Famous Dave's

Famous Dave's is a newly open place at periphery of the mall, next to Olive Garden. Unanimous verdict of this family: avoid (and we rarely agree on anything). The problem is in the kitchen... I don't know who taught them to cook ribs, but it sure wasn't my aunt. In case you want to see a restaurant serving them as they were meant to be, visit Emille Villa (the nearest one is in Livermore, unfortunately, and I swore undying hatred to them due to their government being a bunch of sick road-destroying jerks, but you're free to patronize them).

Orchard

Orchard is terrific. It's homely, yet I have to say it's a cut above, for example, Denny's or even Lake of Fire (not to knock Lake of Fire, but speaking objectively). In the same time, it's nearly always empty. Score!

I really cannot say anything bad about them, except perhaps that their onion rings were not to my taste: too industrial. I like the kind they serve in Red Robin.

One note, the pancakes there are huge. I expected the same thing they have in IHOP, but had leave some on the place.

Overall, Orchard is my favourte in Tracy, period. It's not as fancy as Magellan, but not as expensive either. It's comfortable and inviting.

Mandarin Villa

Mandarin Villa is another old-time establishement in the Ace plaza (at the crossing of Tracy and Grant Line). It's not an all-out super-duper place like Princess of China in SF, but it's very solid and definitely Chinese. The chou mein, fried rice, and the duck were great. It would've been a shame to live in Tracy for years and not visit Mandarin Villa, but now I may move with clean conscience.

Bird in the Bay

State assembly flier

Politics is bad for blogging, but it's not like anyone reads this anyway. With that said, I received a flier from Cathleen Galgiani, a assemblymember for 17th district. It's vein-popping. Here, I go solely by contents of the flier, without any googling -- to show what I mean by "vein-popping".

AB 186 Rural Crimes Task Force

Not exactly sure why certain LEOs need this special help, sounds like an earmark.

AB 1428 Creating Energy from Poultry Waste

Bald-faced boonghole.

AB 447 College Preparatory Program - AVID

"Organizational and study skills"? What a joke. My daughter did not need any of that. And why is this done at state level? It's a job for the local tutoring club.

AB 1233 Free Homework Help

This is even worse, plus a high-tech boonghole.

AB 203 Mental Health Care

This sounds reasonable -- the only one of the two on the whole flier!

AB 1475 Shutting Down Child Pornography

The blurb is talking about mandatary reporting by "computer technicians". Is there an industry the do-gooders won't destroy in this state?! We have beter things to do than play cops. Sure, we report incidents if we come across that, but do you have any idea how much mandatory reporting costs? This is absolutely outrageous.

And of course this is "for the children". Jeez!

AB 426 Violent and Non-Violent Criminals

This sounds almost reasonable, if only we had money for it. So stop wasting my money on your stupid boongholes and build better prisons, goddamit. Then I might sign up for this bill.

AB 379 Life Imprisonment for Sex Offenders

This is bad primarily because tagging anyone with "sex offender" tag is ridiculousy easy. Also, the voters get fooled way too easily by the rhethoric on this issue. I've read the proposition we had on the ballot in March, it was an absolutely unimaginable Orwellinan nightmare, yet it passed! I'm not for putting more screws to so-called "sex offenders" until the state cleans up its act.

AB 3034 High Speed Rail

This is the mother of all boongholes. It's 50 times more expensive than building a toll-free "I-130" from San Jose to Patterson, for one tenth of its utility. Not on my watch, jerks!

AB 381 MediCal Fraud and Identity Theft

I suppose this is not too bad.

AB 660 Railroad Crossing Funding

I'm not quite sure how much grade separation we need, and what issues here are. This seems like a niche issue.

Conclusion

I would be happier to leave this state if New Mexico were any better. Unfortunately, I suspect it's not. They have just approved a salest tax increase to build a spaceport. On third thought, at least the spaceport tax expires.

And most importantly, where is activity to restore freedom to California? Are you doing anything to strike down the ridiculous ban on .50 caliber rifles, assemblymember Galgiani?