This Will Surely Prove to my Family I'm a Hippy

Sad news today, Cafe Gratitude is closing it's northern California stores. I didn't know they had so many. But this means an end to the amazing grateful bowl, which fed me a bit when I was very poor, for very cheap, and which I pay as much as I can for now that I have money. I'm probably going to miss the green sauce they make the most. They basically make a rice bowl of black beans, brown rice, kale, and this green sauce, and it's delicious:

It's my favorite. Apparently I need to find the recipe for that green sauce. I think probably it's avocado based. Plus I love Kale. And look! Here's a guy in Vermont who makes Kale and Cheese related T-shirts and hoodies:

Eat More Kale!

I just found 100 Years of Solitude on the bookshelf here at the hostel. I'm stoked. This bumps up my pile of books to 5: Green Mars by Kim Robinson, Feast of Crows by George Martin, South America Lonely Planet Guide, New Zealand Lonely Planet guide, and now 100 Years of Solitude. Yeah, I know, that's a lot of books. I keep thinking they should be going faster, but Green Mars is heavy on science talk, and Feast of Crows is heavy on historical politics, so even though I'm thoroughly engrossed the reading is slow. The travel books are browsers right now. I'll get to the planning later. 100 Years, well now, I might wait to start that one after I've finished Green Mars or Feast of Crows. I know this is all facinating to you.

Maybe more interesting was my reading list for the day. I started at Occupy Oakland on Facebook, out of curiosity for what the movement is doing in my town after reading a synopsis of the minutes of the most recent GA that a friend posted up. I will admit that I'm disheartened by the co-opting of the movement in Oakland by some overly radical characters. We need more balanced view points at the GAs!

My foray onto the page led me to an article talking about the movement getting co-opted for the democratic party. It's decidedly and admittedly one sided, but it led me to an article by a man who used to be an accountant for the IMF, or for those who don't know, the International Monetary Fund. These guys are the biggest bank in the world, and they bail out countries who have no where else to turn. The IMF is also kind of evil on some other levels, but this is basically a general economic and history lesson related to debt laden countries. The quote that led me to this article from the one on Slate?

"Squeezing the oligarchs, though, is seldom the strategy of choice among emerging-market governments. Quite the contrary: at the outset of the crisis, the oligarchs are usually among the first to get extra help from the government, such as preferential access to foreign currency, or maybe a nice tax break, or—here’s a classic Kremlin bailout technique—the assumption of private debt obligations by the government. Under duress, generosity toward old friends takes many innovative forms. Meanwhile, needing to squeeze someone, most emerging-market governments look first to ordinary working folk—at least until the riots grow too large."



Oligarchy: a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes; also : a group exercising such control (I do the work so you don't have to!)

 I read an article on the daily Kos:

To the black bloc "anarchists", F*** OFF! This is "Occupy", NOT "Destroy"

Which led me to also read an open letter to the Black Bloc at Occupy Oakland on Indy Bay, which articulated my own frustration with what happened on my side the night of the General Strike.

"An Open Letter to the Black Bloc and Others Concerning Wednesday's Tactics in Oakland"

My last bit of reading? Well I've been a bit concerned over the National Defense Authorization Act, which is a huge bill with a couple scary small provisions. Today the bill was voted on and passed the senate. Here's a right wing view on what's wrong with this bill from Politico:

"Opinion: Matters of Injustice"

On a side note: I was told once by a friend that the Mahna Mahna song from the muppets was originally a swedish porn song. I told this to my friends after we went to see the Muppets on Thanksgiving, and it turns out someone actually did a whole overview of the origination of the song on Slate. Italian soft core porn about swedish snow bunny babes in a sauna is where the song actually first originated. Good to know weird information for the future.

Snowths & Mahna Mahna photograph by John E. Barrett. © The Muppets Studio, LLC. © Disney Enterprises. All Rights Reserved. (I figured I ought to cover my butt with this picture, namean?)  OH! And thanksgiving! So much fooooood! I did lunch with the fam, and got to see my amazing grandmother who I adore, and talk music, bikes, and fantasy fiction with my Uncle, who then gave me a burned CD of an awesome Bob Dylan Bootleg from 1960, Sam Cooke live at the Harlem Cafe (?), and some more Holy Modal Rounders full of bad harmonizing. And THEN he gave me the first two books of the Wheel of Time series, which was recommended by a new friend.  After family lunch, I had friend dinner. Two turkeys. at least 15 side dishes, (Highlights? Duck with Pomegranate Sauce, persian, and Mole, mexican) and I don't even know how many desserts. Here's a picture of the desserts for reference on what kind of feast this was: 

  That's me in the corner photobombing. Three photobombs later of the same picture I managed to get my face shoved into the beautiful bird cake in the lower right corner. And then Doug photobombed the next picture just for good measure. Moral: I love my Oakland people, and I love feasting, and we had a ton of fun at dinner, and always photobomb!
Then I took the bruise crew in a friend of a friend's van out to the movies. We saw the Muppets. Duh. And it was awesome. I wore an animal costume and scared a very large man behind the snack counter so bad he broke out in a cold sweat and the shakes. I sat with a giant grin on my face the whole movie. Best Thanksgiving EVER.
Work has been easy the last few days, very slow, so lots of laundry has been done. Tomorrow it's bleaching the linens and the mattress covers for the new building. Facinating, no?
Break time was all sunshine today. I threw on my wetsuit, rode my bike down coast trail, right through the giant puddle, skirted up a dune, landed on the beach but didn't swim because i was afraid of the waves and maybe sharks and I was all alone at the beach. If I'd been eaten or swept out to sea no one would know! I played it safe and only went in as far as I could touch, then took off the suit and napped in the sun for about an hour before riding back, just as the fog was rolling in. I love it here. Even on foggy days I think it's super beautiful. It's not the mountains, but it'll do.  Update: I just read a blog that told me to look out for stinging nettle jellyfish! The ocean is SCARY!