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It’s not that I don’t have anything to say…

By on July 24, 2009
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It’s just that I’ve been saying it in places where I know people are listening. :-)

Here’s my article on Clean Technica about Walmart’s new sustainability index that carries the potential to basically make it impossible for their vendors to greenwash. I’m interested in seeing how this develops, especially since it will impact their competitors (who they’ve invited on board).

I am PISSED that I can’t just walk into fucking Target Greatland (more like Lameland now) and buy ALL my household cleaning products from Method. I used to be able to. Target basically put them on the map, and in a HUGE way. It was gorgeous, too. Instead of a hideous monotony of blandness, aisles packed with the same damn (I mean even the scent) jug o’ Tide, they had this rainbow of Method products. It was so rad. I want gorgeous products that are 110% good for the planet. That’s not too much to ask, because it EXISTS! Method is seriously the most eco AND most effective stuff out there. So why can’t I buy it at the same place where I can (finally!) choose from a decent selection of organic cotton or bamboo sheets? wtf? 

Yo Target- Don’t make me shop at Walmart. I’m tellin ya. get it together or I’m going straight mail order from indie online e-stores on everything.

Lagunaaaaaaa

By on July 10, 2009
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2009 is on the books. 4 days. 5 craaaazy nights. Rode down Wednesday night with the flu, George and I got in around the same time, had to dine at Dennys. But then, so did half of Dorna (MotoGP staff), so that was fun. But we felt bad for them, coming all the way from Europe and eating Denny’s. Thursday I did the Day of Stars event which raised money for Riders for Health an AWESOME charity. The event was fun and I made some really cool new friends, but the stars were kinda lite. You could just show up at the auction and get just as much out of it. The ride through the countryside was nice, first leg was too slow, second leg was just right. Got complimented by our police escort "You don’t ride like a girl" :-)  

Next we did a pit walk, but really only got to visit a garage. My visit was t Randy De Puniet’s garage. Sans the lovely Playboy model/racer. But his manager was cool, and showed us around. Then we had a stupid parade lap. I swore off parade laps once before, but this one was in a package deal, so I felt obligated. I also thought that since there were only 50 of us, we’d be able to play a bit. But noooo. They asked me and Danielle to (her POV here. We had very similar experiences this weekend:-) lead the ride, which was torture. Waaaay too slow. I am still in pain from having to go so slow on my favorite race track. Seriously, god is punishing me. While I lived in NC, there were millions of track days at Laguna. Now, there are none. OK, enough whining.

Friday we slept late, just spent a few hours at the track, but Friday night… Dinner at my favorite spot, then Cannery row, of course, then Britt got the call that the Dorna boys were at some pub downtown, so we met them there and danced the night away. There are pictures, but I’ve been instructed to keep them private. ;-)

Saturday, yes, more fun and excitement. Saw James Toseland perform (he’s really a great singer) and went out and did it all over again, this time at Doc Ricketts, which is a fab nightclub, but with too many ugly, surly men. The Mucky Duck (Friday) had too many fat women, so perhaps the two clubs could arrange some sort of exchange program, so all the beautiful people are in one club. That would be nice.

Sunday was cool, took my friend’s kids through the paddock and introduced them to some racers, then test rode the Zero S, which was rad. More about that here, on Gas 2.0 (see, I’ve been blogging, just not here) Then watched the GP race from the corkscrew, which was fun. Then back to the paddock for more socializing and stalking. Somehow, I’m over my Rossi obsession. I still love and adore him, but I don’t go crazy like I used to. Instead, I sent someone’s 5 year old kid after him. I saw him roll by in a golf cart, and told the kid to run after him. Apparently, you’re not supposed to send critters that young off into a busy, crowded paddock. Dad got annoyed and I helped reel the poor kid back in. But it was fun to watch him take off.

