ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

I bought some Romano green beans. I am going to boil them al dente and then saute them in olive oil and garlic with pine nuts.

BTW:Check out the booth with the fresh goat cheese. It is stunningly good.

I just posted "#5 The Ojai Fires" at http://laojaivalleyepost.blogstream.com concerning the fires in a broader sense and the ordinance which I intend to present at city council Tuesday.

I just noticed that at the top of the post are ads for the Ojai Valley Inn, Su Nido, Ojai Rancho Inn and Konocti Resort and Spa. What the hell is this? It's kind of flattering to think they would bother with little old me but it took me aback. Seems to have something to do with Google Ads. Maybe I can put in a plug for OjaiPost. We sure live in a interconnected world and it has much to do with business, much ado about nothing as far as I'm concerned. But then, we just have to switch it to the business of love and we're in with Flynn. BTW, I was at Farmers' Market yesterday but feasted on the people present rather than the food. What a delight. Color, variety, health, vigor and vitality in a self sustaining and independent local economy, especially the babies and their mothers. Love, Dennis

I just checked on the link to my website, and guess what? There's a new line up of ads about real estate, law and jobs. I'm beginning to catch onto the game. This is how blogstream can offer "free" websites. There's always a catch. Well, now I have to figure out how to co-opt the co-opters. I have to learn how to sell the law of Love. Now that's a job! Check out my post today at http://thelovegovernment.blogstream.com about "Love and Evil." This little evil of tapping into my website without my permission will have to be turned into love one way or another. Just grist for the mill. OK, I'm spamming for love but times are tough and time is running out. Love Godus, Denus the Menus.

Sure enough. The game is the same. I linked to my other website and now there are ads for government grants and grants for women. You can have the government grants but grants for women, now that has potential. Only womem can save us from the Evil Empire of Patriarchy. Godus grant us the Love of Peace. Love, Dennis the Men's Menace.

Hi Dennis -

Google AdSense, which is what is displayed on your page, is contextual advertising, such that the contents of the page are scanned and ads are matched up as close as possible to the content.

Regarding this: "This little evil of tapping into my website without my permission" - you accepted the Terms of Service which includes this:

While Member can choose a "template" for their blog, BCorp controls the overall look and design of templates and may alter them from time to time. This includes the option to display third party advertising on Member content pages.

blogger.com is free and free of adds.

I received the following from Mike Millan, who is looking for a job. It sounds like he has had some challenges in his life and has overcome a lot. Give it a read...

---------------------------------------------------

Michael Lewis Millan
RESUME
26 August 2007

I was born May 11, 1949 in Washington, D.C. I am the father of fourteen year old Natalie Rose Millan. I graduated in 1967 from Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC.

I attended Princeton University and graduated in 1971 with a degree in Civil Engineering.

Over the next twenty years I worked as a Civil Engineer, taught mathematics and coached tennis at St. Albans School, taught for a year in Wales under the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program, designed and built furniture, and did residential remodeling.

In 1988 I moved to Santa Barbara. I worked as a licensed California Contractor specializing in residential remodeling.

In 1994 I fell ill with a rare brain infection. My ability to think and reason have been unimpaired and I have had a successful physical recovery. I have minor difficulty with speech and I can’t run and play tennis like I used to, but I am completely independent and can drive and work with power tools, including the frequent use of a chain saw in the woods of my property in Virginia. I am not on any medication and am strong and fit.

From 1996 to 2000 I supervised construction and did carpentry, building a new, traditional adobe house on an avocado ranch in Carpinteria, California. I consulted with the architect and interpreted his design to achieve a balance between the architect’s intentions, the owner’s wishes, and good building practice. I lived on the site in a mobile home.

From 2000 to 2004 I was an estate manager in the Toro Canyon area of Montecito, CA. I supervised and did hands on work for the restoration of the grounds and residence. Work on the grounds included restoring an avocado, fruit, and exotic tree orchard, recontouring eroded terraces, trimming large specimen oak, eucalyptus, and olive trees, installing irrigation systems, planting and maintaining hundreds of Australian trees and flowering plants. I repaired and remodeled the eclectic residence which was built during the 1930’s by Leopold Stokowski, the famous conductor, and was still largely as he laid it out. Repair, restoration, and remodeling required much of my personal experience, expertise, and adaptability. I lived on the site in my mobile home relocated from the Carpinteria project.

I developed a handbook describing the visible features of the property including buildings, topography, roads, and plants, the infrastructure both visible and below ground, and the maintenance of the various systems. Much of the infrastructure was installed as long ago as the 1930’s. The location of the underground utilities was vague or unknown and repairs and modifications done over the years were inaccurately documented or not at all. Understanding the lay out required detective work and educated guessing. It was a satisfying task encompassing a range of activities including discovering, repairing, rehabilitating, replacement, documenting, and establishing maintenance procedures for the estate‘s components. The handbook has proven to be valuable with respect to ongoing maintenance. A serviceman can find the information pertaining to his task and he does not waste time rediscovering the layout of his specialty.

In 2004 I bought property in Virginia and have spent the last three years restoring its cabin and improving the site.

The primary factor in my life for the last nearly fifteen years has been contributing to the parenting of my daughter Natalie. Her mother has been the primary caregiver, but I have remained active and present in her life. When Natalie and her mother went to Virginia to take advantage of educational opportunities, I followed. Now that they have returned to California and Natalie is enrolled at Oak Grove School in Ojai, I will once again follow them.

