iran, i was tired

sorry for the lame joke in the headline.

I saw Peter Broukaert speak at the Ferry Building about Iran, and other atrocity-doing regimes in the world. Iranians from the Iranian American Bar Association showed up in numbers, so it was a nice, spirited crowd. Unfortunately lefties used most of the Q&A to ask about US politics, mainly. The speaker had a European accent, being born in Belgium. It made it all the more startling when he quoted political activists raped in Iranian prisons, who said their rapists told them something to the effect of "You can't even protect your own ass, so how can you save Iran?"

Broukaert warned of a "deal with the devil," whereby the US would turn a blind eye on internal Iranian human rights and political abuses in return for international regulation of their nuclear program.

Closer to home, he said certain Silicon Valley companies, without naming names, are very involved in the sophisticated Internet monitoring by governments in Asia, specifically Burma/Myanmar.
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On a lighter note, I watched Pi. The soundtrack was a nostalgia-inducing step back into the late 90s, with Orbital, Massive Attack, Autechre and other broken beat artists. The grainy B+W was fun, different, but the story was fairly run of the mill. Independent computer programmer resists the offers of money and religious celebrity, as well as female companionship, preferring to remain true to his pursuit of knowledge.
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Britt's still gone. Boo hoo. I should try to be nicer to people even though I'm heartbroken.
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Yesterday, I ran all over town, from West Portal to the Ferry Building, to Menlo Park. We saw Stanford whoop up on the Huskies in football. Dort scolded me for only scalping my extra ticket for $10 instead of $15. Le sigh. It was my dad's birthday so I think he appreciated our coming down. It's crazy to see an actual running game at the Farm. Go Card!

weekend update

• Hiked with Keith and Roz the Dog at Candlestick Point right after the 49ers game. Put out a fire some nitwit started by dumping his barbecue coals into the dry brush. Marveled at the ringing sound of a thousand empty bottles windswept across the littered parking lot.


• Went to 10-year high school reunion. The jocks predictably ruined the class photo with a boisterous "U-S-A!" chant. I thought "B-E-L-L-S Go Bells!" was good enough. On the upside, astronomer Shane Bussman clued me into UniverseToday.com as a possible improvement on Astronomy Picture of the Day.


• Sent my cousin off to college at Santa Barbara with fancy dinner at Los Altos Grill. For some reason there were several nats flying over our food the whole time.


• Talked to Britt, who's in Arkansas.


• Working on CV to send to the world

i awoke from a coma yesterday

Instead of lying on a bed, like most people, my coma activity consisted of playing live online Tetris and reading and studying the law.

last night, my non-coma activity climaxed with a visit to the SF Symphony's annual All Concert, a $10 show for people involved in civic groups in the city. The program was two waltzes, from Liszt and Ravel, then the popular theme from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel.

For the second act, guest pianist Ilya Yukushev pretty much ran the whole affair doing Prokofiev's second piano concerto.

We had awesome seats in the terrace above and to the side of the orchestra. I noticed new things, like the harpist covering his ears from the crashing cymbals behind him, the little plastic noise barriers to do the same, and MTT's little glances to the pianist before starting each movement, as if to ask permission.

OK, back to school.