My San Diego Blog...

A Girls Guide to Sports: USD just wanted it more then Gonzaga did, so they took it

2008-03-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

Apparently it's basketball season (man where does the time go? Really? Basketball? Weren't we just watching a whole bunch of unfunny Superbowl ads?) and USD's basketball team is doing really good in winning when they aren't supposed to.

Monday they played against Gonzaga and beat them (69-62) and people were like "Holy Crap, they just totally beat them when they had totally lost to them every other time." And then they were like "Hells ya we did nerds! We beat them cause we wanted it SOOO bad!" And then Gonzaga was like "we couldn't beat them cause they woulda cried they wanted it so bad."

From the Seattle Times:

The 20th-ranked Bulldogs had won 13 consecutive games over San Diego and nine in a row in the tournament since losing to the Toreros at USD's Jenny Craig Pavilion in the 2003 title game. The 21-13 Toreros were playing their third game in three nights, having rallied from 17 down to beat No. 2 seed Saint Mary's in double overtime late Sunday."We could just not match their desire," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said.

I just caught that they play at the Jenny Craig Pavilion, hilarity. There's another joke in there somewhere about San Diego and people on diets and Jenny Craig, but I'm still trying to get over daylight savings time, so my brain is a little fuzzy.

Lines for the sports bar:

Did you watch Carly Smithson last night? She was AWESOME!

Carly Smithson Asks Us To Come Together: there's a dirty joke in there somewhere

2008-03-12T11:54:00.001-07:00

For your viewing pleasure.

Go San Diego (via Ireland) chick.

But Where The Hell Have You Been?

2008-03-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

Well you see I've been working, actual for real, reporting to the office daily working. WORKING. We still be po' but I'm working up a storm.

Point is, been anxious to get back to the old San Diego reportage, but haven't been able to find any space between working and LIVING in San Diego to actually do it.

So we're going back to the drawing board. Going to change it up a bit (as promised), adding a taking away a few things.

Will keep all posted as it gets more finalized.

RELAUNCH

2008-03-07T16:40:00.001-08:00

RELAUNCH - Coming soon. (I'd say Monday, but the way life has been going lately who knows).

New features, New Content, New Ideas.

Until then, enjoy Carly (hometown girl, via Ireland, already had a record deal) Smithson.

And go here. It's entertaining...

Was Planning to LiveBlog the Genius that is Carly Smithson (AKA girl with the buzz, according to Simon)

2008-02-21T10:50:00.000-08:00

But I have this unspoken deal with my husband that we will watch it together and my husband was asleep at the time so I had to forgo witty and amazing off the cuff commentary for a post-post about last nights show.

Carly Smithson got the coveted last spot position (coincidentally the night before the coveted last spot position was held by Michael Johns, other reported "professional singer who already had record deal and apparently American Idol is all about people who don't have record deals", coincidence? Some are calling these two "the ringers.") and... well the girl has bronchitis. You may not have noticed but she was actually missing from the night before and wasn't there to cheer on the boys (some speculate she was off getting another record deal, and you never know with that girl).

A lot of the girls were supposedly sick, but as Carly (go hometown girl) belted out her tune I've never heard before she muscled through it and even managed to get a little dig in there when she said "sickness is not an excuse."

So there other girls who were walking around with the flu, Carly's a pro (as evidenced by her mic technique, so says Paula Abdul) and you all are just sick little non pros.

Anywho, I'm still voting for her because as we were sitting there watching the performances I looked at my husband and went "wait a minute, who performed before this girl? And what did she sing?"

Simon would call that "forgettable."

And Carly Smithson is the only actual name I remember. Besides "rocker chick girl", which I'm assuming is her name, I know she's a nurse and she's all "original" and stuff. So I guess I could vote for Rocker Chick Girl as well.

Just Another Reason We Love The Daily Aztec: San Diego gets a beer pong league and they are right on top of that story

2008-02-20T00:31:00.000-08:00

From The Daily Aztec:

Now, with the addition of a San Diego beer pong league, locals can enjoy playing this wonderful pastime competitively. Anyone lucky enough to walk into McMurphy's Pub on a Wednesday night can witness competitive beer pong.

All the news fit to print. All the stories necessary to read. All the reporters fit to co found a beer pong league.

"This is what I do," he said to a reporter and the SDBP co-founder. "You write articles; you run beer pong tournaments; I make cups."Weisburd said he would like to play other people in what he calls a professional environment.

I saw this guy down the street the other day just KILLING at Beer Pong, can we say "beer pong scout?" Cause I'd make a good one, I live in PB after all.

Minutemen Continue to Fight Over Highway

2008-02-20T00:19:00.000-08:00

The San Diego Minutemen are challenging the proposed change in the location of their "adopt a highway" stretch of road. From The New York Times:

The group filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month arguing that the decision violated its constitutional rights to free speech, due process and equal protection under the law. The Minutemen are asking for permission to work at the original site, as well as for the payment of legal fees and $50,000. A hearing is scheduled for March 14 in the United States District Court in San Diego.

