For a month or two now, I’ve noticed people doing Throwback Thursdays online. It’s cute, you hashtag it and post up a pic or two of a back in the day type photo. I wanted to do it, but kept forgetting. FINALLY this past Thursday, I saw one of my friends do it and remebered oops! And vowed to do it by the end of the day.  And here is the result. Then I thought I can take it further by blogging about the photo of the day. Obviously, I missed Thursday.  It’s Tuesday. But better late than never, and I’ll try to be more timely for this week’s. The weekend before had been Boston Pride. I am from Boston, although I live in San Francisco, so I decided that in honor of Boston Pride, I’d post up two photos. The top one here is from Pride 2004 - my first ever Pride anywhere! I don’t know why, but I’d no idea that Pride existed until 2003. I was going out to clubs, but maybe the combo of the fact that back then, people weren’t online like we are now, and just being totally oblivious and a mess, I didn’t know it was happening. In college, I lived 20 minutes away in a nearby town, and then the next few years lived in Boston’s suburbs. 2003 I heard about this fun thing where there’s a big parade and parties and….I had to go away for a work trip that weekend. AWWW!! My best friend Marc took full advantage. I think that was his first pride, and he definitely lived it up. By 2004, I was ready to enjoy myself….but then something happened. I can’t even remember, but I did not watch the parade (which was literally five minutes walk from my house, since I lived in Beacon Hill by then). I did go to a friend’s house party (with my newish friend, later to become my current best friend Tristan), very small, and ate hot dogs. And the next day, I was planning on staying home, til my best friend’s mom came to the house, and she was going to meet up with her son at the block party. She didn’t know how to get there, so I had to walk her down (yes, we didn’t drive in Boston, either). I threw on whatever clothes, and was told to bring alcohol. All we had was some gross lemon vodka in the freezer, so I stuck it in a water bottle. We got there, and I walked in. Hmm, this is what a block party is all about? Some performer on stage and lots of drunk people. I have no idea why they let me bring a large amount of straight vodka into the party, but they did. Maybe because I was with someone’s mom LOL! You can predict the effect of drinking straight vodka on a hot summer day, and pretty soon we were all having tons of fun. His mom left, but before she did, she snapped this photo of us. I think we went on to some other hazy parties that I don’t really remember. A lot of meh stuff was going on, but for now, all was forgotten in celebration. By Pride 2005, Marc and I were no longer friends, but I had a great time with BFF Tristan (parade, parties, clubs). And the second photo here is from Pride 2006. Pride is, obviously, in June, and I moved just weeks after this was taken, so this was our last hurrah. A lot of other people we knew were leaving Boston too, and everyone was just super friendly and yay. People in Boston are NOT normally super friendly and yay. But at pride, they are. Lots of house parties, and why don’t we ever hang out, and people going to clubs…. it’s more like how SF is normally. But the fact that it’s not that way normally makes it more special in Boston. Here I am at someone’s house, it was raining that day and we’d just gotten back from or were about to go to the parade. That’s my friend Jay, my birthday twin. Back then he didn’t live in Boston, but now he does, and happily, we are still friends all these years later. I like these photos just because they encapsulate the spirit of Pride. Whenever I think of Pride, I think back to Boston prides, my very first ones, and kind of a rosy-glasses type of celebration.

