Thursday, April 13, 2006
random thought
For some reason, the building I work in has smelled like a mall this past week. It's kind of weird.
i know i know...
Alright, so I know I over simplified the immigration issue in my last post. The issue is definitely more complicated than I initially portrayed it, and I know that now and I knew it then. The underlying issue of how do we deal with folks who get into this country illegally is one that has me torn. Of course, illegal is illegal but it isn't as cut and dry as that. On the one hand, you've got to think about the folks who are sneaking in here to find work to help support their families back home. On the other, you have to think about the people who come in legally by following all the appropriate processes to do the same thing. What is the underlying issue for why these folks need to sneak into the country? Are our immigration policies so out of whack they don't address the needs of our economy?
Like I said, I oversimplified before and I still am now. There are so many different facets of this issue that are really hard to wrap your head around and come up with a clear solution. My last post really talked about the racial issue, which I hate to play the race card. But it seems like race has been a major talking point of this whole thing. A lot of focus has been placed on those individuals who are coming in from the country south of us. What about the people sneaking in from Canada? What about the human smuggling rings that are sneaking people from Asia? How do these proposed bills and laws affect them? The part of the proposed immigration reform that is absolutely ridiculous is anyone in the country is automatically a felon and anyone who provides them assistance of any kind is also considered a felon. Nice.
Anyway, I should just get back to talking about music and food, those subjects are so much easier. But, my last thought on this topic. Don't demonize everyone who has come into this country through other than regular channels. There are a lot of honest, hard working men and women who are providing a valuable service to our economy. If we could find some way to get them out of hiding who they are we could do things like providing them with valuable services like unionization, legal protections from employers who don't pay them for their work, making sure their working conditions are adequate, etc. Things that we take for granted. At the same time we need to revisit our immigration policies so that people don't see that they have to enter the country illegally.
Just my two cents on the issue. Feel free to disagree or add additional views on this topic, I'd love to hear what you have to say.
Like I said, I oversimplified before and I still am now. There are so many different facets of this issue that are really hard to wrap your head around and come up with a clear solution. My last post really talked about the racial issue, which I hate to play the race card. But it seems like race has been a major talking point of this whole thing. A lot of focus has been placed on those individuals who are coming in from the country south of us. What about the people sneaking in from Canada? What about the human smuggling rings that are sneaking people from Asia? How do these proposed bills and laws affect them? The part of the proposed immigration reform that is absolutely ridiculous is anyone in the country is automatically a felon and anyone who provides them assistance of any kind is also considered a felon. Nice.
Anyway, I should just get back to talking about music and food, those subjects are so much easier. But, my last thought on this topic. Don't demonize everyone who has come into this country through other than regular channels. There are a lot of honest, hard working men and women who are providing a valuable service to our economy. If we could find some way to get them out of hiding who they are we could do things like providing them with valuable services like unionization, legal protections from employers who don't pay them for their work, making sure their working conditions are adequate, etc. Things that we take for granted. At the same time we need to revisit our immigration policies so that people don't see that they have to enter the country illegally.
Just my two cents on the issue. Feel free to disagree or add additional views on this topic, I'd love to hear what you have to say.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
first day back plus other stuff...
I hate the first day back at work after taking some time off. Nothing like digging through all the crap that piled up while you were gone. You also have to dig the subtle jabs at you when you get back for waiting so long to do something. I was taking my first vacation in a very long time. Nothing like that to raise my ire.
So, I'm not sure if people have been following this immigration thing going on but I don't know how you couldn't. One thing I don't understand is why other minorities that have been oppressed in the history of this country aren't rallying with the hispanic community. This isn't the first time the land of the free has attempted to keep people from coming here. I know it was a long time ago but let's not forget the Chinese Exclusion Act from 1882. It kept Chinese people without family already in the US from entering the country and Chinese Americans weren't allowed to even apply for naturalization. The Exclusion Act wasn't repealed until 1943 only because China was an ally in WWII. In 1952 first-generation Chinese Americans were allowed to apply for citizenship and all the restrictions weren't removed until 1964 with the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Only 42 years ago were there restrictions on Chinese Americans from becoming full fledged American citizens, so why won't more Chinese Americans stand up for another ethnic group that is about to be subjected to similar restrictions? Are we afraid of rocking the boat? I sure hope not, because all the reasons they are saying now sound an awful lot like what they were saying back then. So it's about time we do something before this country ends up making the same mistakes again.
