
- Focus on issues instead of party politics.
- Make Election Day a national holiday.
- Lead by example, not by force, in human rights, animal rights and democratic process.
- Stop selling billions of dollars of weapons to nations involved in conflict.
- Stop justifying the sale of arms with "if we don't do it, someone else will."
- Stop lying to us about the real reasons we go to war.
- Overhaul the weapons acquisitions process to focus on producing weapons for wars we're already fighting, instead of trying to invent the weapons of the future.
- Spend half as much money as we spend on the military on education and health care.
- Make primary and secondary education a priority.

Let's do something else

One of the big hullabaloos during the campaign was around health care – Obama wanted to essentially socialize it, making coverage available through the government and force insurance companies to bring prices down, while McCain wanted to continue using the current system but give people money to pay for it. Opposition to Obama shrieked at the idea of socialism and opposition to McCain said the amount of money he proposed wouldn't cover the costs and many people would be worse off. For all of the Republican yakking about free markets and how much better everything is when it isn't run by the government, we sure have made a mess of health care. Not a single person in this country thinks our health care system works, except maybe the insurance companies (who have made out like bandits in a bigger and more blatant scam than the current home-loan debacle). Noam Chomsky said health care has long been the number one issue of the American people but only started to get talked about when big companies began complaining about the high cost of providing coverage. There are few instances in recent history when the complaints of companies are the same as of the people and we're at a moment right now where so many things are broken that if we take the time, we can put them together right and turn a bad situation into an incredible opportunity.



One of those broken things is our consumer-based economy. 76% of our GDP is made up of spending on consumer goods and they're related like a spiral. When spending is up, the economy does better, more jobs get created, people have more disposable income and they shop more. But when spending is down, like in a recession, the economy does worse, jobs get cut and people stop spending, increasing the speed of the downward spinning. Over the past few months, we've watched our lawmakers flailing around crying wolf and begging for bailout packages and stimulus packages without any real strategy. From where I sit, and I'm sorry for this analogy but it reminds me of a guy trying to regain his erection when the moment has already past. You can spend the next half hour working to get it back only to find that your partner doesn't care anymore, or you can just go do something else. I would like to propose that we do something else. I'm tired of watching my representatives trying to pump life into the economy by throwing money at it. The money doesn't build anything that will stimulate a long-term upward spiral, it might give us a short boost but then we'll fall limp again.

The thing that everyone is talking about is green tech and for a good reason. The warnings about global warming are getting louder and louder and to anyone paying attention, they make everything else seem a little trivial. The governor of California just issued a directive to the state to start preparing for rising sea levels and a new study from the University of California shows the state losing trillions of dollars of real estate to fires. Among the other expensive disasters in store for us are drought, energy shortages, earthquakes, loss in tourism revenue and massive agricultural losses. To not change RIGHT NOW is the dumbest thing this country can do. We voted change into the White House but as Obama keeps reminding us, it's also us who will have to change. The whole world is registering the effects of global warming and so why not rebuild our economy around an industry that is not at odds with what the people need, an industry that will not only grow our economic future but will also keep us from financial ruin? We already know that there aren't enough fossil fuels in the world to meet the future energy demands of the U.S., China and India and while I'm sure we'll keep fighting over oil until every last drop is gone, why not also implement other technologies? We can't afford to wait and the acquisition and consumption of oil is largely responsible for global warming anyway.



So here's an idea. Let's do two drastic things right now to change our economy. First, let's socialize medicine and kill the insurance companies or make them work for us instead of the other way around. If we remove the burden of health care from employers, we will make huge strides towards keeping businesses here and maybe even luring some back. Second, let's level the energy playing field and create huge financial incentives for corporations to go green. If we did those two things, we could massively grow the green sector – putting new products on the market, giving unemployed people jobs, slashing emissions and pollution, promoting innovation and retaining more of our smart people – and relieve the country of the massive health care burden – putting more disposable income into the hands of Americans, increasing company profits and decreasing fraudulent behavior. President Bush says we don't have to give up on free people and free markets, and I agree. There are times, however, when we should do something else. This is one of those times.

Goodbye Ned

People have been asking what's going on with me. I haven't updated the blog much and it's been mostly about politics in the last couple of months. In a way, I feel like I'm not doing anything newsworthy and on the other hand, who could think about anything else? There's been so much happening in the world – and so much that seems to be changing – that I can't keep up and also keep finding that everything I want to say is already being said. I commented to a friend a couple of months ago that the level of debate and discussion in this country has finally been ratcheted up. Everyone has been talking about the bailouts, the election, gay rights, the war and so many other important things. But there have been important changes happening in my life too. For one thing, I just turned 37 and I attend my 20th high school reunion next week so I'm thinking a lot about where I am in life. My mom was younger than me when she lost her mother to cancer and I am so grateful for this opportunity to spend this time with her. Time she never got with her mother. She's loving it too.