Fast Future: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaping Our World by David D. Burstein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I received this book for free to review, but it’s most certainly one I would have wanted to read anyway. Technically, at 34, I am a couple years older than the millennial generation, but generation x goes for a long time, and I’m certainly not in that. Their ideals don’t match mine at all, and all of the millennial ones match mine exactly. I was so excited as i was saying everything I always say and think. Yes, as I read the book, I was excitedly pointing out excerpts to my millennial friends and coworkers. I promised the book to one of my coworkers once i was done reviewing it. I even posted a couple of Burstein’s quotes online and one is up at work. I’ve always been aware of the gap between the older generation and mine. Some of the ‘older generation’ being people i know who are just one or two years older than me. What i had not been aware of was that some people think of our generation as lazy. What?? That’s crazy. However the one fault i found with this book, which clearly, i loved, was that the author spent a little too much time on the critics and refuting them, which came across a little too much protesting in his responses. I understand what he’s saying, but i can see where someone of another generation would dismiss what he’s saying for the way he’s saying it. Otherwise, it’s awesome. I had to make this a shorter review for Goodreads, which I got the book through, but for my blog, I’m going to go fairly in depth.  At the beginning, he talks about when he was a sophomore in high school, he and his classmates created a film festival that went on to become this big thing and still exists now. “This story illustrates two things that I think are unique about my generation.  First looking back on it , I find it remarkable that not one of my collaborators ever stopped to ask, ‘Can we do this?’ We never thought. ‘We’re just high school kids, we can’t put on a film festival.’ We had no earthly idea how to go about it.  But we learned to do it quite well by ‘bootstrapping’ ” This is something i love about us, we just think of something, and do it, not worrying oh is there some random ruley old way to do this, of this is how things should be done, and just do it. He points out that this generation is one that straddles both sides of the new internet information age.  All this wasn’t here when we were born, like the newest generation that’s starting now. But we were plenty young enough to learn it like a native language. Have you ever seen people do things like print out an email and then walk over to you to reply to it? I have. It puzzled me. It’s because the older generation, even if they embrace technology, always speak with an ‘accent.’ it doesn’t come natural to them. We have it come naturally, are “digital natives” but with the perspective of also knowing how things were before. Millenials are one of pragmatic idealism. Generation x would stage giant protests with big, overarching things and ideals they want done. Millenials focus on smaller ideals, getting things done in practical chunks, maybe by doing something smaller, like turning all the facebook profiles to an equals sign. or starting a company which brings profits and tons of jobs, while also helping people. Millenials are more apt to use or not use a product or company because of the company’s mission plan. Does this company test on animals, does it donate to anti-gay or racist ideals, is it environmentally friendly or not… In return, a lot of companies are recognizing that and changing to make sure they include these things into their business practices. Small changes. Small changes add up though. He also writes about how since this generation is so online, we are much more community focused. We see community on a more global level, which has prompted youth from all over the world to have similar ideals and work for change. One part of the book that was very interesting was that our brains have changed over a single generation to be able to take in all of the digital information thrown at it all the time. Burstein covers the arguments by older generations as to why this is bad, how print books should be the only way people read (although when written books were becoming popular, the previous generation was saying how it was rotting people’s brains to write things down!).  The fact is, our brains have altered, for good or bad. I think for good. One quote that I have up at work says, “The right response is not to wring our hands and worry about civilization’s doom, nor try to stop the tsunami of technology with a finger in the dike.  We need to understand that we are gaining much that is positive, as well as bringing some new negative forces into the world.  The questions to ask are: how can we take advantage of the new tools we have gained?…There is no going back.  Our best chance of getting to a new golden age is to embrace the new technologies and navigate their difficulties and complexities.  It’s our responsibility to help frame the future.”  I really loved this quote because in both of my professions, I see the struggle that is currently going on between old ways and new ways. Every time we get some new technology or upgrade, I’m excited. Great, let me learn this, things will be better!! I exclaim. Others, from other x or boomer generations are wary. This confuses me, maybe the old way is better. Where’s my typewriter? These are things i already learned one way, so that must be the only way. They don’t stop to think, the things they learned were not the first ever things in the history of all being. Things are constantly changing. Not everything new is automatically good and everything old is automatically bad, but everything new gives us an opportunity to learn and perhaps find a way to evolve ourselves, often while incorporating the old. At the very least, people on each side should have respect for the others. Things run more smoothly when we get along. This is another tenet of the millennial culture - collaboration. Millennial are more likely to use different things from different sources, and create open source tools.  It’s more about sharing. If that product there can help me, I’ll use it. If this can help you, you can use it. I’m going to keep an open mind. My mind can change. Another personal favorite was “companies also highlight a trend of Millenial businesses that aren’t necessarily utilitarian or immediately practical, but help add real enjoyment and fun to our lives.  They’re careful to underscore that, in a stressful and fast-changing world, “fun” is an important social contribution. They’re not bringing about major political change, but their platforms are based on their passions and skills, and they’ve all resonated with people around the world.”  My friends and I picked up and started a club night, which has blossomed into three. I firmly believe that our passion is making a difference in a lot of people’s lives and music in general. I could write forever about this book, but then again, the author has already done it. Go read it. This helped me understand a little about the chasm that sometimes seems to appear between people like me and people who seem to think in such a strange way, and they think the same thing about me. To me, I’m thinking with common sense, but people at the office will praise me and say I think out of the box. I’m unconcerned with rules that seem to have no purpose, and strange, old conventions such as that just because someone gets paid more than me at work and happens to be higher up that they are somehow a better person than me, and not my equal. I can respect the work they may have done, but I’m still going to demand respect back, and treat them the way I’d want to be treated, and not as some god-like being to scurry around. My typical Sagittarius bluntness mixed with my millennial thoughts has not gotten me fired from my office job yet, and it has kept me from turning into someone who fades into the culture. I’m still me, I still speak out, do things my way, and still get high marks every time review time rolls around. Nine out of ten days, i walk around with a fire of energy and happiness inside, passion for so many things - my club, music, my writing, reading, my friends, food, my cat… I believe that many millennial feel the same. Millenials are creating businesses, ideas, fighting for what they think is right, in small chunks that can be fit into their lives and achieve results by chewing each bite instead of trying to swallow things whole. Millenials overall, whether democrats or republicans, on the left or right, are overall more accepting of people - gay or straight, of any color, women or men, etc. Everything in this book gave me such an optiimistic outlook for the future. As I said, at only 34, I’m still a couple years older than the core millennial age, some of which are still pretty young adults. As more and more come of age to be able to participate more and more in the world, i think we’re going to see a lot of acceptance and change, some of which has already begun. And I’m not putting down other age groups. They’ve done a lot, and will continue to do so. But this book really excited me.This is a definite must-read, especially maybe for people of other generations who work with millennials and want to try and bridge the gap. I do say though, for those who are solidly in the ‘millenials are lazy and bad’ camp, I feel that the way this is written, in such a millenial way, it won’t change their minds. It will only be useful to people on the fence, with no opinion or an open mind, or millenials ourselves.

