Photogenia

Well, I finally went and bought a real actual camera. It's a Canon PowerShot SD400, and it's in the back of a UPS truck at this very moment.

I took a photography class in college, and although my college was a bit behind the times and only offered film photography, I still loved it. I've tried to get my fix elsewhere, but my Treo takes horrible shots and film cameras are too much hassle. So I finally bit the bullet and went digital.

I can't wait for the package to arrive so I can rip the box open, throw packing peanuts out of the way, and start snapping away at the beautiful scenery around here. Maybe I'll finally have the motivation to update my photography portfolio. Or at the very least, I'll be one gadget closer to geek nirvana. Either way, you'll hear about it.

Productivity is overrated

I did absolutely nothing today. I planned to do a ton of catching up on client work, and maybe take a shot at the growing pile of laundry in the closet. I did neither, and I feel horrible about it.

On the other hand, I did get something done today that I'm proud of: organizing my iPods to perfection.

I have a third generation 15 GB iPod and a newer 2 GB iPod nano. The older iPod's battery is in its final throes and is now a permanent fixture in my car thanks to a RoadTrip. The nano accompanies me everywhere and I often pull it out while I'm walking around SF during the work day. They were both kind of a mess until today. Now they're spotless.

On the iPod:

• 10 gigs of my favorite songs (selected by highest play counts), except the ones that I've played in the last week. This keeps the good ones coming, but allows for a little variety as long as I remember to sync the iPod every week or so.


• The latest 4 gigs of songs I've recently added, except podcasts and videocasts. This gives them a fair chance to catch up in play counts.


• My top 100 songs, selected by play count. These are my all-time faves. (For the curious, the number 1 spot is currently a dead heat between "Stay Don't Go" by Spoon and "Sugar Pill" by Ambulance Ltd.)


• My "carpool mix" of passenger-friendly songs, selected manually. This is usually a purposefully bland hipster-soothing blend of Death Cab, Coldplay, and the like. Although I throw in something like Massive Attack every once in a while to make them squirm.

On the nano:

• 1 gig of my favorite songs, except the ones that I've played in the last week.


• The latest 800 megs of songs I've recently added, except podcasts and videocasts.

Simple, logical, and thanks to smart playlists in iTunes, very low maintenance.

I still have to live with the guilt of putting off paid work to tinker with my music. But at least I have a soundtrack to accompany the guilt. ;-)

Too cool for the Swedish Grammys

My musical taste has been swinging like a pendulum lately, from the organic to the artificial and back. After my obsession with LCD Soundsystem, I drifted over towards the wholesome Vince Gueraldi-flavored man-and-guitar stylings of Sufjan Stevens before swinging back to the electronic with Jamiroquai's latest fuzz-bass funkfest, and finished by learning that a slide guitar can occasionally be cool from the southwestern alt-country of Calexico. What a ride.

Oh, but it's not over yet. My friend Jenny has introduced me to The Knife, a semi-obscure Swedish brother-sister duo. Their latest album, Deep Cuts, contains a number of infectious tunes with memorable lyrics like "You make me like charity / Instead of paying off taxes." Jenny and I especially dig the steel drums on "Pass This On." Have I mentioned the irrefutable fact that Jenny rocks? Indeed.

But there's a funny side-story in all this. Remember that Bravia ad I got all excited about? The soundtrack to that ad is a song called "Heartbeats" performed by José González, a Swedish singer-songwriter. (Yes, it's possible for a guy named José González to be Swedish. Who knew!) It's an original, right? No way, José. It's a cover of the original song, which was written by — drumroll please — The Knife!

It's a small world, innit? (And now that song is in my head. Curses!)

Spirits of Shellmound, aisle 3

I decided to take a jaunt to the Bay Street Mall in Emeryville yesterday, what with it supposedly being the biggest shopping day of the year. I didn't really have anything in particular to buy, but I thought I might check out the Apple Store. There's always something to pine for there.

I parked my car and started to walk, and almost immediately found myself in the middle of some kind of protest. People were chanting what sounded like some sort of Native American ritual song. Interested, I decided to stay and watch.

All different kinds of people were represented. You had your typical Berkeley post-hippie white woman with beads in her hair and "No Blood For Oil" pin on her hemp backpack. There were a couple black men, one wearing a Bob Marley shirt. And there were three or four Tibetan monks playing drums. But the majority of the crowd was comprised of members of the Ohlone Indian tribe, some in full ritual costume.

