Politics

I just posted an article on Facebook so I thought I'd put it up here too. What Makes People Vote Republican? This is a long winded exploration of those on the right from one on the left. Probably too boring except for political and psychological (and middle right) junkies like me.

Wonderful Taiwanese Cafe

I really like Half & Half, a Taiwanese cafe located on San Gabriel Blvd. and Las Tunas. Next time we hang out, I'm going to recommend we go there.

Vancouver

Back from a wonderful weekend wedding in Vancouver. Congratulations to Tim and Laura! It was quite a party and wonderfully heartfelt by all.

I am struck by Vancouver's beauty. Lush, clean, pleasant, and soothing. We really only experienced perfect weather. The people were especially friendly. One interesting thing was that we didn't see much of a bad element. Even the riff raff really weren't too bad. Maybe we just missed it but that sort of thing was noticeably absent. Maybe I've lived near downtown LA for too long.

Granville Island and the waterfront is pretty much a spitting image of everything we would love to do at the Port of LA. Even in the touristy areas, we found a complete gem of a store. I wish there was a Paper-Ya here.

We also went to Victoria. The ferry itself was worth the trip but Butchart Gardens. I wish I could have stayed there the entire week just to sit among the flowers and breathe in that air. I really must go back.

Mimetic Desire and Memetics

I've been getting the two mixed up.

Mimetic Desire is the idea that we want what other people want. From wikipedia:

We borrow our desires from others. Far from being autonomous, our desire for a certain object is always provoked by the desire of another person — the model — for this same object. This means that the relationship between the subject and the object is not direct: there is always a triangular relationship of subject, model, and object.

Memetics is similar but different. From what I understand, it is a theory on how ideas spread. Again, from wikipedia:

Memetics often takes concepts from the theory of evolution (especially population genetics) and applies them to human culture. Memetics also uses mathematical models to try to explain many very controversial subjects such as religion and political systems.

Now my head hurts and I'll go back to reading about Angels baseball.

Earthquake

There was some excitement in LA but the big shake up for me is the Angels trade for Mark Teixeira!

This is a good move for the team because it increases their chances for a World Series. Now my opinion is that one offensive player doesn't make a huge difference in baseball. The Angels already have one of the best teams and this makes them slightly better.

And of course, I have mixed feelings about seeing Casey Kotchman go. I suppose I'll just say that if the Angels do win this year, I hope he gets a World Series ring. Casey is as much a part of the team as Teixeira will be.

RSS Feeds

I just set up my Google Reader. So far it is just a manageable nine sites.

My overall happiness during this summer has been palpable. It is also apparent in my waistline. The countdown to school is 3 short weeks away.

Leftovers

I had a burger with a glass of wine for dinner tonight, much like I have the other two nights this week. The tasty morsels are leftovers from Sunday's party where a group of us watched The Dark Knight and had an after party at Cham manor. In an atypical role for me, I manned the grill on Sunday. I found flipping cheeseburgers to be quite satisfying.

Back to the present, tonight's wine is a pinot grigio from Pepperwood Grove. Many thanks to the Mugers for this Italian selection.

My Blog History

Hairy Years 1: 1/01 to 9/01
Hairy Years 2: 9/01 to 2/02
/mike: 7/03 to 1/05
/bloggone: 1/05 to 8/05
michael cham: 10/05 to 4/06
gin be jury: 4/06 to 8/07
orange fell: 7/08 to ???

Avg. length of time: 10.8 months
Most posts: 327 for /mike
My nostalgia scale (out of 10): 9.999

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