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I wrote this blog post, then lost it (that happens a lot)! I finally found it so I can post it! And yes, when free breakfast day at work came up this month, I skipped the muffin :(

5/1 - Most of the time, I enjoy eating healthy. It usually tastes good, it gives me lots of energy and pep, and I know it’s good for me. But once in a while, I get really annoyed that I ever started doing it. I used to be able to eat mostly what I wanted. Well, not half of nuts that exist, cuz I’m allergic. And super sugary stuff, like kool-aid, especially if it also had dairy, like ice cream, would make me hysterically drunk and giggly then pass me out. But, in general, I could just eat whatever, and enjoy it. But noooo…over the years, I have to start eating all healthy and everything and suddenly, there are more and more things I can’t eat. I used to eat McDonalds, in my broke, drinking, early 20s. Sometimes Wendy’s, once in a while Burger King, but mainly McDonalds, at least once a day. After giving up fast food, it makes me very ill to eat it. No longer an option. Fine - who WANTS to eat that anyway? I give up more and more things, HFCS, refined sugar, simple grains, hardly ever eat meat, etc. etc. And now, what can I eat? I still crave pink burgers and steaks but most of the time, when faced with a choice of meat, fish or vegetarian, thinking of eating the meat makes me feel kind of queasy. And even sometimes the fish. I try to eat a tasty cranberry muffin that work brings in every month for our birthday breakfasts, it’s made of white flour and sugary, and aah I’m so dizzy and feel like I’m gonna fall into my desk! I guess this might be the last month I partake in their birthday breakfasts. Most desserts, half the things that are out at restaurants, I know, if I eat them, I will have to pay a price. I’m not the only one, friends who eat healthy have said the same thing. Since I’m super poor this year and basically can’t eat out unless it’s a special occasion and can’t afford half the things at the grocery store, I eat mostly veggies and fruits, with a little cheese, nuts, once in a while egg or beans thrown in. That makes my diet even more healthy than I meant it to be. My eating less grains experiment stuck, too. I love all of that, but at the same time, it’s a chore to eat anything anymore. Does this happen to you? Are your healthy choices overrunning your life? Don’t you get upset when you just want to eat some junk and literally CAN’T? The mind is willing but the body says no… At times like this, dizzy and fuzzy from eating a MUFFIN I wonder if life is too short to eat healthy. Hmm.