I was enjoying the parade of juxtaposed stereotypes when somebody handed me a flyer. It explained that the Bay Street Mall was built right on top of an ancient burial site, and all these people were joining together to urge people not to shop at a place that doesn't respect the sacred sites of indigenous people.

An Ohlone man gave a speech while the group gathered in a circle around him and passed burning incense around. A small boy climbed the mound marking the entrance to the mall and held a red flag. I stood and thought for a moment, taking in the incense from the crowd and watching idly as the traffic flew by on the nearby street. Then I walked back to my car and drove away. It wasn't an intentionally political or social choice. I just heard what they were saying, and I agreed. I can't guarantee that I'll never go back to the mall, but for that moment, I felt it was the right thing to do. Perhaps a protest is more than the spectacle.

I heart Kari, too

Ever since the show began, MythBusters has been a favorite of mine. For those of you who haven't seen it (and yes, there are a few), they basically take urban legends and myths and prove or disprove them with the good ol' scientific method. There are a lot of explosions, meltings, and other surprises along the way, which makes for good TV.

And my favorite MythBusting gal is Kari. Very smart, very funny, a wonderfully creative artist, talented builder, and she's... how do you say... muy bonita? Of course, I'm not alone in my admiration. But since the show is based in SF, perhaps I'll run into her on the street someday. At which point I'll blush like crazy, mumble something about an autograph, and stumble shyly away.

Thankstaking

A coworker asked what my Thanksgiving plans were today. I didn't have any, but I hadn't given it much thought. I guess part of striking out on my own was an assumption that for a while, I'd be spending some holidays alone. I don't mind so much. I'm not antisocial, but I do enjoy having some space.

But to be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to a four-day weekend with nothing at all to do. It's not that I couldn't find some more touristy spots; I just feel like I should ration those if I'm planning on being here for a year or more. (Which I am, I think.)

Anyway, it came as a surprise to me when aforementioned coworker asked if I'd like to join her for Thanksgiving. I said yes, of course, and agreed to make brownies. (Or, buy mix and bake them, anyway.) I'm not sure at all what the event will entail, but it's got to be better than buying a pre-cooked turkey from Safeway and eating it alone in a tiny apartment.

Incidentally, what kind of music do you play for Thanksgiving? There's Christmas music, New Year's music, Valentine's Day music, but nothing for Thanksgiving. As a guy who prides himself on his mix CDs, I'm feeling adrift this week.

Alcatraz by night

I woke up today in full tourist mode. Putting on a loud tropical shirt and packing my iPod, I hopped on BART and whisked myself over to the city to do my best "I'm just visiting, do you know where I could find a map?" impression.

Immediately after surfacing above Embarcadero Station, I witnessed a quintessential San Francisco moment. A street performer with a drum kit was jamming away on the sidewalk; meanwhile, a cable car had parked nearby and the operator was jamming right along with the drummer with the bell of the cable car. The two of them passed the rhythm back and forth for a few minutes before the cable car continued on its way. Smiles all around.

After some wandering up the Embarcadero for a bit, I grabbed the F-line to Fisherman's Wharf. (With a couple cute gals speaking the Queen's English. Rawr.) At the Wharf, crowds of people were taking pictures, crossing against the red, and stopping without warning to point at maps thoughtfully. I turned up the 'Pod and found lunch at In-N-Out.

I wandered around for a while and discovered some interesting spots I hadn't seen before. The historical ship exhibit on the Hyde St. Pier is really interesting, and a friend tells me the submarine has its own audio tour and everything. Neato! Maybe I'll try it next time. When 4:00 rolled around, it was time to board the boat. A flock of seagulls escorted us past a beautiful sunset on the way to Alcatraz Island.

The island is actually much bigger than I expected it to be, and much more accessible. They even had a golf-cart-driven tram for people who needed help getting up the hill. Of course, it's a national park, but I was still expecting something more hostile and rugged.

After a much too schoolteacherly guide led us up the hill, we were given small MP3 players and unleashed for the audio tour. I expected a cheesy, over-dramatic soap opera vaguely resembling history. What I got pleasantly surprised me. The audio was narrated entirely by former inmates and guards of Alcatraz, and kept my attention throughout the tour. It moved along briskly, but gave decent instructions about which way to walk and which door to look at. The annoying part was the mass of people who turned and walked in exactly the same direction simultaneously. Eventually, I paused my tour for a few minutes and picked it up again when the peloton had moved ahead.