So, I'm not sure if people have been following this immigration thing going on but I don't know how you couldn't. One thing I don't understand is why other minorities that have been oppressed in the history of this country aren't rallying with the hispanic community. This isn't the first time the land of the free has attempted to keep people from coming here. I know it was a long time ago but let's not forget the Chinese Exclusion Act from 1882. It kept Chinese people without family already in the US from entering the country and Chinese Americans weren't allowed to even apply for naturalization. The Exclusion Act wasn't repealed until 1943 only because China was an ally in WWII. In 1952 first-generation Chinese Americans were allowed to apply for citizenship and all the restrictions weren't removed until 1964 with the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Only 42 years ago were there restrictions on Chinese Americans from becoming full fledged American citizens, so why won't more Chinese Americans stand up for another ethnic group that is about to be subjected to similar restrictions? Are we afraid of rocking the boat? I sure hope not, because all the reasons they are saying now sound an awful lot like what they were saying back then. So it's about time we do something before this country ends up making the same mistakes again.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Butter Poached Halibut
I just recently got back to Seattle from a trip to Walla Walla for a little eating and drinking excursion. There were a lot of little disappointments on the trip. The first being my ticket for going 80 in a 70. Now that was not a good way to start my vacation. The next was when I checked into my hotel and realized luxury hotels in Walla Walla were only slightly better than a Days Inn or Holiday Inn in other places. The final disappointment was the camera bag I ended up buying that wasn't the one I really wanted but bought anyway because I thought I would need it...then ending up not using it.
That was really it though, the rest of the trip was full of pleasant surprises. There's nothing like walking into a tasting room and being the only one there. It's nice, but also a little stressful since you don't want to sound like an idiot and you try to make some small talk while not gulping down the wine. Everyone was nice, though, and Dunham gave me some pretty generous pours. The biggest surprise of the whole trip was my dinner on my first, and only night, there.
I had made a reservation for myself at 26brix the day before I drove out. When I arrived at the time of my reservation, the hostess said, "For 1?" and I couldn't tell if she gave me a look of pity or something else, like "Kudos for you, I could never got to a fancy restaurant to eat by myself." I wasn't really surprised when I was seated at a little table in the corner, I actually liked it because it gave me a good view of everything that was going on.
What I was surprised about was the service. Dining alone, I kind of expected to get just the bare minimum of service since my check would definitely pale in comparison to the tables of two+ people, which would result in a smaller tip. But what I ended getting was extremely attentive service from 5 people. Yeah, I said 5. There were the two folks who filled up your water and cleared your used dishes. Then there was my server who had to visit me because the worst thing that could happen to a restaurant is having someone starve to death in there. The captain also visited me on multiple occasions to make sure I had ordered, check in on how things were, presenting me with the dessert menu, etc. Additionally the sommelier came by to help me pair wines with my courses and even poured it for me for each course. He actually came by at the end and almost poured me an extra glass by accident before I stopped him.
I really appreciated how they gave me the same level of service as everyone else, of course they probably knew that I was going to eat and drink more than my share. I probably ordered more stuff than the guy there with his college-aged son, I have a sneaking suspicion I tipped more too. But now on to the important stuff, what I ate:
First Course
Vegetable Bisque with Black Truffle Coulis
Wine: Woodward Canyon Riesling
Main Course
Butter Poached Alaskan Halibut: saffron and halibut fumet, "Parisenned" potatoes with shaved artichoke hearts, braised fennel and pea sprout salad
Wine: Chinon
Dessert
Coconut Tapioca Soup
Monkey King Jasmine Green Tea
At the end of the night I went out of my way to thank the sommelier for the great pairings and my server for the dessert recommendation after my first choice (the brioche bread pudding) was no longer available. Eating alone is always a little awkward, but they did their best to treat me like everyone else and because of that I left a little something extra for them to show my appreciation.
If you're ever in Walla Walla make sure you don't miss 26brix: http://www.twentysixbrix.com/
That was really it though, the rest of the trip was full of pleasant surprises. There's nothing like walking into a tasting room and being the only one there. It's nice, but also a little stressful since you don't want to sound like an idiot and you try to make some small talk while not gulping down the wine. Everyone was nice, though, and Dunham gave me some pretty generous pours. The biggest surprise of the whole trip was my dinner on my first, and only night, there.
I had made a reservation for myself at 26brix the day before I drove out. When I arrived at the time of my reservation, the hostess said, "For 1?" and I couldn't tell if she gave me a look of pity or something else, like "Kudos for you, I could never got to a fancy restaurant to eat by myself." I wasn't really surprised when I was seated at a little table in the corner, I actually liked it because it gave me a good view of everything that was going on.
What I was surprised about was the service. Dining alone, I kind of expected to get just the bare minimum of service since my check would definitely pale in comparison to the tables of two+ people, which would result in a smaller tip. But what I ended getting was extremely attentive service from 5 people. Yeah, I said 5. There were the two folks who filled up your water and cleared your used dishes. Then there was my server who had to visit me because the worst thing that could happen to a restaurant is having someone starve to death in there. The captain also visited me on multiple occasions to make sure I had ordered, check in on how things were, presenting me with the dessert menu, etc. Additionally the sommelier came by to help me pair wines with my courses and even poured it for me for each course. He actually came by at the end and almost poured me an extra glass by accident before I stopped him.