I want to live and work in Ojai. Ideally I would live on an estate, farm, or orchard, manage its operation, maintain and repair the infrastructure, design, plan and perform remodeling or new construction much like I did in Toro Canyon.

My experience includes:
* Planning, supervising, and executing remodeling and new construction
* Working knowledge of Spanish
* Hands on carpentry skills from framing to finish
* Practical knowledge of building trades that make me a good supervisor
* Practical experience with Southern California plants
* Practical knowledge of irrigation systems
* Licensed California Contractor
* Good computer skills

Mike Millan
MLMILLAN@AOL.COM
540-522-4282

I know this is random but I think this ad on craiglist is very funny. check out the questions at the bottom. http://ventura.craigslist.org/ofc/407475300.html

Thanks for the information, Tyler. I can live with the ads, for awhile anyway. Thanks also for the reference to blogger.com from Anonymous.

your welcome.

Anybody else been up all night? I couldn't sleep and wondered why. At 1:30 AM I found out. Looked outside and caught the first part of the moon's eclipse. I stayed with her all night as she went into a red ball and now coming back out and back to normal. At the moment, she's about half and half and dropping to the west. A strange, mystical night. I recorded my thoughts and feelings as the night wore on at http://laojaivalleyepost.blogstream.com for anyone interested, entitled "Miracles of Perfect Timing." Love, the other Dennis Leary

Quiz Question: Which of the following have prominent Republicans NOT been busted/exposed for in recent weeks:
1) Dealing cocaine;
2) hiring prostitutes while on Congressional roll call votes;
3) cruising airport bathrooms for gay sex;
4) offering undercover cops in public park bathrooms cash for gay sex;
5) taking bribes;
6) condoning policies of torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

7) Orally raping a sleeping fellow Republican of the same sex.

Tyler-
I got a question.
All the spam posts that shows up here.
Is this intentional?
Or is it the result of random "crawlers" that find their way to the site?

Thanks

Hi anonymous - its all automated by bots that look for places to spam. We are basically a victim of our success, in that the more visible and high-traffic the site is, the more its going to attract spambots. It's quite the pain in the ass to manage the spam, and I do have some very grateful help from Kenley, Heather, evan and a couple other folk.

There are a couple technology solutions that might work, but as of right now I haven't had the resources to implement. Which reminds me that I need to touch base with Kenley on one possibility.

Cheers, Tyler

Re Republican Quiz: Sad to say, I think the answer is, none of the above?

Help me out here, its hard to keep track.

1) Is it Giulani's southern states campaign manager busted for dealing cocaine?
2) Is it Louisiana bible-thumping morality-preaching Congressman Vitter who was making dates with prostitutes during roll-call votes?
3) I know its the Republicans' leading light, 4-term Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, who just pled guilty for cruising a Minneapolis airport bathroom soliciting gay sex.
4) It was a Florida Republican representative, another Giulani campaign backer I think, busted after a campaign event for soliciting gay sex in the public park bathroom. I can't recall his name. Who was it? He's the guy who compounded his problems by saying he was afraid black people in the park would mug him if he didn't offer $20 to the undercover cop for an act that better go unmentioned in a family paper.
5. Bribes - is there a Republican crony who isn't taking bribes? If memory serves, just today the paper reported that General Petraeus, our number one man in Iraq, has a number 2 who appears involved in a scheme to sell away weapons meant for Iraqi troops into the black market, for bribes.
6. Torture. Well, this one is not in "recent weeks" - the Republicans have been condoning torture for years now. Is there something new that happened?
7. I know this one. This was quite a story. The newly elected chairman of the "Young Republicans" - that's Republicans under 40 - went out to celebrate with another YR. They both crashed at the new chairman's sister's house. That YR awoke to the horror of the new chairman performing an act better left unmentioned on his privates. He called the police. Turns out this wasn't the first time for that Young Republican. The new chairman hurriedly announced that pressing new "business opportunities" required him to renounce his role with the YRs, who promptly elected a runner up and removed all mention of the formerly fine young Republican from its website.

Did I get them all?

Gross. Perhaps the GOP needs to change its acronym to the BCP - Bathroom Cruising Perverts.

Does anyone know if the city council adopted the extremely flawed chain store ordinance draft that the city staff backs but that the planning commission rejected? Just curious if my cynicism is warranted. I have a couple of bets out.

hey Sean, you'll be pleased to know that they did NOT adopt the flawed ordinance! check out the home page or ojainews.com for my attempt to cover the meeting, but i'm also hoping that Kenley writes a proper report.

re: Republican quiz

the problem is not gay sex. there's nothing wrong with consensual gay sex anything more than is wrong with heterosexual sex.

the problem is in a socio-political philosophy that openly condemns homosexual people and behaviors, but secretly indulges in them. the problem is still -at its core - hypocrisy. hypocrisy and lying, precisely what taints modern conservative politics on any issue and topic.

evan - I think there are at least two sets of problems. One is cruising public bathrooms to solicit sex, gay or otherwise, from people who are trying to go potty. Or physically forcing one's sexual acts on a sleeping person who doesn't want it. Or propositioning people who are sharing the public parks to give you sex for money. Those things are about as closely related to healthy sex between consenting adults as is an ax murderer to a lumberjack.

The other problem is the hypocrisy and lying, which has about as much to do with a "socio-political philosophy" as, well ... (see ax murderer and lumberjack, above).

The fact that these two sets of traits are so well represented in the Republican Party is, to say the least, food for thought.

Gee, that last comment brought us all the way around back to food. The more I read, the better those Romano beans sound...enjoyed by consenting adults of course.