As a matter of fact, I didn’t even notice when Rossi walked right past me in a huff at the Bluefin. All I noticed was practically every umbrella girl from the GP grid hightailin’ it for the elevator. Whatev. I had plenty of other men to talk to. It’s unfortunate that Red Bull didn’t throw a party this year, because the Bluefin sucked ass. They had some psycho fresh from Iraq talking about how he wished he had his M16, he’d mow us all down, working the front door. Apparently the excessive amount of pool tables means they have a ridiculously low max capacity, so the place was empty and they weren’t letting anyone in. Even GP VIPs, until this awesome chick let us all in. She must have been one of the promoters.Once inside, the bar was an eternal wait (except for George, he’s from NYC) and well, it just didn’t even come close to the Red Bull party. There’s something to be said for all the party filler they used to bring up from LA. I sure hope Red Bull gets back on it next year. And gives me a pass. :-)

All in all, it was such a great weekend it took me a couple days to get back into the swing of things. I didn’t even want to be at my rad job that I love for the first couple days back. I just wanted to be at the track with my peeps. But now I’m back in the present and it’s good. Except now it’s 12:30 and I seriously need to go to sleep.

forever. too busy livin’ it…

By on July 9, 2009
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but had to write about this. yes, I should first write about how awesome MotoGP was this year, but that can wait. I just went to the absolute coolest, funnest book launch party ever. Adam Werbach, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S, hosted a party at their world HQ here in SF, and I managed to wrangle me an invite. It was to celebrate the launch of his new book, Strategies for Sustainability. The evening went as follows:

6:00 pm Party starts with a special treat: Warren Hellman plays a couple of bluegrass songs and talks about the history of financial conmen.

Awesome guy, just put together a fascinating website which chronicles the exploits of convicted conmen (and women, but he said he’s had a hard time unearthing any, that either they don’t get caught, or just don’t get involved). http://www.thehallofinfamy.org/ Although I missed the bluegrass part.

7:00 pm "Cleanfest" — David Steuer (Saatchi S) in conversation with Adam Lowry (method), Jessica Buttimer (Clorox Green Works) and Michael Green (Center for Environmental Health).

Oh, Adam…words cannot describe the beauty that is Adam Lowry. Not only is he a genius chemist, he is also out to save us from our toxic cleaning chemicals. And in doing so has dragged the rest of the industry along with him. Which actually kinda pisses me off, cuz he’s lost a ton of shelf space at Target to his competitors. Especially upsetting because Method products are FAR superior in every way to everything else on the market. Better for the planet AND works better AND looks better? What more could a girl want? Oh, and he’s drop dead gorgeous. Too bad about the wife and kid…

7:45 pm I’ll share a few words and premiere The Profitron 3,000 (a two minute infomercial tribute to Billy Mays by creatives at Saatchi NY).

Excellent ad, very funny. no idea if it’s available on the internet.

8:00 pm "Bottom Up/Top Down Change" — Greg Dalton from Commonwealth Club in conversation with Nancy McFadden (PG&E), Michael Shellenberger (Breakthrough) and Dave Douglas (Sun).

8:30 pm "Mainstreaming Sustainability" — Joel Makower of Greenbiz.com in conversation with Steve Bishop (IDEO), Jeff Mendelsohn (New Leaf Paper) and Cari Jacobs (Saatchi S).

I was busy schmoozing by this point, so I missed both of those. But I did manage to get involved in the next bit, even testing my supposedly off the charts rythm memory by doing a bit of drumming with the band. They were nice enough to change rythm with me as I am in no way consistent. :-)

9:00 pm Obafemi Origunwa (Saatchi S) interactive drumming on the topic of cultural sustainability.

9:30 pm Fire Dancers outside on York Street.

The perfect way to end any party! Get everyone out into the street for something incredibly cool (pix & vid coming…) and then send us home content in the knowledge that we truly live in one of the greatest cities in the world. SaatchiS rocks for giving us one of those truly San Francisco experiences.