Marked by P.C. Cast
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This first book in a new series arrived and I looked at the reviews. It was rated high, but the last at least page full was all one and two stars. Uh-oh….did people begin liking this then lately hate it? I decided to try it anyway, it was here, after all, right? This book is set in an alternate reality, where there is a recessive gene that makes itself known at puberty, changing some people into vampyres (yes, with a y). These are most often artists, actors, etc., so many of the celebs we know today are vamps in this book LOL. 16 year old Zoey is just trying to fit in, living with intolerant crazy religion parents and dealing with normal things at highschool when she gets sick and then becomes marked - she’s turning into a vampyre. All fledglings go to a special Night School, a high school for vamps, kinda like Hogwarts, and not all kids survive the change and become full fledged Vamps. This isn’t spoiler stuff, it’s all said right in the very set up. This whole book is a set up book, she gets to the school, realizes she has special powers even for one of these, a sort of chosen one, and finds a pack of quirky friends. It reminds me of BUFFY! She and the Scooby gang can do magic and fight some big bads. I loved this book, devoured it whole, in less than 24 hrs. The reason most people did not like this book is the casual writing style. This is a YA book, written by a mom and daughter team. It’s got that dark comedy, light cheese kind of style, again, like Buffy, and I can see some people might not like that, but maybe they shouldn’t be reading YA. Me, I loved it. There are six to eight other books in this series already, as this first one was from back in 2007, so I have a lot to read. Sadly, it’s not in eformat at the library, so I’ve just requested the next three in paper to my local branch. If they come in time for the long weekend, I can polish them all off, I’ll bet. Super excited for this new series! It’s also already been made into comic books, and is coming out as a movie in 2014. I think it’d make an excellent tv series instead.

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Betrayed by P.C. Cast
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second book in the house of night series. Now we are in the second month of her at the school. I’m really into the story, even though she and her friends have bonded sooo fast, but that does happen sometimes, especially if you’re around each other 24/7 and going through a lot. This time, human football players are disappearing and the police think it might be vampires. We learn more about the creepy things that are going on at the school, and some things about some people that i had already suspected. A lot happens in this book, actually, everything moves along at a very fast pace. The one bad thing about the book is that it seems like an adult is trying to write this to look cool as a kid. It’ll mention she watches a show, like the brady bunch, and then it’ll say oh yes i’m a dork, i’ve watched those old nickelodeon reruns. Or it will say something about someone being hot for an old guy, who is not old, or how ancient 30 yr olds are. I realize i am no longer a teen, but when i was, i did not constantly make comments about how young i am and how old others are. i didn’t think 30 was overly old. This is a monther-daughter writing team and half of it seems like the mom was writing, trying to look cool, the way that older people do when they think they’re trying to be young. At 34, i notice people older than myself doing it too, especially online. Personally, i haven’t forgotten when I was younger, and i never acted like this, but laughed (as i still do) at adults who do it. So the editors need to intervene here and get the author to lay off this stupid writing device. Just write Zooey and her friends like regular people, cuz that’s what a 16 yr old is like. Otherwise, i’m diving into the third book after reading this one in a day.

