Not too long ago, a friend sent out this article on luck. It’s a pretty awesome read. Basically, it says that luck can be learned. Dr. Richard Wiseman’s research reveals that lucky people generate good fortune via four basic principles:

* Creating and noticing chance opportunities.
* Making lucky decisions by listening to intuition.
* Creating self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations.
* Adopting a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.

I totally agree. It’s a matter of perspective. Rather than playing the victim when something happens, one should take things into their own hands. LIVE, rather than let life happen to you. His research is actually pretty interesting, so read the article! But in case you don’t, it ends with three techniques that can help to maximize one’s fortune:

* Unlucky people often fail to follow their intuition when making a choice, whereas lucky people tend to respect hunches. Lucky people are interested in how they both think and feel about the various options, rather than simply looking at the rational side of the situation.

* Unlucky people tend to be creatures of routine. They tend to take the same route to and from work and talk to the same types of people at parties. In contrast, many lucky people try to introduce variety into their lives. For example, one person described how he thought of a color before arriving at a party and then introduced himself to people wearing that color. This kind of behavior boosts the likelihood of chance opportunities by introducing variety.

* Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill fortune. They imagine how things could have been worse.

This is the living room that made me fall in love with this house. Seriously, the large sunny window and spacious living area [which is now FULL of stuff] made this house one to remember on my house hunting spree.

Tonight’s the first REAL night in the new house. We have stopped in every day to move stuff in, tear things out, or put stuff up. It’s an amazing learning experience – I found out that you can use a Lowes coupon at Home Depot and vice versa. SUPER USEFUL, considering we’ve made more trips to Home Depot and Lowes than I’ve ever made, and honestly, I’m sick of it.

We got an amazing deal on back splash tile, and we’re going to pick up some nice discounted floor tiles soon too. While I wanted to go for the bamboo floors, it was more than three times the price. This isn’t my dream home, so I don’t need to spend outrageous amounts on the floor. On my off day [thankfully granted by my supportive company], when I should be relaxing at home, I’ll be wading through cabinet styles and granite countertops while waiting for updates on potential appointments at the oral surgeon’s office. Surprisingly, the work we’re getting done will cost significantly less than originally estimated. We tell people we’re on a budget, but basically, the lowest possible $ amount is our budget.

All of RV’s stuff has been moved in. He’s got a lot, and we need to organize and throw stuff out. Mine will be slowly trickling in over the next few weeks. It’s funny how you can fill up an entire house with just a bedroom and a studio apartment as the starting point. MUST minimize! Even though the house is right off the freeway, the sounds are constant enough not to be noticed once asleep. It’s barely noticeable when you’re in the living room at the front of the house, and the doors to the bedrooms are shut.

Enjoying it so far. I’ll love it more when I’m all moved in, and everything is orderly and in its proper place. I’ll love it more when friends come over and celebrate!

On July 11, 2009 [Saturday], a bunch of us are throwing a BBQ at Lake Merced to benefit the SF Food Bank. We’re calling it “PigEat Fest – Eugeapalooza IV: A New Hope.” We = a group of people who met through Yelp.com, you know, that site for writing reviews of restaurants. What can I say? We love to eat, or maybe I should say, “We live to eat.” In the past, it’s always been just a group of our friends getting together, enjoying food, and raising money for the food bank. We’re trying to make it bigger this year, so the invitation is open to all!

In addition to the normal goodies, Clark Summit Farm in Tomales, CA has provided one of their heritage breed, livin’-the-good-life, and seriously tasty pigs for the festivities!

Remember, for every $1 donated to the SF Food Bank, $9 of food is distributed! From our last three events, we’ve raised about $9K, which is $81K in food. That’s a lot, but we can do better.

Tickets will be $20 until July 6th, and $30 from then to the day of. For information on how to purchase tickets, visit the Facebook Event page, the Yelp Event page, or email pigeatfest @ gmail. Also all those interested in volunteering should contact us through that same email address!

Hope you can make it! If not, feel free to donate to the SF Food Bank anyway and spread the word! I’ll attach our logo as soon as RV gets to designing it.

For those retweeting on Twitter, please use #pigeatfest!

Another year, another WordCamp. Once again, I was a volunteer. Woke up early on a Saturday morning to sign volunteers and Automatticians in. I think the day went well overall. I knew more people this year than last, which was very nice. Similar to last year, only some of the talks were relevant to me.

I think there were many [myself included] who wished that there were at least two-sentence descriptions on what the talks would be about. You’d find yourself in one spot because of an interesting title, and then five or ten minutes in, you wish you’d been at the other talk instead. Luckily, all the sessions will be made available on Wordpress.tv! So if you missed WordCamp, didn’t take enough notes, or were hanging out at the wrong session, no worries. I can’t wait to watch some of the early sessions that I missed while registering the volunteers.

Sadly, I couldn’t make it to the Automattic anniversary party in the evening. But it wasn’t without a very good reason. We went to Asian Rock Fest instead, where Festizio [below - middle], Johnny Hi-Fi [below - right], United High [below - left], and Burning Tree Project [above - left] tore it up. It was great!

More iPhone-quality photos from the concert: here!