Yesterday, we had a sad day. One of our cats, Ned, had to be put down. He was almost 19 years old. My mom has already put down two 18 year old cats and has another one about to turn 17. She's lived in this house a long time and many neighborhood cats and kittens have found her to be adopted, she has never once chosen a cat herself. Ned was named after the band Ned's Atomic Dustbin in 1990 by my brother, and our cousins who visited from England that summer dubbed him "Little Chaps." He grew to be a big cat and was never the smartest one but he defended the yard for almost 20 years from intruders. In his last days, though, he couldn't hear other cats and didn't have the energy to chase them away. He was always a big teddy bear and loved affection; You could hold him, squeeze him and carry him around and he would purr and drool until you put him down.

His best friend was Jake, a fragile and beautiful cat a couple of years younger and much smaller, whom Ned protected fiercely. They slept together and washed each other, their gray fluffy bodies blending into one. Over the last few months, though, Ned began to waste away. His 20 lb. body went down to about 4 and his big head and feet looked funny on his smaller frame. He was skin and bones and even though we fed him well and treated his over-active thyroid, he continued to look more frail and become disoriented. He howled every night though we never knew why. Was it to try to hear himself speak? Was it a cry for help? Or maybe it was for his beloved Cricket, a gorgeous black and white cat that lived next door. He was madly in love with Cricket and used to follow her around and howl for her in the evenings until she disappeared one summer night a few years ago – perhaps taken away by marauding coyotes.

On the night before his last, Ned curled up with Jake for the first time in months and they washed each other. Ned spent the entire night sleeping in front of the fire he always loved, something he hadn't done in probably a year. He usually spent his days and night on the roof, we figured so he could see everything and no one could sneak up on him. But something did sneak up on him, a raccoon or maybe a coyote tore half of Ned's back foot off. Maybe he was trying to defend his Jake or maybe he just didn't hear his attacker, but my mom found him in a state of shock lying by the pool in the early morning. We took him to the vet and decided to euthanize him. Ned was a stubborn cat and would never have permitted himself to be kept indoors or get help taking a pee. He wouldn't have put up with bandages or opened his mouth for antibiotics, so there wasn't any point. And if it didn't heal, they'd have to amputate. He was already so weak and so fragile, it didn't seem right to risk him being eaten alive on another day or night or deprive him of his roof and his garden.

When the doctor gave him the shot, my mother and I were both holding and stroking Ned and even though she said it might take 15 seconds, he was gone in two. He was ready to go she said and we barely registered a change in him even though his heart had stopped. We took him home and buried him in the garden he loved so much and was his home for nearly two decades. My mom worked from home for the rest of the day and we both cried throughout the afternoon. We talked about what a long life Ned had, and what a great life all of her cats have had. Her yard is so full of trees and gardens that every cat on the block wants to live here. Since Ned's decline, we had about four neighbor cats who spent their days in the yard, something he never would have permitted before. We talked about what to plant over his grave and that we were glad we brought him home, where he belongs. I still am so sad today. I didn't expect to be so upset but I miss him, even in his distressed state, and it's hard to be responsible for taking a life away. Yet, we both feel it was the right thing and we think Ned did too. Dear Ned, rest in peace, you will be missed. (Photo is from July this year.)

The power of the people

Well folks, we did it! Almost two years ago I said that America would never elect a man named Barack Obama to be their president and I have never been happier to be wrong. And for the first time in almost a decade, it wasn't a squeaker. He won with a healthy victory of more than 7 million popular votes and trounced in electorate votes. I am so proud of and grateful to my friends who donated money, phonebanked, bakesaled, drove to Nevada, registered voters, knocked on doors, posted information, emailed information and made sure their friends and family knew what an Obama victory would mean to us and the world. THANK YOU.

Have you ever seen a headline like this? "Election Unleashes a Flood of Hope Worldwide." I have never seen this level of participation in politics and more people voted in this election than any since LBJ won by a landslide in 1964 when the nation was reeling from the Kennedy assassination. Beyond his own victory as an African-American, Obama inspired millions of previously disenfranchised voters to cast ballots and brought young people into the process in a way no candidate has before. This country has once again proven the power of the people, if only we will use it. I hope America keeps its eye on the prize for the next four years and pitches in to help this guy out, he's got his work cut out for him. Yes we can!

On the eve of election day

I woke up crying for no apparent reason. I'm on the tail end of a three-week cold and have felt my blood pressure rise on more occasions than I'd like to admit over the past few months. This is the first year that I've done a mail-in ballot (in anticipation of being a poll worker, that I never got to be) and I will miss going to the polls. Even though there are rumors of long lines and other wackiness, I love walking into that polling booth and exercising my right to vote. This race for the presidency is certainly one of the most exciting I've seen in my lifetime and the country seems to be divided into four parts (in descending order of popularity): Those who think Obama will usher in a new era in participatory politics, those who think he'll bring about the end of the world, those who think all politicians are crooks and liars and those who think Sarah Palin is the neatest thing since sliced bread.