The audio also had a nearly constant background of jail-house noises which changed based on which section of the prison you were in. In writing, this sounds super cheesy, but in execution it added immensely to the solemn and menacing atmosphere of the abandoned penitentiary. If I could change anything about the tour, I'd make it longer.

It's really difficult to imagine living in such a confined, controlled environment. Like the tour said, the few windows in the cell block offered spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, and the Bay. The prisoners could see what they were missing out on. On New Year's Eve, they could even hear the singing and laughing from Fisherman's Wharf if the wind was moving in the right direction. It must have been an eerie place to be.

But in many ways, it seemed that it wasn't a horrible place. The food was good, the weather was bearable, and there was a "music hour" every night during which the prisoners could play instruments. One prisoner even described a game he taught himself to play in the pitch black of the isolation cells. Still not something I'd want to experience, but perhaps not as bad as the movies would lead us to believe.

Sailing away after dark from the blinking light beacon of Alcatraz towards the skyline of the city was magical. Tourist trap or not, Alcatraz rocks.

Date with the Gate

As I had mentioned, my plan for today was to go to Alcatraz. Tourist mode, full speed ahead! But until about 10:30, sleep was more important to me, and after that, they had sold out of tickets. So I'm scheduled to go tomorrow.

Lacking other plans, I decided to go on a road trip around the Bay. At first, I was very literally going to drive around the Bay — up to Richmond and across to Marin, down on 1 through SF to as far as Half Moon Bay, then east through San Jose and back up the other side — but I quickly realized the amount of time and gas involved in that plan was ridiculous. I shortened it to the improvised route in the map at the left.

I had never driven the Richmond bridge before. Now I have. Not sure what else to say about it. It's an ugly bridge, but at least nothing fell on me.

After passing the prison at San Quentin, the landscape surrounding southbound highway 101 turned lovely! Beautiful inlets speckled with sailboats, and rocky hills dotted with expensive-looking houses and condos. Through a tunnel (I love road tunnels) and onto an exit, and I was in Sausalito. I had packed a lunch, so I took it to a bench near the harbor and admired the view of San Francisco.

After a little confusion as to the proper method of returning to 101, I was on my way over the Golden Gate Bridge. I'd passed over on my bike before, but never driven over it. The two-way traffic keeps you on your toes, that's for sure.

I then took an aimless jaunt down 101 through the city, but realized that I'd rather be closer to the coast. Most of the reason for the drive in the first place was to find some scenic places, and Van Ness isn't. So west again through the Presidio to the ocean! The wind was unusually calm today, so the surf was pretty low. I overheard some surfers complaining about the lack of waves. Dude.

Hopping back into the car and heading south along the Great Highway, I run right out of San Francisco and into Daly City. The horror! I hit the E-brake and pulled a U-turn back into oncoming traffic, tore over a grass median, and returned north. (Well, not really. But that's pretty exciting.) I wander over towards Mount Sutro, thinking I could get up to the tower and take some cool pictures. Instead, I end up getting lost, giving up, and returning north over the Golden Gate. No toll, hooray!

At this point, there's still plenty of daylight left to burn. So I decide to stop at the recreation area in the Marin headlands and admire the view. I do love the Golden Gate Bridge. The Battery Spencer lookout point makes it an easy one to photograph, even if you only have a crappy Treo camera handy. But if we're talking bridges, the west span of the Bay Bridge is still my favorite. Its criss-crossed tower design looks cool, and it's beautifully lit at night. Goldie gets points for being red, though. Actually, these may be the best pictures I've taken on my Treo, but that's not saying much.

The sun begins to set and a different kind of PDA begins to emerge, so I decide to head home. Tomorrow: The Rock.

A little craigslist goes a long way

I just replied to a personal ad on craigslist. I've never done the personals thing before, but one of them caught my attention. Plus, I'm bored and surfing the web on a Friday night, and that has got to change. I really need some East Bay acquaintances.

I wish I had something more charming, witty, and exciting to say. Maybe if I get a reply, that will change too. ;-) In the meantime, this kid will make up for the imagination that I'm lacking right now. Go Rotobots!

An ad with balls

A client had an emergency this morning, and the appointment dragged right over lunch and into the afternoon like faulty landing gear drags over the tarmac. But when I was finally free for lunch, it was 4:30. So lunch hour turned into a early drive home! And I got to play around with a couple of these monsters for most of the day. So it wasn't all bad.

