In the world of the Internet, I checked out Tolerance.org recently which is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center that has some intersting and positive ideas about equality between people. One of the most haunting activities is the hidden bias tests which present you with a way to explore your "hidden biases"--essentially your initial gut responses--toward race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. The tests are Java applets that present you with images or words and ask you to sort them into two categories quickly by picking left or right (E-key or I-key.) The skin-tone bias test, for example, starts out by having you sort words like "accomplishment" and "anger" into categories "good" and "bad", then faces by skin tone into dark or light (using iconic faces.) The meat of the test happens when they combine both the words and the icons and have you put them in the left column if the item is a picture of a dark-skinned person or if it's a "good" word and right for light-skinned or "bad." It's not a hard test to do--if it were colors (red, green) and words (animal, mineral) for instance, you'd cruise right along and never make a mistake. However, if you were biased in some way to associate things one way or another, you'll trip up and reveal your bias.

I pretty much did worse than I thought. I took three tests--I have a bias against dark-skinned people and against gays, but oddly find women associated with math and science. Although I'm kind of bummed about the results, I think I do a good job of compensating for my biases. Nonetheless, it's an eye-opening experience and the rest of the site has resources to help you better yourself.

In the world of real life, I did some intersting things, let me tell you. Let's see ... on Thursday night I went to The Atomic Eggplant (75 Marshall St., formerly the City Grill) for lunch--which, by the way, is our Saturday lunch destination this week. It was really good vegetarian food ... I got a bean soup and a lentil burger sandwich, both of which were really good. After that I headed over to The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) Well, actually they weren't open yet so I killed some time down at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) before heading back where I got to see The Post who do grinding, powerful, ethereal 3-piece rock (as best as I can describe.) I think they're from Indiana.

On Saturday I got to see the Bee Eater video at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) along with their show along with The Flour City Knuckleheads. I brought along all the cameras and got some okay pictures ... I think lost my touch a bit. Nonetheless, here's some of the better ones. Around 12:30 I headed over to Richmond's (21 Richmond St.) but missed The Witching because for some reason they played second ... Regardless, it was fun to see Purrs again.

Monday night I went to Olive Tree (165 Monroe Ave.) for lunch (did I mention I got President's Day off?) and got a Kota Exohike which is chicken breast, feta cheese and artichoke hearts folded and baked in filo pastry. It was really good ... it's too bad they're not open Saturdays for lunch. That night I went to Ristorante Lucano (1815 East Ave.) for the local Slow Food meeting. Michael Warren Thomas (who has several shows on WYSL 1040 AM) is the local representative ... e-mail him if you want to get in. Anyway, for $35 ($30 for Slow Food members) you get a multi-course meal and a glass of house wine. This dinner consisted of appetizers (bruschetta and mini-stromboli) a lentil based soup with pastina, and a meat dish consisting of swordfish, pork, and layered potatoes (kinda like lasagne but made from potatoes instead of pasta.) For dessert there was cheesecake and this chocolate mousse combo thing with cream puffs inside. Overall it was really really good. I thought the people were okay too--everyone pretty much knew enough to stay off the touchy topics.

Oh yeah, and on Sunday I was considering seeing The Shipping News at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) because it's supposed to be a really good band but instead decided to hang out with friends and watch the 300th episode of The Simpsons. I don't know about everyone else, but you'd think they would have put some effort into it ... it was a decent episode, but I expected a full-out super extravaganza. I tell you this: I can't believe they wasted my time, and I'll never trust FOX again!

(Owwww! My eyes!)

• The Quiet American (at The Little) - A love triangle between a British opium addict, a young American, and a Vietnamese beauty.
• Dark Blue - Another racially-charged movie about Los Angeles police officers.
• Gods and Generals - The rise and fall of the Civil War's Stonewall Jackson.
• The Life of David Gale - A guy opposed to capital punishment is sentenced to death ! How fucking ironic!
• Old School - Some old guys decide to start a fraternity instead of the sorority Chi Iota Omicron and then put up those wireless cameras all over the place.

The controversy that accompanied this year's County budget proposal, debate and ultimate amendment may be repeated in 2003. There are projections of even greater deficits looming for 2004. Some of the key leaders who helped resolve this year's crisis and some of the community leaders who lobbied vigorously for a budget solution that served the entire community will share their views of what we can expect this year. Will the bipartisan spirit in the County Legislature prevail? What do the findings of the Blue Ribbon Commission on County Finances tell us about our future? Learn what our panelists believe each of us can do to help avert another political and budgetary crisis.

Legend credits the invention of go to two Chinese emperors somewhere between 2357 B.C. and 255 B.C. Since then, the game and all of its infinite complexities have been discussed in contemporary film ("Pi") and used to settle bloody wars. The game of go is a metaphor of the gradual occupation of our planet by the human race. The board's sides represent coastlines. The corners are islands, or peninsulas. The center represents continents where the population has no access to the sea. But how is it played? And what is its cultural significance after centuries of existence?