What I learned this weekend

By on June 21, 2009
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I know HTML! ;-)

Yes, it’s true…

 I am more interested in learning marketable, world changing skills

than learning about

 the sort of things

 they teach at

 Esalen.

:-) Stay tuned for text manipulation… :-)

Pride in my City

By on June 13, 2009
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Pride in my City, originally uploaded by pinkyracer.

I learned many things in business school, and today I’d like to talk about what I learned while living in Chapel Hill. Being from San Francisco, even from San Mateo, the dull suburb where I’m actually from, I grew up knowing that San Francisco was some amazing place that everyone loves and wants to live in. I took it for granted, but was also completely prejudiced against all small towns and all the blank space between California and New York City. I have since learned that there are some notable and interesting places between those two points, but I also learned that I still don’t want to live in a small town.

What I came to realize was really missing from Chapel Thrill and environs, was a gay district. I decided that having a gay district automatically rockets a city solidly into coolness. Even if I never set foot in that district, I need to have friends who do. I need to work with people who do. I need gay people in my life because they are so freakin’ awesome. I need to be in a city where it is beyond OK to be gay. Where it’s so ok, even straight guys pretend they’re gay. Which is weird, kinda like being whiggers, but whatever.

See, you won’t find such behavior in Chapel Thrill. Not even in Carrboro, really. Sure, there are LGBT folk there, but they don’t have a Place. A place that can serve as an anchor. Which makes for a rather dull and dismal town, if you ask me. And no, Open Eye café does not count as a gay district, I don’t care how small the town is. Yes, I am neglecting to discuss my lesbian friends, who are often neglected in these discussions. But what’s interesting, is that I really don’t see nearly as much discrimination against lesbians as I do against the rest of the acronym. Homosexual men get beaten to death, while women get immortalized in a million porn videos.

Growing up here, I never knew what those rainbow flags meant, I just thought they were a popular decorative object. I stopped at Castro & Market to take these pictures, as I’ve never noticed this ginormous flag before, and it means so much more to me now, between living in a small town in the south for 1.5 years, and watching Milk. There was nothing better than Castro and Market on Halloween, except maybe the West Village or West Hollywood… I wish we didn’t have so many small minded people living in this state, then my gay friends could have the same rights my straight friends enjoy.

Gay pride week is June 20-28. Regardless of your orientation or identity, be proud that you live in a country where people are (finally, after centuries of struggle and hardship) able to be true to themselves, at least in cities like San Francisco. http://www.sfpride.org/

line dry

By on June 12, 2009
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line dry, originally uploaded by pinkyracer.

what have I been up to? Well, doing what I did best as a child. Degrading the property value of my parent’s home. ;-) Today was very productive, not only did I actually apply for a job or two, I straightened up around the house, and installed this clothesline. And did the laundry to hang on it. I was calling it “The Clothesline Experiment” and then I recalled that I’m an old hand at line drying. Although, for Baywood, where the average home price is safely over 6 figures, it was certainly unusual.

Why, in Barcelona, that’s all anybody did, unless they wanted to pay 4 euros for the (American) dryer in the laundromat. And instead of nice, expansive backyards to hang their clothes in, everyone had a rack hanging out the window. Sometimes on windy days, peoples clothes would blow onto my patio. I never knew quite what to do with them, and put them all in the hall, in case they came from someone in my building.

I never thought it would happen, but I’m actually homesick for Raval. Shitty neighborhood, but I do miss the city life. Even though I’ve been in San Francisco pretty much every evening since I arrived, it’s still not enough.

So none of my clothes blew off, because I used plenty of clothespins. Tried the old-school ones, that are pure wood, no hinges, and discovered they can leave splinters, so the delicate clothes got the little curtain clips I bought for no good reason at IKEA in Barcelona. Which work great for this purpose.

Anyway, I was partly trying to conserve energy, partly trying to prevent undue wear on my clothes. My parents have a rather old washer and dryer, so they are a bit rough on the clothes. But I wussed out and did some things in the dryer, the things I knew would be better off there. So I technically did not save any energy. If anything, I wasted some, since the dryer wasn’t full. Yes, this is one green strategy that should be all or nothing.