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Chosen by P.C. Cast
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ok, so i Really liked the first House of Night book. The Second one, a little less.. This was the third one, and it’s gotten worse. The main character, Zoey, is so annoying. She has a couple good points but mostly she is running around cheating on her boyfriend, lying to her friends, being stupid… Her friends seemed cool before, but now they just are there. they don’t do anything. they don’t have any ideas, and they say the same thing over and over. It’s just “twin” this and “twin” that and “easy peasy” lol. And bickering over vocab words. Stevie Rae is kind of interesting, but my fav is Aphrodite. She is the only real and interesting person in these books that i’d get along with. if i were her, i’d never even associate with these kids that are always calling her a “skank ho.” Despite all of this, i will keep reading. the basic storyline is interesting. I want to see what happens next. i want more things explained, and i’d like to see if things and people develop. Despite all of the bad things, these books are addicting! I have the fourth one here from the library so I’ll start it right away. I think there are 8 or 12 of these and they only take a few hours to read so i’d better get requesting more from my library! I have a feeling though that this series is gonna get a bit anita blake-ish as it goes on. lots of the main character being annoying and having sex with a billion guys, and each book only covering a tiny bit of time without the plot moving forward. i hope not, but then again look how popular the anita blake books are even with that.

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Untamed by P.C. Cast
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is #4 in the house of night series. This series started out great, then was going downhill. After reading #3, if I hadn’t already had #4 at my house, i might have given up on it. But this one seems like it has redeemed the series. There was a lot of filler in the past couple books, which made them easy to breeze through in an instant. This one had more plot. There’s a prophecy, there’s a legend, there’s real bad guys, demons, there’s end of the world stuff and it ends on a cliffhanger. All that dumb ooh ooh i’m zooey which guy should i choose stuff is gone, and it focused on real things. now i’m back to comparing it to a buffy/angel type series. sadly, i don’t have book 5 on hand for this cliff-hanger, but i’ll definitely be back to continue this series after I’ve read some other books. I just hope the authors can keep it on this trajectory, and not give in to writing things for the sake of writing and having there be more books full of junk, just to sell more copies.

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And there, you’ve witnessed my House of Night binge. Just enough in the reviews to tell you what they’re about, without giving anything away. I have some more bloggish sort of book reviews I need to find time to do, about non fiction real issues. And a couple fiction ones, and some other types of blogs too. Stay tuned…Writing, & everything else, has just been scattered for me of late!

6/9/13- I’m supposed to be having a quiet, productive weekend. In reality, I’ve done very little of what I’d planned to do… one thing i did get accomplished was to try a new recipe! On weekends when I have the house to myself, i generally make one day an oatmeal day and one day a pancake (sometimes waffle) day. Friday night, instead of getting my Friday planned things done, i felt under the weather and fell asleep at ten, only an hr after i got home! Leading me to wake at 5:30! I can’t do that on work days, but on a weekend, i’m not sleepy anymore! I’m so weird. Since i was up early, by 8 I decided to go to the neighborhood farmer’s market. One of the three things I got there (yes, only 3 things for $20…that place is WAY too expensive…) was some blueberries to make Banana and Blueberry Pancakes the next day after kickboxing. Flash forward through me thoughtlessly drinking caffeinated tea right before i was going to nap, to being unable to sleep but too tired to do anything, to extending my short time in the park with friends to the rest of the day and evening in the park and bar with friends, to falling asleep at home instead of going out like I said I would, and sleeping through kickboxing this morning….aaah! I need a fresh start! Cue making the Banana & Blueberry pancakes as planned. These are gluten free. I am not gluten free, but i like all the ingredients: bananas, blueberries, coconut, eggs, cinnamon, so why not?  I halved the recipe, so it used three eggs. These came out more like a fruity egg dish than pancakes. It was more like i was eating three eggs mushed up with fruit, than an actual thing. Like scrambled eggs in a tiny circle. Maybe if the bananas had been more ripe… And yet, they were not bad. Lots of protein, fiber, no grains at all. Just not pancakey. I would still recommend them to others to try, but not on a day you’re having a pancake craving. I didn’t try the yogurt on top of them, not sure how that would turn out. Sunday is set to be better - made my pancakes like i said i would, wrote this blog post, and spent the entire Sunday doing Chaos work..the weekend’s productiveness might be salvaged. And hey, spending hours with friends is not actually a waste at all!! It reminds me how fortunate I am to have people around me, when years ago, I had no one at all. Thank goodness for friendship, and enjoy your breakfast!  (If anyone ever tries the recipes I post on here and wants to leave feedback on how they liked them, I’d be interested to read it!)

