LASnark just broke the news about Governor Schwarzenegger’s plan to fix California. Since the elected guys have no idea what to do, they’re asking the internet.

The Governor would like your suggestions via Twitter. Simply post your idea, followed by #MyIdea4CA. I tweeted mine, which referred back to an earlier post here on Metblogs. All suggestions become part of an ongoing forum at myidea4ca.com.

Why didn’t Villaraigosa think of this?

From the AP:

Controller John Chiang said Friday he must delay $3.7 billion in payments next month because lawmakers have failed to address California’s growing deficit.

Let me get this straight…

1. A tax refund is money that you owe us because we overpaid you on taxes.
2. You failed to do the job that we, the taxpayers, elected you to do.
3. You now want to keep our money a little longer.

Anyone else find this outrageous? Anyone else find this to be a complete failure? Anyone else ready to march from Los Angeles to Sacramento and fire everyone?

The Republicans argued that, because Obama did not campaign during the quick journey to Hawaii, it should not have been a campaign expense.

That sound you just heard was probably your lunch, making its return trip.

So I first read about CrazyBlindDate.com in the San Francisco Thrillist newsletter and I thought, “Wow, this sounds like a palm sweatingly fun adventure.” Unfortunately, it was only happening in a few select cities and Los Angeles was not one of them. A few weeks later I heard that they were trying it in new cities including L.A.  I was kind of on the fence about doing it but my friend (who also signed up) convinced me that anyone who would sign up for this kind of thing had to be fun, or at least interesting, like ourselves.

The registration process begins with logging into, or signing up for, an OKCupid.com account and filling in a profile for CrazyBlindDate. I supplied them with some basic information like my name, age, gender, height, body type, ethnicity. Then answered few open ended questions like what I look like, “things I’m good at talking about” and what I expect from a date. You have to upload a picture but they blur it so potential dates can only really see that you aren’t invisible. After you meet they reveal the photo to your date, you know, in case you got too drunk to remember what your date looked like at the beginning of the night.
Once my information was all set they got into the whole deal of setting up a date. The site asked if I would like to go on a single or double date. At first I asked some friends to do the double date thing with me, you know so I can talk to them later about how great or awful our dates were. Since you can sign up for more than one potential date at a time I also signed up for a single as well, I thought it would be good chance for me to work on my game. I was able to specify what days and times I would be available for a rendez-vous, the site allows you to give your availability a week at time. It’s all very clinical but they try to make it fun with little quips and exclamation marks! There was another page or two of forms asking more open ended questions as well as areas of L.A. that you’d be willing to trek to. When you’re done with that all you just sit and wait.

It was a long while (about 4 days) before I finally got an email from CBD saying they had found a potential date for me. I’m guessing the user base started out pretty small since the site was so new, or new to L.A. at least. I didn’t get any potential dates matches for the double date I had signed up for. I logged into my account, took a look at his profile and choose one of the five options CBD gave of where we should meet up.

I was nervous going into it and I figured the best way to go about it was to not have any expectations and just treat it as a 30 minute conversation with a stranger (CBD recommends keeping date lengths at around 30 minutes). I wasn’t expecting to find someone actually dateable, partly because I like to think I’d probably never date someone who would sign up for a dating site. Irony! I was a little worried that I might have to sit there for another 20 minutes if I found him annoying or insulting in the first 10 minutes. Since I was worried about being late, I ended up getting there an 30 minutes early and sent a text to the CBD texting number which relays messages back and forth allowing me to talk to my date without having to exchange any kind of information. Even though I had tried not to expect anything, he wasn’t what I was expecting. He was indeed everything he had said in his profile, I think I just put the facts together differently in my head.

We actually got along pretty well and having a conversation was much easier than I had imagined it would be. Maybe it was the luck of the draw or maybe the CBD matchmaking robot actually works but we seemed to have quite a bit in common so far as interests go. We ended up talking for way past 30 minutes. It had been almost an hour and a half before we finally decided to call it a night. The ending was a little awkward when he asked if I wanted to exchange contact information. I remember the site saying that we could determine that afterwards during the follow-up. After your date you are supposed to log back in and rate how the date went. This helps the matchmaker robot find better dates for you in the future and positive reviews for you will mean you are considered for more potential dates.

It wasn’t a particularly good or bad experience, and I’ll probably do it again just to meet people and maybe collect some interesting first date stories. I think someone would have to go on a lot of crazy blind dates if he or she was looking for something more substantial, but you never know.

It looks like it might be a great year! There are tiny poppy plants germinating everywhere, and a handful of flowers are now scattered around. Most seem to be along the sidewalk between the visitor center and picnic area, and around the parking lot…Otherwise, no fields of flowers yet, but we expect in the next week or two it potentially could go off the hook- stay tuned…The wildlife is returning- gliding hawks, singing meadow larks, and lizards zipping across the trail. Lizards coming out also means rattlesnakes are coming out, so stay on the trail!

I’ve been twice to see the fields of poppies in the last few years and it is spectacular. As they recommend on their site, bring sunscreen and prepare for it to be windy. As it is a bit of a drive (60 minutes depending on traffic) plan to spend a few hours: bring a picnic and your walking shoes for the easy trails through the fields. If you want to see more than just poppies, there are tons of other wildflowers also blooming around Los Angeles and points not far beyond. Click into the jump for more flower viewing resources.

The Theodore Payne Foundation is a “nonprofit organization dedicated to the understanding and preservation of California native flora.” They have a hotline you can call to find out where all the pretty flowers are blooming. Narrated by actor Joe Spano, the hotline is updated every Thursday from March through May and has info on over 90 wildflower sites. That number is 818-768-3533. Or you can click the “Wildflower Hotline” link on their site to read the weekly update.

Of course when I am out in the fields, I can’t help but think of the Wicked Witch saying “Poppies. Poppies. Poppies will put them to sleep.” (Can you hear her?)

(Image from Wikipedia and used under the GNU Free Documentation License.)