angryf's blog

Thanks to all that made it to what I think was the most successful Art @ Deva so far last Friday night.

It was packed and if you were there or wanted to be or are just curious then click on the image to get a slideshow of my pics from the night.

Artists Nick Brown and Shanon Antus did a amazing job!

while Musical Stylings of Sapo Sueno was awesome!

thanks again!

make sure you come next time for artist Tawny Holt and music TBA

I road though drycreek last night at midnight.. it was frigging SCARY.

Seriously... I wanted to go see some friends near Morris and Mchenry so the fastest way was to ride through the park to cut over to Coffee (and avoide the bike gauntlet around Lincoln Center).

Let me tell you there isn't much light down there and a LOT of people live in the bushes as evident by all the little shanty's, sleeping bags and bum homes I see when I ride during the day.

So I dropped down into the park near the pump station as close as i could to the bridge that goes over to Coffee Rd. Well you still have to ride about 500-600 yards east to get to that bridge. There are NO lights after the pump station (not even to mark the bridge) and I luckily have my mandated headlight that actually puts out a decent beam but man I road my butt off to get the heck out of there.

I think my apprehension was increased thanks to a story that my friends told about cutting through Moose park the other night to go out (on bikes). One of them had trouble with the gears on her bike so she got off to push it up the hill. Well as soon as they slowed cat calls and jeers came from the bushes around them.

"Bike RIDERS!!!"

"CHICKS ON BIKES!!!"

...and a variety of other of very inappropriate yells, taunts, and propositions.

So I took a chance doing the ride last night... I did not go that way home later (around 2am).

So anyone else have experiences of relative unease, comfortablenesses or terror dealing with supposed everyday situations here in our fine city?

Art/ Nick Brown and Shannon Antus
Reception
Friday June 22nd 7pm till 11pm
1202 J st, Modesto CA 95354
Music by Sapo Sueno

So is it just me or has the Modesto Bee decided to just let this die again... I went to the meeting with the Editors and various contributers and well things have changed since and they may have gotten a little better but...

• Still no Advertisement of Modesto Famous in the Printed ModestoBee
• No perceived effort to get new guest bloggers of note (maybe one that I've seen)
• No new sponsorships of events or reaching out to areas of Modesto in the back hole outside downtown.

So was that meeting just about appeasement and a waste of time or is something going to happen?

I'm ready to support something that can help make Modesto better... Modesto Famous is dying and I don't want to prop up a dead horse.

-a

I just read a great article about an Australian inventor that has created a windmill that extracts water from the air. A very doable technology that the federal government has be handing money out hand over fist for development for some thirsty troops in Iraq.

"...With three or four of Max's magical machines on hills at our farm we could fill the tanks and troughs, and weather the drought. One small Whisson windmill on the roof of a suburban house could keep your taps flowing. Biggies on office buildings"

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21123007-12272,00.html

Now this got me thinking of Energy and Water in Modesto...

It's a fact that the water level in Modesto wells have dropped continuously over the last few decades. The problems are numerous and various (lots of people and the need to feed those people). Yet I haven't heard much in the way of solutions for fixing this problem other than drill deeper wells (very novel).

I want to Challenge the City of Modesto and MID to do something innovative. Create a Public Group that looks into alternative energy and water resources.

Now the reason I have MID in my title is their slacking just as much if not more. The MID has been living of their "Green" credit from using energy from Don Pedro dam for far to long.. (60 years old? not impressed anymore).

I appreciate that new green technologies are expensive and unproven but how long can you wait? With new improvements in solar technologies you could create a solar farm right next to your main facility.

People provably don't know much about the old FMC plant site and why it lays fallow (between Kansas, Woodland, the 99 and 9th St.). It was the site of a fairly nasty chemical plant up until the 80s when it was finally shut down. Now I don't know who owns it but from what I understand it's been cleaned up to the current environmental standards... great! I also understand that it won't sell because who knows how those environmental standards may change in the future after the purchase.

Fine don't buy it MID.. lease it and build a solar farm! Heck.. start by putting pannels in your employee parking lots (make them so they protect the vehicles from the rain.. bam dual porpose).

Check this article out:
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/003956.html

Boeing has announced a 40% efficiency in solar electricity collection.

I think we need to demand more from our utilities then just buying ruinable energy credits on the open market. I think that our utilities should be searching for ways to decentralize the power grid and look for other ways to provide for the needs of it's customers.

The time for cheap unseen energy is running out and it's KILLING us...

So I'm curious.. did McClatchy (Modesto Bee) buy this website to just let it die?

I look at Fresno famous and it looks great.. advertising, links to the Fresno Bee site. Looks like whom ever does the internet migration down in Fresno has really embraced the purchase and work well with Jarah.

So then we have Modesto Famous... Ruben (Mojo) has never said it to me but it feels like he's kind of getting left out in the cold. Whose responsibility is that? The Modesto Bee, McClatchy or Jarah?

I was there for the first focus group with Jarah when we tried to talk her into building Modesto Famous. I helped design and draw the logo. Now I don't want anything other than what I thought we were building.

This isn't a slight on Ruben (I think he's done a good job) but if Modesto Famous was purchased to die then I think we should start another website. Ruben, you don't even get paid to my knowledge or for what you do, very little.