I really appreciated how they gave me the same level of service as everyone else, of course they probably knew that I was going to eat and drink more than my share. I probably ordered more stuff than the guy there with his college-aged son, I have a sneaking suspicion I tipped more too. But now on to the important stuff, what I ate:
First Course
Vegetable Bisque with Black Truffle Coulis
Wine: Woodward Canyon Riesling
Main Course
Butter Poached Alaskan Halibut: saffron and halibut fumet, "Parisenned" potatoes with shaved artichoke hearts, braised fennel and pea sprout salad
Wine: Chinon
Dessert
Coconut Tapioca Soup
Monkey King Jasmine Green Tea
At the end of the night I went out of my way to thank the sommelier for the great pairings and my server for the dessert recommendation after my first choice (the brioche bread pudding) was no longer available. Eating alone is always a little awkward, but they did their best to treat me like everyone else and because of that I left a little something extra for them to show my appreciation.
If you're ever in Walla Walla make sure you don't miss 26brix: http://www.twentysixbrix.com/
What Celebrity Do You Look Like?
Interesting site I just found. On http://www.myheritage.com you can run a face recognition tool to see what celebrity you look like. While trying to do this I realized I have no photos of myself, which is kind of weird. When I ran a picture of Bill Gates, it said he looked like...Bill Gates. But only 70% like himself.
Archive is working again...
It's been like two years since my archiving was working and I've finally gotten around to fixing it. Maybe this will motivate me to blog once again. Or, at the very least to post my playlist from my shows.
Monday, July 25, 2005
Closing Ceremonies and thanks
I didn't have much time to write a whole lot yesterday. It was a super hard day, much harder than any other Day 3 I've ever experienced. It was a shame too, because it would have been nice to be able to take our time to enjoy the people and scenery around us. But that didn't take away from the amazing experience of the three days. Yesterday saw my first cheerers in the three years I've done the 3-Day and I was excited to see them. Candice, Tricia, Katie, Kate, and Candice and Tricia's Mom were out at the first cheering station. They had LIANG spelled out on individual pieces of posterboard and each had t-shirts that read Team Liang on them, even Candice's little daughter Kate. Not too far past them was Kristen. She, of course, made an awesome sign that said Go Larry! Three years of three day! It was very sweet and she also met me at Cheering Station 2 at Sunset Hill Park.
From camp to the first stop I walked with this nice woman how was kind of hurting with a giant blister that took over the bottom of her foot. In addition to that she was having knee problems so she was going a little slow with a lot of people passing her. I wanted to make sure she got to Pit 1 okay and with some company. The first few miles can be the hardest because you're stiff and tired and you have so many miles in front of you. We had some great conversations and made it into the first stop without a problem. The rest of the day saw me hurrying to make up time and try to get in and out of pit stops before they closed. There was no way I was being swept. I had never been swept before and there was no way I would be on the third day. I really felt for some of the other walkers. I'm not the fastest but I can move when I need to and I was relatively injury free. I had caught up and passed a lot of walkers that had left camp way before I did and I still just made it. The spirit and resilience of those walkers was amazing though. I heard so many people say, "There is no way they're getting me on that bus. I've walked all the miles this weekend and I'm going to walk all of them today."
I wasn't feeling so great when I got to the holding area and closing ceremonies. I was feeling a little nauseas which isn't a good sign. It's usually a symptom of something more serious like dehydration, hyponutremia, or heat stroke. I made sure to keep drinking liquids (water and sports drink) and to eat because I was hungry too. That's what I get for deciding to skip food and refilling my water bottles at the Gas Works stop because I just didn't have time. The closing ceremonies were amazing as usual. I ran into some walkers that I had walked with in San Diego so we caught up and they introduced me to the survivors they were walking for. We then walked into the ceremonies, cheered on our fellow walkers, crew, and survivors. It was emotional for everyone.
My friends Missy and Jessie picked me up to give me a ride home since Kristen had rehearsal. When I got home I just crashed on my couch, called for some delivery Chinese food, and then fell asleep.
Thanks to all of you who have supported me in this walk. From the people that came out to cheer to those who send messages throughout the weekend to all of you who gave. I'm very grateful to have you with me in supporting this great cause. As the people involved in the 3-Day say, we walk because we believe and we're one step closer to a world without breast cancer.