On an unrelated, yet completely non-sequitur, note...

I have found 180 seconds of video that is guaranteed to give you the warm fuzzies and temporarily cure any stress you may be feeling. Yes, it's an ad for a TV. But if you ignore the last few seconds, it's still a work of art. And it was filmed in my lovely city! Check it out.

From zero to loser in two seconds

If you like the video shorts on Rocketboom, take a gander at Apollo Pony.

One of the snippets there is a clip of a guy folding a T-shirt in two seconds. Then I learned there's an entire website devoted to the art of folding a T-shirt in less than two seconds. "How pathetic," I thought. Then I spent the next hour mastering the two-second fold. How pathetic indeed.

On a side note, I'd like thank Phil for being so gosh-darned funny, and Susan for pointing out his aforementioned funniness. Great stuff!

The view from the top

After work, I was close to Coit Tower and felt like climbing some stairs, so up I went. (Actually, the stairs inside the tower itself were closed. An antique elevator operated by a friendly Chinese man greeted me at the ground floor and whisked me up.)

The sun had already set by the time I arrived at the tippy-top, but I still got a few good snaps on my cell phone of the surrounding cityscape. Great views of both bridges, Alcatraz, and the skyscrapers in the Financial. I could even see my apartment across the Bay! Pretty neat, and well worth the $3.75 ticket.

I've lived in the Bay area for just over three months now, but still haven't done a lot of touristy things like this. I guess I tend to get trapped in the fallacy that "only tourists ride cable cars, and I'm a local, so I refuse to do it." Well, that's just the sort of snobbery that makes fledgling Californians like myself shy away from the fun stuff there is to do around here. So no more. This weekend I'm hitting up Alcatraz. Birdman, here I come!

I heart Amanda

I'm a total fanboy for the iTunes podcast/videocast support, and one of my favorite discoveries has been Rocketboom. And it's not just because I have a crush on Amanda. (Although that's true too.)

Rocketboom is a daily news vlog with a slant towards the geeky internet culture side of things. Short video clips are often included in the compilation of news for the day, and they frequently do in-depth episodes about a particular topic. (This week's explanation of RSS was particularly interesting, I thought.) But it's always interesting and well-edited, and I applaud the Rocketboom team for a job well done!

Bear in mind we all fall behind from time to time

So I get on these music kicks every once in a while. I had a Cake phase, a Scissor Sisters phase (obligatory in this town), and the Guero-induced Beck phase. And here I go again.

LCD Soundsystem is my artist of the moment. From the moment I fired up Daft Punk Is Playing at My House, I was stuck. Disco Infiltrator and Losing My Edge are great earworms to acquire as well.

But what's particularly interesting about this group is how I stumbled upon them. iTunes, my music acquisition software of choice, recently added a feature called "Just for You." It's nothing earth-shattering; just takes what you've bought from iTunes and makes recommendations based on that. But iTunes's implementation of the RIYL feature is different because it's interactive. You can tell it if you already own, or don't like, one of their recommendations. It takes the feedback and learns from it, and grows into an unstoppable force of consumerism. And I am ashamed to admit that I ate it up. I spent a full hour clicking "Already Own It," "Don't Like It," and "Show Me More!" Now the iTunes QA people are trying to find a way to turn me off.

Anyway, LCD Soundsystem was one of the recommendations that actually made it all the way to being an actual purchase. Kind of like a bill becomes law, but less cartoony.

What's in a name?

Well, I suppose I had better explain the name. I commute to work over the Bay Bridge every day. Work ends at 5:30, and if I'm lucky I'll get back to my East Bay apartment by 6:00. Most days I'm not that lucky.

So it's simple, relevant, and as far as I could tell relatively original. Unless you count this place.

I hate blogging

Call me aging, but the idea of voluntarily posting my inner thoughts onto a website for all to read and interpret seems like a massive mistake. And if some of the blogs I've seen are any indication, there's a whole lot of people talking but not saying much, and I don't want to add to the noise.

However, recently I've reconsidered my stance for a couple reasons. First, I'm going through a big transition in my life right now - new city, new job, new friends - and it might be interesting to look back in a couple years and see how it all turned out. Second, I'm bored and need a new thing to experiment with, so this is it. Finally, despite my willingness to accept the opposite, I may actually come up with a few interesting things to say. Here's hoping...

So, welcome. If you're reading this, I trust you a whole lot more than the average guy. We'll see where it goes from here.