I think I’ll talk dad into buying a Bosch energy star washer & dryer. Or whatever equivalent they sell at Costco, the store that can sell him ANYTHING.

It was a good experience for Valentino as well. I finally let him come outside for a minute. After so many years of me acting like the world was about to end every time he so much as looked at an open door or window, he was terrified, and ventured out very cautiously. Poor guy. I think it’s time we got him a chip n collar so he can go play in the grass like a real cat.

Eyes on the prize…

By on June 1, 2009
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The past week has been such a blur, I can’t even recall if I blogged about this. Don’t think so, and due to the pinheads who control our access to the interwebs, I can’t check right now. But I’m pretty sure my last post was about riding in Texas. Which was awesome, especially when I scoffed at the Tesla guy at the Maker faire. He told me the top speed was a measly 125mph, I scoffed and he asked “when’s the last time you went over 125?” I had trouble remembering what day of the week it had been, and was clearly struggling to recall. So he said “Tuesday?” and I was like “yes, I think it was Tuesday, it must have been since I drove from Marfa, tx to Indio, California on Wednesday.” ;-)

So the prize. The prize is a pearl white Ducati 848, because I am no longer a size queen, and am interested in more rational types of motorcycles. Unfortunately, no pix with this one, but I will attempt to give this sexy beast justice with mere words. Not only is she drop-dead gorgeous, with a (termignoni-assisted) voice that rumbles to the very depths of my soul, making me want to do whatever it takes to ensure she’s got a lifetime supply of sweet crude… She’s also tons of fun. I dropped by Ducati Beverly hills to say hi to my friends, and they immediately escorted me out the door onto their demo model. Well. The 848 was ecstatic everywhere, lanesplitting up la cienega, posing on sunset plaza, racing the fancy cars down sunset to Beverly glen, crawling up Beverly glen with rush hour traffic, even sitting at an interminable red light. The heat dissipates almost entirely to the crotch, so it’s a great bike for guys who want to be extra sure they’re not getting any surprise babies. Which is better than the R1, which literally cooks my legs.

The only problem was mulholland, where her excessively stiff factory setup made the endless bumps unbearable. But hey, that’s a $20 fix at the first track day.

So I’m a bit behind here, that was Thursday and since then I’ve driven to San francisco, gone to the maker faire, and am 2 days into the conference that may very well lead to the job that will enable me to run right out and buy this sexy beast. But don’t tell my R1 that. She did a great job getting me here, we had soo much fun. And she’s so good to me, even though I ignored the tow away zone sign and left her on the street in LA. It was bad enough to leave her on the mean streets of downtown LA all night, but then to subject her to the indignity of being schlepped to the pound for my mistake… Poor baby, I left a Ducati for her, and now it’s looking like I’m about to leave her for a Ducati.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

aaaaahhhhhhhh

By on May 26, 2009
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my precious baby, originally uploaded by pinkyracer.

feels soooo good to get out and stretch my baby’s legs! Big Bend, TX is the perfect place to blow out the cobwebs on an R1, that’s for sure. Soft sweepers and big long straights and nobody around for miles. I thought about going into Mexico, even stopped at the border and asked if it was a good idea. The cop couldn’t tell me whether to go or not, but did choose to mention the day’s murder rate as an indicator. It was 1 today and 1 yesterday. Probably a tad higher (per capita) than LA. So I said “Is that due to the drug war we keep hearing about?” and he gave a very professionally noncommittal answer that suggested I was jumping to the right conclusion. So I turned around and headed into Big Bend park, thinking I’d do this fun little loop I saw on the map. Yeah. Like they do anything little in Texas…