A year or two ago, I saw Food, Inc., which was a good movie, although it got a bit repetitive by the end. I recommend it, though. I saw all the horrible things they do to chickens that are laying our eggs, and I decided to only get cage free eggs from now on. And I did. It was easy, they’re more, but not a ton more, and they’re in every store. One day, I accidentally picked up a box of pasture-raised eggs. I’d never thought to get them before, because they weren’t sold at the grocery stores. The next time I went, I saw a little sign that said product by customer request. Yep, local pasture-raised chicken eggs at Whole Foods, and now Molly Stones too. But wow, they are way more expensive! I am currently trying to budget myself. I don’t have much money. I’ve cut out everything I can, and the only biggest expense is my grocery bill (well, besides the cat, but I can’t get rid of him!).  So here I am, standing in front of an almost $8 box of eggs. What do I do? Get a cheaper kind, to save money? The first time this happened, I really stood there debating. But in the end, my conscience wouldn’t let me not buy those pastured eggs. Even though I don’t have too much right now, I believe in voting with my dollar. I’ll be speaking more about this in a later blog coming soon about an enlightening book, but for now, I must say, ok, you’re inconvenienced out of a few dollars right now. But if everyone spends the little extra to get the food that’s good for us, good for the animals, good for the workers, good for the environment, a real change starts. Now, why would you want pastured eggs? And what’s the difference between cage free? You might know by now that normal eggs are laid by chickens stuffed into cages, where they can’t move, and their beak is usually cut off. These animals are disgusting and diseased, and fed nasty things. Poor chickens, right? Well, maybe you don’t care about animals, but all that disease and bad food is going to make your eggs that you eat. So cage free is better, right? Well…marginally. Cage free chickens are not in cages, but they are crammed into sheds as many can fit, just not technically in a cage. Can they walk around? No, not really. As this site says: “Hens can be raised in a warehouse of up to 100,000 per shed. They usually live among their own excrement and can never breathe fresh air or chomp on fresh grass. Their feed may be non-organic, smothered in pesticides, and consist of blood-meal and other types of waste.” GROSS!! So what is pasture-raised? This is what you think of when you think of raising chickens. Those like to walk around and they eat fresh grass, and their feed is more often organic (check your farm). Yes, they walk around. Still in pens, usually, but the pens get moved around, so they can have fresh spaces. And they’re open. These chickens make friends, they eat bugs, they do normal chicken things . And then they lay eggs for us to eat. Did you know, you can tell the difference in these eggs? Yes! They have up to 20 times more omega 3 in them, 10% less fat, 40% more vitamin A and 34% less cholesterol and you can even see the difference right away. My first carton, when I didn’t realize what I’d bought, I was confused. Why are these eggs so orangey? Yes, they have a different color! They taste so much more flavorful too! So wait, these eggs Taste better, are More Nutritious, are Lacking antibiotics, come from Happy chickens… and this is why I never again debate getting the cheaper eggs. You are what you eat and I just can’t in good conscience go back to eating eggs from literally tortured chickens, who are also passing their nasty chemicals and disease over to me in my eggs. I don’t eat a ton of eggs, especially since I’m not really a baker now that I don’t eat refined sugar, but I do use a few a week. I do kind of pause before I use some, since they are a bit more expensive. But I find them more filling. And they are way cheaper than meat, which I do not cook at home, and rarely eat out. If you are a vegetarian and still eating regular eggs, you really need to do some self-examining. If you think you are a flexitarian or ethical omnivore, ditto. I know that vegans will say, we shouldn’t be penning these animals and stealing their eggs at all, but even in nature, most of these eggs would not be fertilized and hatch, and I think they’re living pretty happy lives that I wouldn’t mind living as a chicken, so I no longer feel bad. You may not live in a city where you can get these pasture raised eggs at your grocery store. You could try and find a farm nearby that sells them, maybe at a farmer’s market, you can request that your store starts to carry them, and barring that, you can at least get the cage free ones, be on the eagle-eye lookout for ways you can get some humanely raised eggs, and try to reduce your egg consumption. Every little bit helps. Clean, humane living makes you feel so much better.