Because it's theirs and belongs to them and they should have it cause they saw it first.

It has nothing to do with the fact that it's very near a border station and they are a group of people who fancies themselves freelance border patrol.

And it has nothing to do with the odd symbolism of the whole thing, what with them "picking up trash" on the side of the road near the border patrol where they like to pretend to be the border patrol.

And it's not like they are going to stand on the side of the road in their orange vests and look for immigrants themselves, irregardless of if they are trained to do so, or even if they are targeting ACTUAL illegal immigrants, they're just picking up trash you see.

Really it's about fairness, you dig? They should be able to stand on the side of the road, scan for interlopers, point and yell and generally infringe upon the rights of others, because it's ONLY FAIR. Sure they are really in it to adopt a highway, but they don't want any old highway in East County... they reject you old highway in East County.

But really they are in it for the highway... just not that highway.

Poor east county highway.

My Husband is a Real Estate Appraiser and just explained to me that it's not your house any way, so deal.

2008-02-20T00:14:00.000-08:00

"Because they just own the title to it, the Government actually owns the house. Because when you pay taxes you technically can lose the house at any time, the government can take it from you, so you don't actually own it."

So there, people who are peeved because there is some guy walking around San Diego taking pictures of all the houses so that he can create a database of every single house, put it on the internet and let people search through it to see just how pretty houses are in San Diego.

From NBC San Diego:

"The goal is to establish a database of every residential property, actually every property, in the country into a database," said Kevin Allen of Anderson Appraisal Services. "What we want is the picture that's going to best show what this house looks like." It's a database that a company named Zaio plans to sell to real estate appraisers.

And make their jobs just a little bit more comprehensive.

So there, DEAL.

Because Bloggers Like to Blog About What Other Bloggers Are Blogging

2008-02-19T00:39:00.000-08:00

A Blogger named Pat Flannery (check out his blog of San Diego here) was thrown out of a new conference because he's a blogger with a big blogging mouth. Apparently he actually exercises his right to free speech via articles and entries addressing what he calls San Diego's growing "police state." And, apparently, there are some people who don't like him.

Hence they throw him out of public places so they don't have to watch him and his dissapproving looks.

After he was thrown out of the news conference where DA Bonnie Dumanis was set to endorse Judge Jan Goldsmith for City Attorney, he went home and blogged about it.

He even has video.

Shanna Schwarze has never heard of this speed dating thing before but she thinks it's hot

2008-02-19T00:27:00.001-08:00

She also thinks Sex and the City is the best new show on television, totally original, completely ballsy, and going to change the face of television.

From NBC San Diego: The What's Hot section (not even kidding):

If the bar scene gives you a hang over and Match.com feels like a mismatch, you may want to try Speed Dating. The concept is pretty simple: men and women sign up and pay on-line, show up at the designated spot, and have a “date” in a round robin type of way.

And the verdict?

The verdict? Full speed ahead! While it felt a little awkward at first, this event was surprisingly fun and something I’d suggest to other men and women. I even got 3 “matches” out of it!

Next up Shanna moves right on in to 2006 where she will tell you all about this new fangled My Space and it's dating potential (so much better than Friendster).

People are peeved at American Idol and not just because they went and broke the heart of that one homeless kid

2008-02-19T00:02:00.000-08:00

But because San Diego's own Carly Smithson (AKA Hennessey) made it to the Top 24 and low and behold she's a "professional singer."

From overthelimit.com:

American Idol contestant Carly Smithson had a record deal in 2001 with MCA Records under the name of Carly Hennessy. She produced a CD that only sold about 300 copies, after MCA invested a ton of money in marketing.

Yep, she may be a San Diegan, with a San Diego husband, owner of a San Diego tattoo parlor, bartender at a San Diego bar, but she also once had a record deal that went sour and therefore we should all hate her and send negative thoughts her way.

Or we should just chalk it up to American Idol and it's "controversies."

I don't care either way, if she sold 300 copies or if she's just off the farm in Kentucky. But come on, why don't people just flat out mention or ask her about it? I'm talking to you, reporters over on Sign On San Diego's Street Blog? Don't spoon feed us some kind of "just a girl making her way to the top" tell us the truth.

I'll still vote for her because she's the only one I remember out of the 24, unless you count the other professional singer who they are trying to pass off as just some guy from Australia who none of them have ever heard of before.

Bring back homeless, sporadic British accent kid.

Can we do write ins?

Why the Hiatus?

2008-02-18T23:58:00.001-08:00

Oh faithful readers, for shame, for shame, I have been on hiatus in solidarity with the writers strike. But you may or may not have heard, they done reached a deal, so now I can shave the beard I forced my husband to grow and get back down to reporting really important stuff.

