Just wanted to wish you tens of thousands of loyal readers a Happy Thanksgiving -- or for those of you from outside the good ol' U.S. of A., a very Happy November

We're already all reminded to be thankful for the obvious -- our friends, family, health, etc. -- but hey, let's take a moment to be thankful for 'other' stuff, shall we? Here's my off-the-cuff list of the moment of untraditional appreciation, definitely in no particular order:

When I read about uprisings and massacres in God's name in articles like this, I'm reminded about a blunt and poignant speech made by God, clarifying his already-pretty-damn-clear "Thou Shalt Not Kill" guideline.

You may have noticed that some of my recent blog entries have been more sarcastic than smiley, more political than personal. Perhaps that suits you fine, and perhaps it doesn't.

But worry not! By selecting links on the righthand side under "Bladam Categories" you can read exactly the entries that interest you, whether that be my musings on Dance, strange and wonderful photos, blatherings on travel, and so on.

Over time, I promise to make finding what you want to read even easier. And in the meantime, I do welcome your frank and constructive comments about what you find particular cool and uncool about my blog... contentwise, structurewise, anythingwise

As always, thanks for reading! I write for myself, but I also write for you.

People -- Americans in particular -- are not good at assessing risks, benefits, and statistics regarding them.

Thousands, perhaps millions of people refused to fly even months after 9/11, despite the fact that even if -- God forbid -- a jetliner was blown to smithereens every day, people would still be safer in the skies than in their cars.

I respect and sympathize with those who refused and perhaps still refuse to fly due to emotional scars and irrepressible deepset fears of flying, perhaps some of which existed prior to 9/11.

What I can neither understand nor respect, however, is the amazed indignation I received when I opted to get on a plane a few months after 9/11 and admitted that I had no fear whatsoever about flying. "Can you seriously tell me," a friend incredulously queried, "that you think it's SAFE to be in a plane right now?" Sigh.

A general noticed one of his soldiers behaving oddly. The soldier would pick up any piece of paper he found, frown and say, "That's not it" and put it down again.

This went on for some time, until the general arranged to have the soldier psychologically tested. The psychologist concluded that the soldier was deranged, and wrote out his discharge from the army.

The soldier picked it up, smiled and said, "That's it."

For some strange reason, I was just mulling over the fact that many of the taxi drivers outside the U.S. expect you to sit up front with them and indeed are a bit puzzled and/or miffed if you don't.

Why do you think this is?

For those of you who are wandering in here this weekend due to seeing this site 'updated' on weblogs.com... please note that I'm in the process of adding old entries from my Salon/Radio blog. Sorry for any confusion.

And yes, I'll be fixing up the look-and-feel of this blog and adding links and such soon. Sit tight!

NOTE: All entries below (prior to this) have been copied-and-pasted from my old Salon/Radio blog. Please do let me know if you find any funky links. Thanks!

Just a brief note to warn people against getting any account (credit card or otherwise) with Zions Bank.

I signed up for one of their credit cards, never received it, never made a charge on it, and the frequent-flier-rewards program with an annual fee was canceled a week after I signed up due to the rewards company going bankrupt.

Nonetheless, despite me cancelling my card ASAP, they continued to send threatening "overdue" notices to me with the program fee and finance charges.

This article just confirmed my worst fears: the likelihood of me ever affording a home in the Bay Area is about equal to (or rather, dependent upon) me winning the lottery.

For $198,000, you can get a new three-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot house from Standard Pacific Homes, complete with two-car garage, marble sinks and extensive landscaping.

But you'll have to move to Dallas or Phoenix.

To buy a similar Standard Pacific house in San Jose, you pay $665,000 -- more than three times as much.

So, is it really three times better in San Francisco than in other large cities in the nation?  I mean, from what I understand, I could even move to other coastal cities such as Los Angeles for a fraction of what I'd pay here in San Francisco.

Is SF really all that?  I've had lingering doubts, frankly... increasingly becoming tired of the stratification, the little enclaves of walled-off "diversity," the holier-than-thou political correctness run amok, and the ever-present fog over my rent-controlled-but-still-ridiculously-priced-apartment that I share with my 40-year-old (also bitter) roommate.

And speaking of bitter... forgive me for being a bit on the ranting side today, but, well, it's Monday.  And yet another one of my friends just got laid off and will be unable to afford his cool apartment anymore... the same one he used for frequent entertaining social events.  I'll miss those parties.  But more importantly, it's just like another nail in the coffin for him and for me.

Maybe I never really belonged here in the Bay Area.  Maybe it's time to leave before I get an even less subtle kick in the ass.

Hello world.