When Homeless People Rise Up
I see a great unwashed, belligerent wave of undirected apathy, the stink of stale urine, crusty faces and beards, the rattle of shopping carts, the rustle of the ubiquitous plastic trash bags, the gaps in teeth, the gnarled look of living the elements, a littered mess of empty paper bags with bottles and cans of cheap malt liquor in them.

Quick side: if there's any stronger argument I can think of for not drinking malt liquor beer, its that its generally the choice of drunks. So unless you aspire to be a wino or beero in this case, then maybe stick with the regular beers and leave the St. Ide's crap to the bottom rung. Which, by the way, is made by Pabst who also happens to make a whole bunch of other low budget forget-me-now beer products. Heavy alcohol, malted liquor gets you and them drunk quicker.

Anyway, I guess I'm on a minor rant this morning because, as I pedaled my bicycle to my place of work where I earn my living, I was pedaling on the sidewalk waiting for a good time to bust across the street and ride down normally but traffic was heavy momentarily. So I'm pedaling along, making sure to not obstruct anyone (there was no one on the sidewalk at that point anyway) and I saw two homeless people up ahead.

It wouldn't bother me at all except for the fact that I made sure, absolutely sure to not come near either of them. Honestly, who would want to in any case? Anyway, this forty something homeless puke, smelling like a dumpster, looking like he'd only heard people talk about baths and his "lady", an older, more or less toothless vacuous waste of space were ahead on the sidewalk. He was sitting on a bench outside a restaurant that wasn't open (or they'd have told him to piss off and get the hell away from there) and she was standing in front of him, blocking the sidewalk mostly. I rode my bike by them on the narrow little six inch ribbon of concrete curb, didn't come near her, didn't come near him, held my breath as I went by. And the homeless guy had the fucking audacity to tell me to get my "Goddamned bike off the sidewalk." Whereas I shouted back at him, before I'd even realized I'd opened my mouth, "Oh relax, you jackass," and kept on pedaling as I was not interested in any sort of contact, either verbal or physical with either of them. I'd just showered and was on my way to work. Besides, what possible good could come from any interaction with either of them? None, I'd just smell bad and feel bad for kicking the shit out of someone who's last good meal had to be counted off on fingers.

I suppose the bleeding heart side of me should feel bad for them but you know what? I don't and won't. People who are down on their luck in this town CAN get a hand up, they CAN get their stupid, dirty asses out of the gutter and live a life that doesn't make people cringe when they see them coming. This is one of those towns with all kinds of programs to help people get up but these two wastes of space were just happy wallowing in the muck like two legged pigs.

So, an otherwise nice, albeit windy, ride into work was derailed by a filthy idiot. But its Monday, its sunny out, the day's looking good from here on out and I'm excited at another week of work. Wednesday is the anniversary of my first year with the company which should mean that there's a raise in the offing and mo' money is always mo' better.

The house is coming together nicely, its still a mess with things everywhere but we're making headway and that's the good part. Clothes are pretty well put away and that means there's space to start working on other boxes. We still love our juicer and spent a portion of Saturday down in Watsonville hitting fruit stands for goodies to feed to the spinning blades of the juicer. Among the best juices we've made so far: blood oranges, navel oranges, pineapple and plum juice; orange, pineapple, apple; straight fuji apple juice (cold or heated up with some cinnamon is amazing) and strawberry, grape and orange juice. Its a pretty cool machine that's already given rise to a new idea for a healthy bar where all the cocktails are made with freshly juiced juices. Imagine how much better a screwdriver would be if the juice had been made a minute before you drink it. Damned amazing!

Cool Web Tech/Creepy Enemy-of-the-State News
As can happen, the line between cool new tech and privacy issues is a fine one. Especially after having caught a few minutes of the movie last night on TBS. But hey, its still cool. Check out a satellite picture of downtown Santa Cruz from Acme Mapper. Or pull back and get a look at it all from waaaaaay higher up. Now, when they start being able to really do the chase scenes with satellites then I'll start to get really concerned. But for now I'll just dig on the cool stuff and try not to think about the ulterior uses for the technology.