From camp to the first stop I walked with this nice woman how was kind of hurting with a giant blister that took over the bottom of her foot. In addition to that she was having knee problems so she was going a little slow with a lot of people passing her. I wanted to make sure she got to Pit 1 okay and with some company. The first few miles can be the hardest because you're stiff and tired and you have so many miles in front of you. We had some great conversations and made it into the first stop without a problem. The rest of the day saw me hurrying to make up time and try to get in and out of pit stops before they closed. There was no way I was being swept. I had never been swept before and there was no way I would be on the third day. I really felt for some of the other walkers. I'm not the fastest but I can move when I need to and I was relatively injury free. I had caught up and passed a lot of walkers that had left camp way before I did and I still just made it. The spirit and resilience of those walkers was amazing though. I heard so many people say, "There is no way they're getting me on that bus. I've walked all the miles this weekend and I'm going to walk all of them today."
I wasn't feeling so great when I got to the holding area and closing ceremonies. I was feeling a little nauseas which isn't a good sign. It's usually a symptom of something more serious like dehydration, hyponutremia, or heat stroke. I made sure to keep drinking liquids (water and sports drink) and to eat because I was hungry too. That's what I get for deciding to skip food and refilling my water bottles at the Gas Works stop because I just didn't have time. The closing ceremonies were amazing as usual. I ran into some walkers that I had walked with in San Diego so we caught up and they introduced me to the survivors they were walking for. We then walked into the ceremonies, cheered on our fellow walkers, crew, and survivors. It was emotional for everyone.
My friends Missy and Jessie picked me up to give me a ride home since Kristen had rehearsal. When I got home I just crashed on my couch, called for some delivery Chinese food, and then fell asleep.
Thanks to all of you who have supported me in this walk. From the people that came out to cheer to those who send messages throughout the weekend to all of you who gave. I'm very grateful to have you with me in supporting this great cause. As the people involved in the 3-Day say, we walk because we believe and we're one step closer to a world without breast cancer.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Day 3 holding area
Today was harder than any other day 3. Lots of miles with less. I made it but i had to hustle.
Day 3
Another cold morning. Left knee and hip are pretty sore. Walking through ballard, fremont, and u district. Breakfast time.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Day 2 camp
We are camping at Shoreline community center and it is not great. Half the tents are on grass half on astroturf. My tent is on the astroturf. The worst part is that it is so far from the rest of camp. Plus i had to go back to get a tent. Not all the pieces were in the tent bag. The day was good but really long. My hips are pretty sore and i got a blister. Time for dinner, a shower, then bed.
Day 2 lunch
Funny how the lunches are the same every year. Sunny and warm today. They even have pb&j at the pitstops.
Day 2
I woke up at 430 this morning and trying to decide what to do. It got pretty cold overnight. I don't feel too bad. A little sore but ok. Today is supposed to be our longest day and the hilliest. Not too excited about that last part. I'd better get my gear together and have some breakfast.
Friday, July 22, 2005
The punchline of a joke
So i ended up not having one, but two tentmates. If 2 men can't fit in a tent i don't see how 3 would. Luckily meg switched me to my own tent. I've finished dinner and a shower is next. I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow.
Day 1: opening ceremonies
30 min from exit to park. Now it's raining. Opening ceremonies delayed because of traffic delays.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Thank you for all your support
Hi everyone!
It's Thursday night, just 8 hours until I head over to Lake Sammamish State
Park to start my third Breast Cancer 3-Day. I'm excited and nervous and I
keep feeling like I've forgotten something. My pack is, well, packed and
there's nothing left to do other than grab some sleep. It'll be nice to walk
in Seattle this year, but I will definitely miss San Diego. If you're in the
Seattle area and feel like coming out and cheering on some walkers here's a
list of cheering stations:
http://www.kintera.org/faf/home/ccp.asp?ievent=61814&ccp=45390
I don't know the exact route yet because they don't tell us the route for
each day until that morning. During the walk I'll be posting little updates
to my blog throughout the three days. Don't worry, I won't be blogging while
I walk just while I'm waiting in line for port-a-potties. You can check out
the blog here: http://www.butterheadproductions.com
Since you have been so critical in supporting me in this endeavor I figured
it'd only be right if you were the first ones to hear about a great event
that'll be coming up soon. I'm putting together a benefit concert for the
3-Day in late August. We have 5 artists signed up already and we're working
on a sixth. I'll make sure to keep you posted on all the details.
Well, I best be going to sleep now. Thanks again and I'll be thinking of you
all while I walk.
Take care,
Larry
Blogging from the 3-Day
It's the day before the 3-Day and i'm setting up blogging from my phone. So tune as i blog from the 3-Day.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
It's Been Too Long
So, it's been forever since I posted last. I'll be updating this blog with all the shows since my last post and make sure to be better about posting my shows.
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