(or I was moving, taking care of some things and job interviewing... but I like the writers strike excuse better).

Say You Want to Freak People Out About How Bad a Conservative McCain is

2008-02-05T13:49:00.000-08:00

Compare him to Hillary (who is apparently the WORST conservative ever).

"None of the candidates are perfect, they never are, but McCain is the least perfect of the viable candidates," Mark Levin, a former senior Reagan administration Justice Department official now a nationally syndicated radio talk show host, wrote on the Web site of the conservative magazine National Review. Levin described McCain as "an intemperate, stubborn individual, much like Hillary Clinton." "Those are not good qualities to have as a president," Levin wrote.

Touche Mr. Levin, touche.

Oh yeah, McCain was in San Diego rallying today. Don't think Mr. Levin was there...

San Diego County Anticipates Taking Forever To Tell You Who Won California Even Though News Outlets Will Probably Have Already Called It

2008-02-05T13:42:00.000-08:00

Because news outlets are psychic like that. Be prepared to wait and wait for a final answer (people going to the watch the primary's on TV parties). It's all the Secretary of State's fault, by the way. From KPBS:

Seiler says that is because the Secretary of State de-certified electronic voting machines, and San Diego only has about 100 optical scanners to count the paper ballots.

So they plan to be counting from 8:00pm tonight to 8:00am the next morning. That's A LOT of open bar...

Attendee of Hillary Speech Confirms She Has No Visible Horns or Tail

2008-02-05T13:41:00.000-08:00

Cannot confirm if she was or was not wearing Prada.

It's Super Tuesday folks (I'm sure you already knew, as if you randomly got here it was because you probably googled something like "Super Tuesday" and "Hillary" and "Devil Wears Prada" for which I say, WELCOME), so get to stepping to your booth and a votin' for Ron Paul if you took the advice of my father in law and switched parties.

Check out Hillary's San Diego visit here.

Pay no attention to the empty seats behind the curtain...

2008-02-02T21:48:00.000-08:00

I had to read through basically the ENTIRE article to get to this quote which for some reason I think is hilarious:

“Obama is arrogant,” said Duffy Fitzpatrick, 54, who brought her young son to see Clinton in San Diego. “My daughter was on his bandwagon until she really started watching him and decided that he was full of himself.”

Just in case you were still on the fence about who to vote for.

Oh yeah, Hillary was all up in San Diego's junk the other day. Although, article is quick to point out:

On closer inspection, the Aztecs’ stadium was not as full as it looked for Clinton. Half the hall was closed off by a black curtain. On the one side were 5,000 cheering supporters - 80% of whom were women, and 100% of whom were Democrats. The good news for Clinton is that her admirers are the rock-solid party loyalists most likely to vote on Tuesday.

Just in case you were there and you were like "Oh man Hillary is so popular, look at how full this stadium is!"

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl

2008-02-02T21:45:00.000-08:00

I will be watching it from the comfort of my Husband's Friends' house, complete with homemade beer and panini sandwiches (because, yes, we're yuppie like that).

Perhaps I will get all "bloggy" with it and write a little something about it, or perhaps I'll come home, pass out on the bed and dream of better, non stormy days, where bbq-ing wasn't such a far off idea on Super Bowl Sunday.

Any way you cut it, I'm eating lots of chips tomorrow, calling it a meal.

I suggest you find a nice, comfy space to watch and stay inside as well.

My San Diego: Artist Elizabeth Zaikowski likes her sunny, fun, exciting San Diego.

2008-01-30T12:05:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth Zaikowski

Artist

Lives: South Park

My San Diego is beautiful, sunny, fun and exciting. I love waking up everyday to the sunshine, the beaches and all that there is to do in San Diego.

I work outside at Sea World as an artist and love meeting all the people that travel here from other places as well as being able to enjoy the outdoors. I have sold many paintings in San Diego and feel it is becoming even more of a place with an artistic community.

I received my degree at SDSU in art education and I have taught art at many levels at the SD Children's Museum and Coronado High School. I enjoy painting in many styles and mediums, I have shown my own work here for over ten years. You can visit my website at http://www.elizabethzaikowski.com/

But Does the City Council Also Hate People Who Recreationally Vehicle?

2008-01-30T11:57:00.000-08:00

The City Council may be adding to the list of things they hate. They are going to look at the numbers and see how much they hate RV loving people.

From SignonSanDiego:

San Diego residents fed up for years with recreational vehicles, trailers and campers cluttering streets left City Hall encouraged yesterday.

The City Council decided to study the costs of a proposal to ban overnight parking of these vehicles without a permit.

By a 7-0 vote, with Councilman Tony Young absent, council members asked the Mayor's Office to return in 60 days with a report on how the proposal would work in a pilot area, as well as citywide.