(I was going to link to/post some photos but they’re pretty sad, so go ahead and google them at your own risk.)

Eyes Wide Open by Andrew Gross
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The publisher sent this book to me to review. This is about a rich doctor, Jay, in NY whose nephew has committed suicide. He goes back to his brother and sister in law, and the whole family - mom dad and son- all are bipolar and were living off the state, had never made anything of themselves. Jay makes sure to repeat that over and over, how awesome he and his family are and how nothing his brother and his family are. He finds out that his nephew may not have committed suicide after all, and then this whole The Following type story happens, but I won’t give you spoilers. It was kind of interesting, but nothing special, and the superior snotty attitude that the main character had just ruined everything. If you don’t mind that, then you should check out this book. It wasn’t anything i’d seek out to read, but wasn’t bad.

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Sorry for the lack of posts!! I’ve just had a hard time getting the energy to write anything…writer’s slump! Also, I don’t usually post reviews of just ok books, only when I get them free to review.

The last Chaos was my friends’ Tristan and Cavin’s birthdays. They’re also the other two of the three producers of Chaos, so this was their birthday Chaos. We had DJ Jalil Z from Miami, who was also the first dj that I’d suggested for the club, and i think it went over very well. I repeat myself every month but it’s always fun and good music! Look how much fun I have at work! Here are the photos and video to prove it!! This was only the Saturday before last but it’s already time for the next Chaos, so if you’re in the SF bay area, come this Saturday, June 1st when DJ Edgar Cebreros returns. He is here from Mexico, and we first had him this past August. I’m certainly ready to go out! Here’s the facebook invite. See you soon!

Photos by Merredith Lloyd, Michael Hardgrove, Marques Daniels, David Wong & Athan Broers

I’ve been saving up for my Spain trip in August, and between that, and the smaller trips I’ve taken, and my SD trip in July, I’m very short on money. So I couldn’t go to Matinee Vegas where a bunch of my friends went for Memorial Day weekend. I couldn’t even afford to go out in SF. So i had a chill-in three day weekend, just bonding with my cat. I was going to head to the De Young Museum and see the Girl with the Pearl Earring exhibit before it closed, but then i realized how hard it is to get there without a car, and I wasn’t totally positive I get in free from work, so I skipped it. Errands, a lot of reading in a new series I started, a little tv (Arrested Development started up…the first two episodes were ok).  I started sleeping like the cat, we’d wake up super early at five, then take a nap, then wake up, then nap…Loki and I have gotten along so much better when he’s not worried I’ll leave him alone. We got cleaning and playing done, and I made pancakes! On the way home from the gym Sunday morning (TKB in the morning is a great start to the day!) I picked up some buttermilk from the corner store, and decided to use my Kenyon’s cornmeal in a brand new recipe. Go here to try Cinnamon Polenta Pancakes.  I used coconut sugar instead of regular sugar, and whole wheat flour. I didn’t have any berries to make a berry compote, so I made up a ginger coconut pear one instead. It came out good, very cakey. I would have liked to have tasted more of the cornmeal, but they were nice and kind of holiday festive.  Later that day i went to the real grocery store (a madhouse!!) and got some blueberries while I was there and made Favorite Pancakes for breakfast on Monday. These are a buttermilk pancakes recipe my mom used to make for us (recipe below), and we couldn’t get enough. So light and airy! I used coconut sugar again for the sugar, and whole wheat flour. The whole wheat flour always makes anything denser, so they didn’t have quite the same texture that I remember from before, but they were delicious nonetheless. Trying new recipes is great, but it’s the old ones that sometimes are the best. Next weekend will be busy again when my part time roomies come back for our club, so I guess I kind of enjoyed this interlude totally alone, even though it would be a lie to say I wasn’t jealous watching everyone on facebook on their various trips having fun, or even the ones who stayed here, dancing the night away, still dancing, dancing when I was already awake for the next day. I’m really not a fan of holidays. AT ALL.  Still, I do want to take the time to give thanks to all the families who have sacrificed their loved ones in wars and conflicts so that we can all be safe. After all, that’s what Memorial Day is all about…not just traveling, vacationing, and partying.  Not that I’m opposed to doing those things… Hope your weekend was great, happy memorial day from Loki and me!

