I'm done being "better" than tourists. It was fun for a while... I loved to laugh about how they wait in long lines for the cable car when they could just hop on, wait-free, at the next stop. And it is always amusing to see a long line of cargo-shorted early birds waiting to be seated for brunch at a restaurant whose only distinguishing feature is a sticker on the window that says "Zagat rated." But the truth of it is, I know I must be one of these yokels when I travel. I was thinking about it the other day... I mused that if one day I went to Seattle, I'd want to see the original Starbucks. I realized that it's probably a huge tourist spot, but whatever. The only people who are never tourists are people who never leave their own city, and that is far more dull than going somewhere else and doing all the touristy things. The touristy things are popular for a reason; they may be cliche, but they're interesting and often of historical significance. (Note: I am not referring to the original Starbucks when I speak of historical significance, so don't flame me.)

Anyway, I hate being a snob. I'm not very good at it. :o)

Ugh. This old woman at my work came up to Dr. Miller and asked him if he could help her granddaughter get into UCSF Med school. It was so gross. This woman is really pushy, and she always calls in sick and complains all the time... it's gotten to the point where I don't even ask her how she is anymore. She's *nice* but just talking to her is so draining. Anyway, she started going into how her granddaughter is studying for the MCATs and gets good grades and she goes to UC Davis and she volunteers at the UCD Med Center in Sacramento, and she got to see the ER. Oooh.

And I know what BS all of this is! I've volunteered at two hospitals, and at both of them kids were premeds and had no real responsibility, and didn't really learn much about medicine. And thus didn't really care about volunteering. Yes, this includes me. I knew nothing about being a doctor until I worked at UCSF. I'm serious. And this girl doesn't either. She has her grandma and probably her parents pressuring her to do it, and maybe she wants to, but that's beside the point.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the BS. I know Dr. Miller has nothing to do with admissions, and he tried explaining this to the woman, but she kept on pushing: "Do you know anybody on the admissions committee? Is there anything you can do? Bla bla..." She was admissions-grubbing, the way premeds grub for grades. It's so gross! People will do anything to get into med school. People's GRANDMAS will do anything to get them in. Well, it will all change in about 15 years or so when malpractice insurance and managed care drives everyone away, and the next generation loses its reverent awe of medicine.

I am trying my best to be a good, honest music consumer. This weekend, I have engaged in just about every legal means of acquiring music that exist: I have bought a couple CDs from Tower, I have downloaded some free mp3s from mp3.com, and I have paid for a few mp3s from a subscription site. Here is why RIAA needs to employ people like me and not grouchy middle aged men.

Buying CDs at Tower went fine. This is the game the RIAA wants us to play. The way things used to be, when the only way to steal a song was by shoving a CD in your backpack. It works okay, especially when you get to preview an artist in a listening station. I walked out with two bomb CDs I actually really dig. Still, I ended up buying an EP that isn't exactly what I wanted. So I guess I'm 67% satisfied with this method. It would actually have been lower, but I had a gift certificate and it made the cash bite a little less painful.

Everybody, go to mp3.com right now and get some free mp3s. There are some great ones in the alternative/punk section. You can get Starting Line songs for free, including "Best of Me." !!! Besides, what's cooler than discovering the next big thing? I also like Spitalfield and Count the Stars. Plus, it's free, and you can do whatever you want with the mp3s. What do I mean by this? Well...

It turns out that legally acquired mp3s have weird restrictions. I bought Addicted by Simple Plan at www.buymusic.com, for $0.99. What sucks is that I can't transfer the mp3 to my mp3 player or burn it to a CD. The site tells you that it's allowed, but unless your software is compatible you're screwed. I also tried out www.emusic.com, which has an unlimited download plan for $9.95 a month, but unless you're into Academy St. Maarten in the Fields or Creedence Clearwater Revival, you won't find it to be a good deal. I couldn't find a single mp3 I really cared about. The worst is that each site has its own proprietary file management program, so my beautiful new hard drive is getting filled up with junk.

If the RIAA was smart they would make downloading mp3s much easier and more streamlined. They would be cheaper (At $0.99 a song, a full CD still costs $15) and there would be no restrictions on use. Right now, it is so much faster and easier for people to hop on Kazaa and get what they need, and the mp3s are 100% versatile. I like the fact that the mp3 you get from a subscription service has guaranteed fidelity and is legal, but in the end, it's still too big of an ass-pain to bother. I have to wonder if they have done any market research at all, because you'd think they would know just how inferior the current options are.