That little loop is 231 miles, so instead I went back the way I came which was only 158 miles.
So I got a little ways into the park and realized I’d probably run out of gas long before I came upon a gas station. I pulled out my trusty iphone to consult google maps, to see if perhaps for some strange reason they had a gas station in this national park. When I saw that I had no signal, I knew the prudent thing would be to turn around and get some gas in Presidio, then enjoy the northbound route of the same road I’d taken. I hate to retrace my steps, but my complete lack of planning necessitated it. It was a better idea anyway, as I was able to completely avoid the thunderstorm brewing in the east. It was fun going through the double-check border station just outside of Marfa. I stopped, and the guard asked me “Ma’am, are you a US Citizen?” Since I look about as Mexican as Cameron Diaz, they took my “yeahhhh” at face value. :-)

travel tales

By on May 25, 2009
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remind me never to drink an entire bottle of water with dinner. ouch. but it was such delicious water, and I was so very thirsty after driving from Dallas to Marfa. So I’m a bit behind here. It’s been a whirlwind of traveling, with nothing terribly interesting to report. Except what happened yesterday. Nervous about the long and lonely drive ahead, I did my best to prepare. I actually meditated Sunday morning, which was lovely and must happen more often. It’s likely to, now that I’ve also realized I’m ready to more actively pursue my interest in Buddhism.

So, I then stopped at the awesome food coop across from the Vortex in Little Five Points (We’re in Atlanta now, do try to keep up) and loaded up on all the agave-sweetened chocolate they had (so why the chocolate souffle at the restaurant tonight???). So I’m ready for a day of my absolute least favorite activity- driving a car in the USA, particularly in the South, where everyone just wants to mosey along enjoying the scenery. Well, imagine my delight when I spy a group of hitchikers with a very slick sign proclaiming "Dallas" only an hour outside Atlanta. I was like "Wait a minute…. I’m going to Dallas, too…!" They looked like harmless hippie kids so I safely pulled over about a mile down the road and walked back to let them know they had a ride (OK, not that far, but walking along the highway sure made it feel like a long way). They met me halfway and Aaron told me they were returning home after competing in the great hitchiking race.

My intuition told me they were legit, so they piled in and I continued to drive at first, to better get acquainted with my new chauffeurs before putting them to work. Soon after, I felt comfortable enough putting them in control and did not drive again until I dropped Pinkston off in Dallas the next morning. Aaron’s mom put us all up for the night in Van. A town named Van, not the vehicle. She lives next to some farm animals and an oil rig. Which remind me of the negotiations assignment where I was supposed to be representing an oil company that wanted to buy someone’s land without paying them what it could be worth. Judging by the quality of the homes in the area, nobody was getting cut into this deal. As a representative of the fictitious oil company, I could not lie or even withhold the truth, and let slip that we suspected there was something of value, so wound up giving the seller 10% of whatever we happened to sell that came out of the ground. Which was still below the max $ amount I was allowed to give up, as long as I didn’t give him 10% in perpetuity. I suspect the oil company that bought this patch of land had a much slicker negotiator on their staff.

In any case, the hitchikers were good kids, Emily is working on a master’s in geology, Pinkston is finishing his BA in film, and Aaron has a degree in communication and persuasion, which I’m sure is what’s facilitated his career as a professional hitchiker. I gave them my cards and told them to stay in touch. Then I drove to Marfa without incident. I love driving across Texas. The speed limit is 80 and there’s no traffic.

a proper trash can

By on May 14, 2009
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a proper trash can, originally uploaded by pinkyracer.

Now tell me honestly- If it was THIS easy, would you still throw your
recyclables in with your trash??? While the color coded bags might be meaningless to most people, there are little icons of what goes where, and one can peek into the bag to see what has gone before.

Should all trash cans, particularly in public places, be like this? What could be done to improve this design?


This one seems more obvious, with the shaped openings and color photos, but it’s overwhelming and quite hideous. If you’re going for any kind of ambiance other than “trash sorter” it misses the mark. But does it contain lessons for the first model? The first one was in the train station in Bilbao, the second one was sighted at the Barcelona airport.

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