Modesto Famous Needs:

• Constant content oversight and Management (NOT EDITING)
• Community Advertising (beyond the demographic that it's hit up already)
• Guest bloggers that people will read and comment on
• the Modesto Bee or McClatchy or somebody needs to tell the readers here why we should stay and why just the purchase isn't a reason to leave.

Tell me.. tell the readers and the bloggers.

I've been meaning to put some stuff up on Modesto Famous for a while and one of those things is to let other people know of some of the great restaurants around town.

My first is Noodle Palace on Mchenry (across form Walgreens near Roseburg).. yes it is part of a car wash but don't let that stop you from checking it out.

The Noodle Palace makes some great Pho.. now I'll admit a certain ignorance when it comes to distinctions of vietnamese dishes and delicacies. My introduction to Pho was in San Diego where I was immediately impressed and once I moved back I was extremely pleased to see all the PHO (pronounced "Fa") restaurants.

I tend to frequent The Noodle Palace as the weather gets cooler and I start to crave a hot soup. The place is far from perfect but it's authentic and tastes great.

Now if you've never had Pho before let me give you a quick and dirty guide.

Soups are my favorites there and if you get other dishes you'll probably be happy but I haven't sampled everything.

My Favorite is the #10 Rare Beef Soup. Rare I say.. why yes, yes it is.. at first, hold on.

The food comes out first as a plate of veggies... mint, basil, peppers, etc... The purpose of these is to break them up and put into the soup but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Once you order your soup (just in case for those with vanilla pallet would be the #10 or the chicken noodle) you will get your plate of veggies.

Then your soup will come out in a great steaming bowl (sometimes steaming because the heat is on the fritz again but it's hot no matter what). Take your chop sticks and mix up the contents pushing the meat to the bottom and breaking up the noodles putting them on top. This will cook the meat that is still rawish.

Take the veggies and break them up and add to the soup, squeeze the lime, shred the basil and mint. Your hands will smell great afterwards and the pungent aromatic ambiance will jolt your appetite

Mix up the contents again ***watch out for those peppers!!! (I only eat them when I'm stuffed up for instant relief)***

and dig in!

Now before I finish I wanted to say that I did a search and Lisa Millegan had done a story in the Bee a while back as well....

here's the info

Restaurant: Pho Bac Noodle Palace
Location: 1100 McHenry Ave., Modesto; 579-5899
Hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. daily

Art/ Photo's By Matt Frederick
Reception
December 16th 7pm till 11pm
1202 J st, Modesto CA 95354
Music by JUB

So I get a couple of houchie web cam girl request a day.

I've noticed a few things.

First, I don't have the option to flag abuse on the friends request anymore. This leads me to belive that they are probaly paying myspace to sell themselves online. Hey more power to them I really don't have any moral problems with porn. It's like booze.. if you don't like it then don't do it.

Second, Myspace is majority owned now by News Corp which is ran by Rupert Murdoch. News Corp also runs the extremely conservative Fox News and is part of the Moral Conservatives that like to yell at us about... well morality, sining (in a stricly non-religious way by the host anyway) and how only liberals would go in for somehting like porn.

So I'm seeing some contradictions...

Third, the Myspace porn girls have gotten cleverer by taking the high gloss shine from the profile images to make them look like more normal girls. Well, normal girls that want to sell you their naked images... very clever.

So all that said, I get burned one last time.

You see these new porn girls with the not so glossy images don't look like porn girls on their introductory image. So I'm like.. hey I may know this person and I click on their profile.

I get this:

But to add insult to injury... I'm extremely curious about just what is sooo scandalous that it's can't be displayed on a myspace page without a Special Myspace Content viewer...

and, I try, it's PC only... insult to injury... sigh

I'm on a Mac

Big Brother.. yeah get used to it.

1984? I doubt it... (don't get the reference then you need to read the book http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/).

Lots of police departments will tell you adding surveillance to areas contributed to a marked differnece in crime. I belive it... is it right?

I don't know... Here's a quote from a poster on my flickr group I started... "since we're in public we have no expectation of privacy."

He's right.. we are in public. As a photographer I rely on that part of the law to be able to take pics of what I want and I'll defend it to the point of challenging arrest to make sure people know the law and my rights regarding it.

Here's an intersting next part of his quote: "however, do we have the right to know who each and every camera belongs to?"

I think yes... but that may be a side issuse now... just remember that the security camera isn't a new thing in Modesto even if it's relatively low in number compared to other places.

Here's a few pics of some I've taken in Modesto:
http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?w=52006245%40N00&q=modesto&m=pool

In fact I would invite anyone who wants to join my Big Brother is Watching you group on flickr to do so.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/bigbrotheriswatching/

get on and post pics of cameras in and around modesto.. hell everywhere

Now.. the Modesto PD and cameras.

I'm not against it but hey if we as tax payers are footing the bill than I would like to see them streamed over the internet.

I want to be able to go to a website and see what downtown looks like at any given time of day.

I don't want to see another situation of alleged numbers of people and alleged actions taken by different parties but the people who have the video deeming it too "whatever" to be useful therefor not releasing it at all.

my 2 cents, what do think?