The National League Championship Series begins on Thursday. Just wanted to support my boys in blue.

We only need 4 wins and then we return to the World Series for the first time in 20 years. (Should the baseball gods grant it, it would be exactly 50 years after the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles)

Last Friday, a few of us ventured into Golden Gate Park to check out a few things.

1.) The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival – We saw MC Hammer play a few numbers to a bunch of middle schoolers.
2.) The new California Academy of Sciences building. An incredible museum and research institution.

Obligatory photographs to follow.

Courtesy of my roommate Mark, who attended a wedding this past weekend. Inside the gift bags were coasters containing this amazing gem:

“Oh My Goodness!
He has a reptile dysfunction?
I didn’t even know he owned a lizard.”

Amazing.

I present to you the following train wreck known as the Sarah Palin interviews. If McCain is elected, there is a 1 in 3 chance (perhaps more) that this woman could be our next President.

This is embarrassing.

On the $700 billion dollar rescue package.

Asked what newspapers she reads…

She didn’t make the “choice” to be gay, unlike her best friend…

She has foreign policy experience because she can see Alaska.

If a 15 year old girl is raped by a family member, she believes it should be illegal for her to have an abortion! Ridiculous!

Here she can’t name any Supreme Court cases:

CNN’s Jack Cafferty on Sarah Palin

I went to give blood today and apparently the attendant working with me was new. He ended up puncturing my vein on my right arm ("hematosis" they called it).

They asked if I wanted to wrap it up or try the other arm. For some weird reason, I told them to try the other arm. Fortunately, it worked this time.

And thanks to Twitter, I was able to live blog the entire thing. Wow.

Click picture to view larger image.

[Via Discovery News – Earth Impacts Blog]

A few photos from my visit to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park last week.

So Washington Mutual goes under last week (which is my bank) and their CEO Alan Fishman will get an $18 million dollar severance package.

I can only hope that one day I will have the opportunity to run a company into the ground and be paid handsomely for it.

I sent an email to Speaker Pelosi earlier today…

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

I am a registered Democrat and a resident living in San Francisco and reside in California’s 8th district. I am writing you today about my opposition to the bailout proposal that Congress is currently working on.

While I understand the dire conditions of the economy (and have witnessed the effects first hand – I was laid off from my job one month ago), I do not think it is fair for the tax payers and ordinary Americans to shoulder the burden of bad financial investments made on behalf of our banking and lending institutions.

I also understand that some sort of action is needed, but giving $700 billion dollars to Secretary Paulson carte blanche seems dangerous and irresponsible. Would it not be better to give the Treasury a smaller amount of money (such as $100 or $150 billion dollars) and ask them to come back and justify further requests for cash?

As a registered Democrat, it has been frustrating watching our legislative branch repeatedly cow towards pressure from the White House on funding for the Iraq war, FISA and offshore oil drilling. I urge you and your fellow members of Congress to not do the same with a significant amount of our tax payer dollars and the economy on the line.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Dave Schumaker

I took some photos this morning at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.