I promised myself months ago that I would campaign for Obama if he got the nomination but I didn't end up doing it. Mostly because my life got a little bit complicated and I just didn't feel quite up to it honestly. I did, however, write letters and talk to friends and convince my mother about Obama - who in turn has convinced other people. The stubborn loyalty to the smear tactic by the McCain/Palin campaign and their fervently hateful supporters, however, has really disturbed me. I know this kind of division has happened in previous elections but it affected me more deeply this time. Every time Obama chose the high road, it seemed to make his competitor sink to an even deeper level of deceit, turning people off by the thousands. Eckhart Tolle talks about the collective human evolution that we're in the middle of, a process in which the ego and the insanity that it produces becomes apparent to us and once we turn our attention to it, it dissolves. I see the McCain campaign as embodying the insanity of the ego rallying against Obama's Zen-like acceptance and enthusiasm. It's why I believe his leadership is crucial right now. Tolle says if we do not complete this evolution, we will be destroyed by our collective ego. I believe the general unease with Bush, even by those who cannot articulate the reason, reflects our desire to do just that.

A few bills on the California ballot also address the commitment to our own evolution, as a society and as individuals. Prop 2 calls for more humane treatment of the animals we eat for food. Enormous sums of money have been donated by companies that have violated existing laws on waste, food safety and animal welfare to run ads using the same McCain scare tactics about what will happen if people vote YES. Many intelligent and reasonable people, already committed to their family's health, have been unsure how to vote. Even though the bigger issue is our responsibility to not cause needless suffering in the world, people still want to be assured that the price of eggs isn't going to go up. They don't yet have the space in their heart to weigh a few pennies against the suffering of a chicken. Not yet. This is just one of a series of measures that have been passing all over the country in the last few years that demonstrate a growing concern for the welfare of animals - a concern that I believe to be part of our overall consciousness. Religious leaders are finally joining the discussion and reminding their followers (for lack of a better word) of their God given responsibility to all creatures great and small.

Another bill, Prop 8, wants to limit the right of marriage to straight people. The folks pushing it say they want to protect marriage. I started out on this one thinking it was just laughable. I mean it's obvious that people are losing interest in marriage just as they are losing interest in religion, but what do the gays have to do with it? I have many friends who are married but I also have quite a few who have had children without getting married or who are well past middle age and show no signs of ever getting married. So when gays started getting married it really didn't matter to me. Then I saw Prop 8 ad on TV that made me stop in my tracks. It was so bizarre and freaky that I couldn't believe it was on, I think during The Daily Show! When I moved to the suburbs, I encountered mobs of white teenagers with their milquetoast parents holding signs on street corners that called Prop 8 "free speech" while signs were posted in yards all over the neighborhood. It galvanized me to find out what exactly it was all about.

I went to their ridiculous website, I read articles, I studied the Wikipedia entry on marriage and learned that this is nothing more than a group of people who believe that their discomfort with someone else's behavior warrants a law being passed to prohibit it. I thought of a dozen things that irritate me like people sawing down mature trees to make room for more concrete, those car stereos that boom really loud and shake my car when I'm at a stop light, baggy pants that guys have to hold up to walk across the street, or really strong perfume on a woman that burns my nose when I'm in a store. They derisively refer to the "four activist judges" who overturned their last attempt to infringe on our civil rights as if we should live by mob rule and condemn judges who don't agree. Then, on a Catholic website, I read an article by a Deacon urging his constituents to vote for Prop 8 but nearly every comment was in opposition! Catholics wrote to say they were voting AGAINST Prop 8 and were offended that the church thinks they have a right to tell people how to vote. One woman posted a fantastic article about the (aforementioned "activist") Republican moderate judge who led the majority opinion in the case and the journey he took to make a decision that respects the people's will as expressed by the Constitution.

Ironically, I think this bill has forced people to take a stand on an issue they may have been ambivalent about. Teachers and school administrators were furious to learn that proponents were lying in their ads, saying that schools would be forced to teach about gay marriage. Proponents outraged parents when they stole footage from the San Francisco Chronicle of children attending a gay wedding and used it without permission in their ads. My mother, whose gay boss and his partner are raising two special needs children they adopted, was horrified when I explained the bill to her. She then had a conversation with a woman in the neighborhood with a NO on Prop 8 sign who told her that her young daughter has a friend with gay parents but has never once asked why the girl has two daddies. Kids aren't confused or concerned; nearly every child these days has a complicated parental situation and I say a child with two parents is lucky! That same week, the band of propagandists picketed in front of an elementary school prompting kids to ask their parents what it was all about. The proponents of Prop 8 aren't defending marriage, they're just teaching their kids to hate people who are different.

I say that the chorus of hate and intolerance that echos around the country is the sound of our collective ego dying as we increasingly respect the earth, each other and all the other creatures on the planet. I also see Obama as focusing our attention inward in so many ways. He focuses on how we can take better care of each other, not how we can exercise control over the rest of the globe. Similarly, consciousness happens when we focus our attention inward and stop trying to control everything and everyone around us. I bet that the people who are afraid of Obama are really afraid of what happens when we start looking inward. That fear has been intentionally stoked but it isn't working as much as it used to. There is less and less room in our collective consciousness for the negative rhetoric of the ego, desperate for control. I say it's part of our evolution, and like the better treatment of animals and the acceptance of a broader definition of marriage and family, there's no stopping it. So vote and bring it on!