Passaportes! Passaportes!

2008-01-30T11:53:00.000-08:00

If you've never been to TJ for a quick shopping trip and some tacos, then you've never had the chance to have the "border crossing experience."

There's going in to Mexico, which consists of a gate and a walkway, then a long winding path and you're right where you need to be, club and shopping central.

And then there's the coming back in to the U.S. way, which consists of a really long line, a whole bunch of border guards, people dividing you by what you have, a quick shuffle, lots of orders, people trying to rent you bikes (because apparently that gets you through quicker), mass confusion and finally a light at the end of the tunnel (literally, it's quite dark in there and when the doors open... light).

Sometimes get the feeling U.S. is a lot like Bungalow 8 (or any other hip and trendy club I read about Lindsay Lohan getting faced at). You put a lot of people at the door, long lines, soem bouncers with short fuses and some arbitrary rules of what you have to be to get in, so everybody wants in.

And now it's going to be harder to get in.

From Fox 6 News:

Anyone wanting to cross will need to show government-issued photo identification, such as a driver's license or military ID card, and one other proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport.

New rules begin Thursday, pull out your fancy club clothes and huge purse to fit your passport. No more border jumping, 18 year old kids just trying to have a good time, you'll have to wait till you're 21 to do overpriced shots with the rest of us!

If You're a Teen Girl and You Want to Get Creative: Head to the Young women's Leadership Program on Saturday.

2008-01-30T00:29:00.001-08:00

Trust me, take all the chances you can to "get creative with it."

From PR.Com:

Fresh off of last Saturday's sellout benefit at the San Diego Sports Arena, the San Diego-based Jenna Druck Foundation will launch its 2008 Young Women's Leadership Program Saturday morning, February 2nd, from 9:30 to 11:30, at The Liberty Station Command Center.

Saturday's program will feature popular singer-songwriter, Randi Driscoll, best known for her work with Bonnie Raitt and Jason Mraz. "A Conversation with Randi Driscoll" will be offered at no charge to young women, their friends, teachers, mentors and parents and will focus on how girls can live their dream and use their voice to make a positive difference in their school, family, friendships and community.Popular DJ Midori, who has won acclaim for her “Big Sonic Chill” show on 94.9 FM radio, will interview Driscoll and take questions from the audience.

To register for Saturday's event, please call The Jenna Druck Foundation at 619 294-8000. Attendees may be eligible to attend the Jenna Druck Foundation’s March 1st Young Women’s Leadership Conference.

If You're a Teen Girl and You Want to Get Creative: Head to the Young women's Leadership Program on Saturday.

2008-01-30T00:29:00.000-08:00

Voters are switching parties right before the primaries because they want to be able to vote for Ron Paul

2008-01-30T00:16:00.000-08:00

Not that it's any of your business (even though I'm sure he'd tell you himself, should you catch him out and about) but my Father in Law told me he went and switched over to the Republican Party just so he could vote for Ron Paul.

He then told me I should do the same.

I mumbled something about remembering that I needed to Google that Ron Paul guy at some point because according to my brother he's supposed to change my whole life but then went back to watching the marathon of Project Runway.

I am a bad, bad, potential Republican infiltrator for the sole purpose of voting for Ron Paul.

You should Google him because everybody says so. And vote, because, you know you want to.

Oh, here's the article about how San Diegans are playing musical chairs with their parties. That's why I started this whole tirade, but Ron Paul man, gets into your mind and it's like "hey, what was I posting about again?"

And in "Gee, ya think?!" News: Even though we're having a housing "crisis" it's not enough to actually make housing "affordable."

2008-01-30T00:12:00.001-08:00

From SignOnSanDiego:

...the nation's housing slowdown has done little to ease the financial burdens facing low- and middle-income workers, especially in high-priced areas like San Diego. In San Diego County, the amount of household income needed to purchase a median-priced home during the third quarter of last year dropped 12 percent to $143,738, compared with $163,404 a year earlier. That's the good news. The bad news is that the county's median household income is $68,000, and with wages destined to remain stagnant this year, there is little room for optimism for entry-level buyers, say some analysts.

And there you go, don't go making your bus reservations yet... well that I need to make more money. Ideas? Anybody need a kidney? Anybody?

CALtrans will let you adopt highway, wear silly vests, pretend to be impartial when everybody hates the idea and then move you to a new highway

2008-01-30T00:05:00.000-08:00

Minutemen, CALtrans has spoken, it's time you moved uptown as being so close to the border people are afraid you're keeping a peripheral eye out for immigrants trying to run through your nice, clean stretch of highway.

From SignonSanDiego:

In November, the state transportation department granted a stretch of northbound Interstate 5 near the checkpoint to the anti-illegal immigration group. Late yesterday, Caltrans announced that it would relocate the Minutemen to a location along state Route 52.

As we said before, it's your move hourmen, your move.