On Wednesday evening, I had the opportunity to attend an early screening of Robert Kenner’s Food, Inc. [Thanks, Yelp!] in downtown SF, followed by a Q&A session with Kenner and Michael Pollan, author and activist. It was definitely an eye-opener and a reminder that we are what we eat. The film exposed the food industry for what it is, how it got that way, and we’re going to have to do to fix the problems. A handful of corporations control the food supply, basically giving up maintaining the health of consumers, safety of workers, as well as the environment, for money.

One of the featured stories of the film details the struggles of one mother while fighting for regulatory agencies to have more power and involvement in oversight of the various meat producers after her two-year-old fell victim to E. Coli. Another focused on genetically modified seeds, and the harm caused when all a corporation focused on was making money and taking over the market share. This not only wiped out any chance of a seed that wasn’t genetically modified, but it put people who relied on the processes required for maintaining seeds out of jobs.

To say the least, the film is graphic. Animals are slaughtered on screen. It’s not recommended for those who cannot stomach it. Food, Inc. is very informative and doesn’t end in a bitter note. In fact, there are easy ways for making steps in the right direction when it comes to food. They list ten simple ways [click for more details!] to change the food system.

1) Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages. [Yup, I don't do this much anyway.]
2) Eat at home instead of eating out. [Guess I'm learning to cook!]
3) Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards. [A given, really! What do they have to hide unless they don't know either?]
4) Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks. [Many school districts have done this.]
5) Meatless Mondays—Go without meat one day a week. [Isn't that Friday for some?]
6) Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides. [I think true organic is hard to find, but we can try.]
7) Protect family farms; visit your local farmer’s market. [Yes, luckily there are a ton of farmers' markets in San Francisco.]
8) Make a point to know where your food comes from—READ LABELS. [It's surprising what you will find.]
9) Tell Congress that food safety is important to you. [Clearly, not enough is being done.]
10) Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections. [Absolutely!]

Highly recommended film. The movie is a pretty general picture, touching on a lot of different areas. Ignorance isn’t bliss. It’s your life!

So now I have more to add to the reading list: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, and Fast Food Nation. There are others! Yes, I know that I should have picked those up long ago.

#140conf (aka “140 Characters Conference”) brought to you by Jeff Pulver will be taking place in NYC on June 16-17. It’s the place to be for those passionate about Twitter and its role in business, communications, EVERYTHING. The cast of characters [some presenting, others just making an appearance] consists of many big names in the Twitterverse and across social media. It’s not to be missed [if you can help it]!

And fortunately for those who are currently experiencing financial constraints and cannot justify the costs of attending, there are thirty scholarships that Jeff is making available. Details about the #140conf Scholarship here. I am applying for one of them, as are a few others I know, so hopefully we’ll be able to attend!

From V-Day.org:
V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery.

The other day I was doing a search of YouTube videos from friends and came across a recording of my Vagina Monologues performance several years back. It’s one of my friend’s private videos, so I can’t really link it here. But it served as a reminder. There are so many women out there subject to violence. Totally unnecessary and very sad.

The most touching part of the performance was at the end when the director came out and asked for anyone in the auditorium who had either been raped or knew someone who was raped to stand up.

So many stood up…

Wow. Just wow. In one day, I find out that two people [+ their spouses] from school [one high school, one college] are becoming parents! It’s pretty crazy, and at times, I feel left behind in the dust. At the same time, I know that I’m where I need to be. There isn’t room in my life for anything like that, at least not for the time being. I’m happy for them, but wow.

Spent the morning and afternoon studying. Alex and Jen were out with Alex’s parents again. For dinner, I drove up to the Valley to catch up with Jeshii. We wanted to try this vegan Vietnamese place, but it was closed by the time I got there. Oops. Instead, we ended up getting Mexican food. I, of course, am totally messing up my “no dairy” diet. Frustrating, but I am definitely more conscious of it now. I DO eat a lot of cheese when I eat out because it makes everything taste better. Now I realize that. After catching up over dinner, we headed over to a friend’s “girlfriend’s” graduation party. Nothing too eventful, and so I headed back to Hollywood after a couple hours.

The funny part was that when I learned of the high school friend’s pregnancy, I totally thought in the back of my mind about the college friend. He’s the only one of my immediate circle back in college that got married, so when he asked me if I wanted to hear the news, I was not surprised one bit. It’s weird how that works out.

Yes, that’s a photo of meat on clothes pins.

California Court Strikes Down Gay Marriage! I’ve been so self-absorbed these days that I didn’t even know about this until today. Two days later. How exciting! My thoughts on all this: A person in love is a person in love. Let them get married if they want to. And what took California so long?

Just saw this: Thousands Dead in China Quake. 7.8 magnitude – that’s about how bad the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was. The epicenter of the earthquake was about 57 miles from Chengdu, Sichuan’s capital, which is a city that was part of my China trip several years ago. From what I remember, the buildings were definitely not earthquake-ready. There are teenagers trapped in a collapsed school. :/

Lots of updates here: Shanghaiist. Totally random and odd, there’s a photo and note on that page about TONS of toads escaping onto the streets of Taizhou in Jiangsu province.

The parents just came home from a 2-week trip to China. They arrived home two days ago. While they were not in the Sichuan or Jiangsu region, there are reports that the earthquake was felt even in Beijing.