Favorite Pancakes

Beat one egg, then add these ingredients in this order, beating in one at a time: 1 cup buttermilk, 2 Tblsp butter, 1 cup four, 1 Tblsp sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 ts baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt.  Grease a heated griddle and cook pancakes. (Add fruit if you so desire)

Blood Sins by Kay Hooper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is Bishop/SCU Book #11, or 2nd in the Blood Trilogy. I finished the first in the trilogy, and i just HAD to read the next one. Luckily, it was at my library, for my kindle, so I grabbed it. I devoured the book between right before bed Friday night to Sunday. I’d accidentally read the third Blood book a couple years ago without reading the first two, and now I finally got to see what they had been talking about. It’s best to read the first one before this, but I guess you could understand a standalone story about a cult, led by a driven, psychopathic man who posesses an insane amount of psychic powers, and the team from Haven, made up of people with psychic and paranormal abilities themselves, along with help from Bishop’s FBI special crimes unit (also psychic ability people) who are there to stop him. I love the flashbacks, learning how he came into power, and how each of the good guys’ powers are changing too. If you like XMen or things like that, you’ll love this whole series. Once I finished this, i just HAD to re-read the third one, which is what I’m finishing up right now!

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Blood Ties by Kay Hooper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

2013: I re-read this book that I originally read in 2010 because it’s the third in a trilogy within the Bishop Special Crimes Unit series (#12 overall), and originally, I’d not read the first two. Now I finally went and read the first two of the trilogy, and this one, all in a row. SO GOOD! I LOVE this series and this trilogy was the best one yet! She is running slow on writing new ones…more of the next trilogy should have been out by now, but only the first book was JUST released, and i heard it’s not as good. we’ll see. I don’t have much to add to my original review, other than it was even MORE awesome having read the things leading up to it. But begin at the beginning of the entire series. I love them and their special evil fighting powers. Modern day superheroes/mutants. Awesome.
2010: I love the Bishop special FBI series, it’s like Xmen. Bishop is an agent with very strong psychic powers, especially when he joins forces with his wife Miranda, another agent. Together, they have formed a special unit within the FBI, where over the series of books, they find and recruit new people in who have incredible powers, including mind reading, talking with the dead, taking other people’s powers, healing themselves and others…there’s even one guy who’s almost impossible to kill. Together they form to get the bad guys, usually serial killers who have powers too. I messed up a little with this book…it was the third in a trilogy within the series, and I had not read the rest of the trilogy yet. It also ties in with lots of other storylines from other trilogies within the series. We see a lot of the team’s powers are changing and growing, and we get to learn who bishop and the team’s arch nemesis is, who I didn’t even know existed since I didn’t read the last 2 books. I’ll still read them. This book was pretty sad. I feel like it might have been even sadder if read in order. It’s violent, it’s interesting, it’s revelatory, and kind of a transition book in terms of how everyone is doing with their lives and powers. This is the author’s newest book, so when the next one comes, I feel like she’ll be ready to take it to another level. Awesome series.

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