Oh, Bali Hai!  Come to mai  ayland!

On Sunday, August 17, please plan on visiting Alameda's own special Forbidden island to help me celebrate yet another birthday.

 Maybe if we all drink enough we'll forget how old I am!

There will be fruity tropical drinks, noms, and pleasantly inebriated people to talk to.  There might be cake. Or the cake might be a lie. Hard to say.

The silliness starts at 3pm when they open, and should go until about 6pm, after which some exotic dinner plan might materialize. Or maybe we'll all end up back at my place for pizza.  I'm easy that way (especially after a couple of Mai Tais.)

Share and enjoy!

Hawaiian shirts and other tropical attire encouraged but not required.
(And ixnay on the iftsgay. I have enough crap as it is.)

This is the funniest, nerdiest video evaaaahhh!~1!1 (I stole it from egoiste.)

I spent last weekend at Ladies Rock Camp in Portland. It's rock as in rock and roll, not rock as in boulders. Anyway, the schedule is crazy and fun. On Friday afternoon you meet the other participants, form a band, and start songwriting and rehearsing. Many of the participants (including a couple in my group, the SweetTeas) had never played their instrument before that weekend. On Sunday afternoon, everyone performs their original number in a showcase at a club (we played at Satryicon.)

Here's the outcome of those 48 hours. In case it's not obvious, I'm the guitarist with the pink leopard bandana.

March starts this weekend, the cherry trees are blooming, and the weather forecast says the sun will be out. What other excuse do we need to sit in a biergaten and raise a pint or three with friends?

Come hang out with me at Speisekammer in Alameda (http://www.speisekammer.com/) this Sunday afternoon between 2 and 5 pm; first two pitchers are on me. 

Invite or forward this to anyone you like. RSVPs not necessary but always appreciated.

Veevi
 

A little holiday cheer for y'all from Bowie and Bing.
Merry happy.

 
I've been trying to write one of those year end summary letters to send out with my New Year's greetings this year, and I can't get more than two lines into it without being stymied. 

Saying it's been an eventful year would be something of an understatement.   Just trying to write down all of the things I'm grateful for this year (let alone recounting the events of the past 51 weeks) seems like an overwhelming task. 

At my first attempt at rock climbing last week, I noticed that it was pretty easy to keep going if I looked at what was right in front of me and just figured out the next step or handhold. The goal was to climb to the top, but focusing on the top of the wall was daunting; it looked too difficult. And looking behind me and seeing how far I'd come just gave me vertigo.  I forgot to breathe.

It was a good reminder with applications far beyond the rock wall:  Stay in the moment.  Move one step forward at a time. Don't focus so hard on the end game that you can't find the next step. Don't dwell on what is past, don't worry about falling.  Concentrate on doing the next thing. Give yourself hang time if you need it.  Remember to breathe. Find people to spot you, and trust their support.   Enjoy the process.

So, no big 2007 retrospective (too dizzying) and no huge resolutions for 2008, either (too daunting).

There's a reason that the name of the Divine is the sound of breathing in and breathing out.  Each act of creation begins with a breath of life. When we breathe, we connect ourselves with the divine in all of us and all around us.

Enjoy each moment, and remember to breathe.

V