Chris Sacca's 'What is left?'

Vote With Your Stomachs

Some of you saw me, others of you no doubt heard me, hawking activist-baked goods on 3rd and King Streets yesterday before the Giants Dodgers game. That's right. As part of the nationwide Bake Sale For Democracy inspired by MoveOn.org, my friend Mario nudged a few of us into baking Cookies For Kerry to sell on the street corner across from the ballpark.

I am proud to say that the sale was a huge success netting over $500 for the good guys in just under two hours. Beyond that, the entire experience of pushing carbs on passers-by for partisan politics is not to be missed.

Important lessons learned:

1) Dodger fans are all a) Republicans b) on the Atkins diet or c) scared of 'hippie' kids selling cookies.
2) Women in fur-lined coats will most likely not buy a cookie to get Bush out of office.
3) Men smoking cigars and carrying a glass of scotch will, however.
4) Shame and guilt are legitimate selling tactics in a race with stakes this high.
5) Phillip Morris knows best - target the kids, early and often.

For those of you who missed our table, I have no more Condi Rice Krispie Treats for you. Nevertheless, be sure to drop by the Kerry campaign and do your part.

Haunting likeness

A potrait of W comprised of the faces of the U.S. men and women who have died in Iraq.

This picture is even more frustrating for me personally when I consider that I have never had enough source images to put together a photo-mosaic. But, I guess that is exactly the point.

Please vote this Fall.

Gmail defended by MSFT . . . what?!

Smiles were inevitable today when Gmail was surprisingly exonerated on Slate.com, a flagship MSN property. Paul Boutin's article (Read My Mail, Please - The silly privacy fears about Google's e-mail service.) made a lot of sense and properly contextualized the hype. That is, right up until his last paragraph about creating some new worldwide standard for email robots.txt. Whatever the case, worth reading about how we are not such bad guys after all.

Also worth checking out our latest explanation regarding Gmail privacy and what-not. Hopefully this will help quell some fears. People here care so deeply about doing the right thing.

An Automated Second Fiddle Selector

The Washington Post put together a vice presidential candidate screener that allows you to blindly pre-select an ideal Kerry running mate by choosing five from a list of criteria.

Wes Clark came up a 100% match for me though I doubt that he will be picked by the man. Nevertheless, I think that the tool is flawed since I am not able to choose "willing to emerge from top secret bunker and publicly engage the citizenry" as one of my primary criteria.

Traffic reporters? Start looking for work

A friend at work today showed me yet another stunning light app. Zipdash is a real-time traffic service that aggregates data from GPS enabled phones to paint a GUI of traffic flows across major thoroughfares. Wow factor of 6. Utility factor of 7.

... and thirty-five cents change.

Back in the days of the fabled Orion's Music in Park City, I was dialed into new music like a Time-Life operator, headset and all. Four soul-numbing peninsula-living years later I actually caught myself perusing Target's 'new releases' section for leads on good tunes. Thank god Serena and I pulled stakes for S.F. before I bought anything by Nickelback or Christina.

As a well-timed step in my continuing recovery from the brink of Top 40 abyss, my friend Minnie invited me along to a show at Cafe Du Nord starring Buck 65 accompanied by DJ Signify. Let me tell you, I have seen the musical promised land, and Buck 65 runs a truck stop along the way.

Half of the allure of enjoying a Buck 65 show lies in attempting to describe his music to those who missed it. He laces intelligent and witty spoken word delivered a la Tom Waits over cowboy melodies and sepia jazz riffs founded on deep hip-hop beats all scratched to perfection. The result is three relentless hours of head bobbing punctuated with laughter, surprise, reflection, and waves of creative inspiration.

I order you to purchase his album immediately.

Insert postal efficiency joke here

I recently received a certified letter and missed the postman's regular delivery hours as may be expected when one works 25 miles from one's home. Nevertheless, after two delivery attempts the Post Office retains the letter to be collected at its local branch at your convenience.

Their hours for the pick-up of such items?