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 | CCOP |
I joined the Castro Community on Patrol, an organization of volunteers who coordinate patrols through the Castro area in an effort to deter crime and educate people about safety in our community. I went through my first training session, which was a very eye-opening experience. In just three short hours, I had far more respect for our understaffed and overworked police force than before. We are here because the SFPD simply cannot respond to all crime happening in our district, and they are profoundly grateful for CCOP organizing these beat patrols.
My first patrol happens on the 30th, and by then I'll have all of the standard issue and equipment to join my 3 person team. After my first night, I'll explain much more about the team and how we conduct our operations. Quite a few organizations supplied the cash to make this community service a reality, including the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence! Thanks to them, we have radios, orange vests and shirts, flashlights, clipboards, and whistles.
If that doesn't sound like a big deal, it actually is, because there are approximately 120 of us! We are still too few in number, and we need to grow the volunteer service to well over 200. It's tough to find good volunteers and keep them, because after all we are exposing ourselves to risk by joining the patrols. I guess one can say that we're just flat-out crazy. Or maybe it is that some of us have chests that can deflect bullets. :winky:
If you live in the general vicinity and would like to join our beat patrols, send an email to me, or visit our website at www.castropatrol.org.
Lastly, click here for a Quicktime video about CCOP.
... and no, I won't be wearing my stormtrooper armor.
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(By Daniel Culveyhouse | No comments yet | comment here)
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 | One Rincon Hill South |
 | Millenium Tower |
- San Francisco developers have lost their marbles by building 58-story and 54-story buildings.
- San Francisco residents are stupid enough to buy a condo and live on a 58th floor.
- I have become a gym bunny again, losing the flubbery stuff and replacing it with the sinewy stuff.
- The Internet is evil, and it is half of my life.
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(By Daniel Culveyhouse | No comments yet | comment here)
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Suffusion
March 11th, 2007 at 10:06 PM (4128 reads)
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 | Hilary Hahn |
Here are the performances that have touched me in the past few months, each in a very different way:
December:
Erich Korngold: Violin Concerto performed by Hilary Hahn
Zoltan Kodály: Háry János Suite
February:
Robin Holloway: Fourth Concerto for Orchestra (world premiere)
Johannes Brahms: Violin Concerto performed by Christian Tetzlaff
Late February:
Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 performed by Olga Kern
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances
March:
John Adams: A Flowering Tree
Tonight:
Ludwig van Beethoven: Triple Concerto performed by the Eroica Trio
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 41 (Jupiter Symphony)
Find something pure in this world to suffuse your life with meaning, if you have not already. When tragedy strikes you, or when you must part with someone in your life, it is this one thing that can fill even the widest gaps. For me, it is classical music.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Sonata #5 in F Major, Op. 24:
II. Adagio molto espressivo
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(By Daniel Culveyhouse | No comments yet | comment here)
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 | Pigmobile |
I didn't get a chance to witness either, but there will be plenty more events that will grow my photo albums soon enough. And a few friends demand that some of this year's photo endeavors must include me as the subject. I said "Sure, let me lose this winter flubber first."
Back to the lunar eclipse. How many remember that beautiful night, in October 2004, when we last saw that beautiful orange-red veil over our little neighbor up in the sky? I certainly do, and I was holding hands with someone very special, gazing at it together, moonstruck. As I looked up at the moon tonight, a few hours before it eclipsed, I caught myself wondering if he would see this event tonight and recall our little moment in the past.
If you viewed it and photographed it, then by all means share your photos. Reflect upon the hope that it represents too, for our moon will be our savior sooner than you think— within our lifetimes. By scrutinizing all of our current sustainability problems as well as new ones that threaten our environment, you will most likely agree. The human population explosion on Earth is the single most grim prospect that this delicate planet faces, and there are simply not enough resources on a small planet like this to sustain such a human "infestation." We must proliferate elsewhere, which means we must become a spacefaring civilization. As most of us know, the first stop in our grand scheme of colonizing space is the moon.
 | Your Future Home |
Or is there? China's one-child policy is an attempt to solve its problem with overpopulation, though such a controversial initiative would never take form in Western countries. Its statistical result would be favorable for not only China but the entire world, but unfortunately the side-effects are too adverse to make this family planning policy useful. Add to this the fact that the policy has been tainted by reports of sterilization, forced abortions, and infanticide. In our own country, though AIDS became a disease that our government could attack head-on, it was the years of political blockades and inaction that turned it into a form of population control itself. Most other types of population control also fester with glaring human rights violations, such as sterilization, selective breeding, forced world wars, and worst of all... depopulation.
Don't laugh... there are actually depopulist movements happening right now, aimed at reducing human population to make our species sustainable on this planet for a longer period of time. They are not prominent groups of scientists, and they are very difficult to find and expose. These secret societies which are plotting to eugenically reduce our numbers will hopefully never be able to act upon their sinister ideas, but yet who is to label their efforts as destructive or immoral? From our point of view, killing 5 billion humans is a really shitty deal for us, but it's great for Mother Earth and gives her a second chance. If the scheme for our depopulation were to be a nuclear war and holocaust, then we lose nearly all of our population, but then nature also loses (for several hundred years anyway).
 | Name This Colony |
There's just no doubt that we need to get off this rock, and as I mentioned above, within your lifetime you will see a few of your friends head for the moon and planets, dutifully wishing them safe travels through space, and an exciting life as a pioneer on a new world. One of those friends will be me.
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(By Daniel Culveyhouse | No comments yet | comment here)
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