Personal Venting Rant About a Personal Issue

Right now, I'm caught in how some people will get all twisted up in their priorities and focus, and take one with them. I have a bit of a problem with myself in that, of course. As it stands, I did some work for someone who turned out not to be able to pay me yet; I know she's good for it, and will come through eventually, but... I'm kicking myself, because that's about 8 hours worth of labor, and by agreeing to do it on promise of pay (and this person has an issue with timeliness), I'm doing a disservice not only to myself, but to everyone who does labor for money in the community here - I become part of the problem with the person who more or less welches on pay.

Also, some people seem so intent on getting one "in the flock," as it were, but do not do the thing they need to do to get it done: namely, respecting certain secular things that maybe I take too seriously, as well as knowing that the - exclusively Christian? - Golden Rule is often always at play throughout the living, human world, this "vale of tears"...

Dunno, maybe I have "I don't respect myself enough," written all over me, and attract too much of the attentions of well meaning, deceptively malicious or deceptively gormless folk... (/RANT OVER.)

And now, for some pretty, random pictures of Northern California...

Save The Moronic, Legitimate, Market-Rate Residents of 26th and S. Van Ness!

I like how this petition's authors hope to gin up opposition to the opening of a homeless shelter by mentioning that it's to be in a "residential neighborhood" (virtually every neighborhood is -- except maybe most of the financial district) with "3 schools nearby," as though homelessness and children are mutually exclusive phenomena (and don't we love the dark implications inherent in the mention of homeless people and hoodlums in close enough proximity to each other?)

(Besides, the whole point of parents' raising their kids in the Mission is so that they can freak the fuck out when the fruit of their loins aren't home by the time BART closes; a body can still procure a decent brick of black tar for $5 a mere 10 blocks away if ever there's a real need for a fix; and the Eula's right up 16th, with suspicious staff hiding behind cages, and hardcore pornography playing in every bedbug-ridden room... Vive la difference!)

[ED NOTE: The Eula may no longer be in business, FYI...]

Original photography/artwork by William Way -- but loosey, goosey: feel free to snatch and pass around all you want; wouldn't mind credit if you can, tho'...

********

Dang!

Just heard the sad news, that the historic -- opened 1931, no lie! -- one-screen movie house in the city of Colusa has been closed as a cinema-screening theater (complete with an old-timey box office)  since March 6th. Colusa itself is long-storied and otherwise still thriving, as it has been since the 19th century along the Sacramento river (boats used to haul people to their second homes there from San Francisco, through the bay and up through the delta, long ago...) -- despite the fact that the I-5 has changed so much else of California over the past many decades it's existed.

I wish there was some way someone could help (yes, they are still available for private parties and such, but dang...) I just saw STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE (2016) there in December, right around the time one of my greatest faves Carrie Fisher passed...

********

I Haven't Baked A Cake Since 2006

But here it is:

Chocolate cake (from scratch!) using Ghirardelli chocolate, real Danish Creamery butter, and organic eggs from neighboring Rosita Ranch... The frosting is coconut pecan.

(My inspiration for this little pre-lunch project is Nadia Hussain: whatever the challenge, she puts her best foot forward; she has a fresh-faced, no-nonsense, kindly attitude; and she totally rocks that black code, always meaning business. Most important, from the first moment I saw Nadia interviewed on TV, I knew immediately that I could file her under, "Not An Evil Bint From Hell" -- Nigella...)

********