Monday, January 30, 2006

Just Rolling... in my Benzo

Recently in Berkeley I've observed more uncharacteristically Bezerkeley things than usual. Perhaps they aren't actually out of character so much as they are bizarre and unexpected. If that's true, they are probably more Berkeley than tie-dyed, unwashed business hippies.

Example the first: Ladies are wearing the silliest, and furriest boots around this campus. Goodness gracious! I am accustomed to seeing people wear ridiculously warm clothing in California. For some reason it is chic to wear big winter hats, scarves, and gloves when it's around 50 degrees Farenheit. Until this year, (or last year's advent of the Ugg) these wintery staples were usually paired with flip-flops or sandals of some sort. While this Berkeley fashion statement was certainly incongruous, I was aghast when I saw the plethora of boots designed for very cold, even Siberian, weather this year. Now these boots are not just warm, they are goofy. They have fur, and tassels, and embroidery and they are hardly ever cute - at all. I just don't get it.

Example the second: Near the intersection of Bancroft and College last week I saw a white Mercedes Benz SUV. Now the SUVs near campus seem un-Berkeley to me in the first place but the most surprising aspect of this Benzo was it's vanity plate. That's right, as if you needed a vanity plate when you've already got the shiny new Benz. In any event, this vanity plate read, "Go Vegan."

What the heck? How gaz guzzling cars exemplify the vegan lifestyle is beyond me, but I sure am glad that this car owner had his or her priorities straight. I mean it's really critical not to eat honey - which was produced by oppressed bees. It's far less important to conserve fossil fuels and prevent destruction of our dear Mother Earth, home to, that's right, all living creatures. Even those adorable honeybees.

Monday, January 16, 2006

My Faithful Readers

Recently I noted that when I google my name (ah the vanities of self-stalking), that this url is the first hit. I don't know when or how this happened. I make a conscious effort to avoid self-reference in my posts. Maybe blogger changed its policy?

In any event, I began to wonder if this might have any effect on the number of hits that "For God and For Cheese" receives. There's really no way to check, but I was curious. Upon further research I've discovered that searches for "is cheese bad for dogs?" and "wet pets san pablo" are just as common routes for ending up at this site as a google search for my name. Most likely this change in the Google realm has had no impact whatsoever over here... Nevertheless, I was also encouraged to ruminate on this type of web popularity by a certain friend who will remain nameless.*

Here are my findings:

The results from "Blog Patrol" show that in the past month, I've received 395 hits. I'm not sure if this slightly inflated number was due to some holiday cheer, or reflects hope that I would actually post something while on break from school, but I generally average around 10 hits per day. While this is by no means overwhelming, I was intrigued to find that many of my readers are not in fact members of my family. My seemingly most loyal reader, Lizardo, is indeed my sister but there are plenty of reader urls listed from places as far away as... Oklahoma. With this surging popularity, I resolve to write more in upcoming months. I've got an article on legal clinics on deck waiting for my commentary. Stay tuned.

* In future posts I will fully disclose the reasons for all of this sleuthing.