Oh yeah, I forgot one last method of getting music: the AIM direct connect. As long as your buddy has what you want, you're all set. And the RIAA can't come after you :)

Here in SF, you can get a ticket if you're parked on an incline and your wheels aren't curbed. What I want to know is, what if you curb your wheels the wrong way? Is it a double ticket, or do they give you an 'A' for effort and let it slide? I see wheels curbed the wrong way all the time. It's not that hard! I don't have a good way to explain how to turn your wheels in different situations, but intuitive things are often hard to out into words. Just do what you have to do to fight gravity, people! or look at the other cars on the street and make your wheels do what the other wheels are doing. Good luck!

I have a bad habit. I only put one space after a sentence. I know you're supposed to put two... but back when I learned to type I guess I didn't get the memo. Now it's ingrained. Is it annoying to read prnted text that has insufficient space after each period? Will someone let me know please?

Unique T

I have this cool T-shirt by Pink Spike. No, you haven't heard of them. It's this small label, they have random shirts... I bought one in this tiny boutique on Fillmore, called "Her." It was the only one they had. Once when I was wearing it, Zach commented that it was cool. He said it looked unique, but he wasn't sure if it was really unique or "Gap unique." You know, those T-shirts that have the name of some coffee shop in New Hampshire on them, which would be really kitschy and cool if half the U.S. didn't own one. No, I assured him, this wasn't one of those. I got it in a boutique in San Francisco.

So I'm out having dinner tonight in North Beach, wearing my fab unique shirt, when a girl grabs my arm and says "Hey!" and looks at me expectantly. I'm thinking, 'Do we know each other?' And then I see her shirt. My shirt. We're wearing the same shirt. When there are so many damn stylish people around, it might be easier to be unique wearing a shirt from the Gap.

Hepatitis T

Today when I was at Peet's buying my daily latte (when did I switch from Starbucks to Peet's? I'm becoming less bebop and more bobo), there was a big, long, winding line. It wound all the way over to the merchandise, and I did a double take when I saw one of the boxes of tea out of the corner of my eye. It looked like it said "Hepatitis C." Only when I looked again did I see that it said "Hibiscus C." I feel like letting Peet's Herbals know that their tea brought to my mind horrible liver disease and jaundice. I wonder how many bobos across the USA have had the same reaction? Even if only 0.01% of their customers make the connection, that still might be thousands of dollars lost in sales that could have been avoided if they had called the tea something more innocuous. Maybe "Citrus Hibiscus," or "Tropical C." Whatever, I wasn't going to buy it anyway.

For a long time I have been aware of the unique etiquette surrounding AIM. Someone's going to write a book on it. Not me. I'm just going to talk about the AIM profile here, in a very Terminator-self-aware kind of way. This is, after all, my profile. So, I'm going to talk about AIM profiles, and in particular, maintaining anonymity in profile-checking.

Everybody looks at their buddies' profiles, all the time. Don't deny it's true. You're not too busy or too cool, you're bored like the rest of us, hoping that one or more of your buddies has recently updated his or her info, maybe even with a link to click.

I hate link spy. You can never, ever click on a link spy link. If you do, then people will know you lurk around in profiles, which isn't cool. I have invented another screen name to use when clicking on a link spy link, so you will never know it is me. You can tell if the link in your buddy's profile is a link spy link by placing your cursor over the link and waiting. If it pops up with something like user=you and buddy=alterese (for example) don't click it! I made the mistake of clicking on a link in this profile of a guy whose SN I'm not supposed to know. It's a long story. Anyway, I clicked on the link before I knew what I was doing. Only later did I find out that it was a link spy link. Damn!

It may seem like I care too much about this. Maybe I do. If you think I'm crazy, feel free to IM me and tell me. Of course, you'll be admitting that you checked my profile and came to this site...

Here are some things that have been rolling around in my mind.

I love being awake when the cable car stops running. From my new room you can hear the cable all day, but then at around 12:30am it stops and the city is dead silent. It's really beautiful. Almost as cool is when the cable starts back up again, first thing in the morning, around 5:15am or so. You can hear it progressing down the street towards my room. I don't get exactly why the sound gets louder gradually... you'd think the cable would start moving simultaneously all around the city, since it's connected and all. Maybe someday I'll go to the cable car museum and find out how all that stuff works.

It's really hard to walk in spiky heels! I mean the really spiky ones. I just bought a pair (no, not those)because I'm tired of wedges and safe heels and a girl really ought to be able to handle herself in any kind of heel. But damn! I need practice.

I am obsessed with a woman named Toni. She is this bug eyed celebrity-grubbing woman who has been on two reality TV shows. That I know of. Two! (Love Cruise and Paradise Hotel). And now her bare ass is in Marie Claire. It isn't bad... a little flat, but she has a thong tan line, which I think is tacky. Isn't there a box you have to check on the reality TV show application form that swears you've never been on another one? Did anyone else notice? Christine, c'mon, I KNOW you noticed.