‘General’ Category
-
Corporate busses, who runs ‘em?
2May 10, 2013 by Dan
Corporate busses are a thing in San Francisco. I’m not going to comment here on whether they’re a Good Thing or a Bad Thing – I’m probably too close to that argument. But what I did start thinking about when I was going for my morning run today was… How come nobody has come up with a list of all the companies that run shuttles? Then, I realized that I am the guy who decided to document all the police agencies who can arrest you in San Francisco. I’m probably the guy to do this. Please note that this list is just from inside my head and what I’ve seen. If there are more, add them in the comments and I’ll update. Fair? Google – Big white busses, run by SFO shuttle Apple – Big gray busses, not sure who runs them Facebook – Big white or blue busses, run by SFO shuttle Genentech – Branded, so you’ll always know who they are LinkedIn – Just graduated to big ones, run by Bauer’s, I think. Electronic Arts – Big branded Bauer’s busses Yahoo! – Never seen ‘em – they don’t run through my area eBay – Never seen ‘em. Cisco – White, functional, SFO shuttles Box – Large blue busses Dropbox – New kids on the block – just saw their small Bauer’s airport-rental-car-size shuttle the other day That’s what I’ve seen lately. I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that the guys at Stamen made an amazing map of these busses. It’s already outdated – the big tech companies are all doing it these days.
Category General | Tags:
-
Cosplaying
0May 9, 2013 by Dan
I’m not a cosplayer. I’m not into cosplaying, don’t go to conventions, dress up, or even put on a costume for Bay to Breakers. So that’s my introduction to the part where I say that this article about cosplaying is one of the best things I’ve read online in a while. Good writing about an interesting, sorta-obscure-but-really-a-thing subject. Isn’t that what journalism should be? On another note, I’m writing this from a bus, and we just passed a group of outdoor personal-training types who were bending down and lifting balls up and over their shoulders, alternating with each lift. Then a couple of sleeve-tattooed chefs taking out the compost at Delfina. At 7:45 am, though, San Francisco is 40% people in workout gear.
Category General | Tags:
-
Writing and acceleration
0May 2, 2013 by Dan
I often think about the concept of acceleration when I’m writing; the way I do things is pretty consistent. 1) Look at what I’ve done recently (say, yesterday). Hate it. Decide to look at something else. 2) Come back to document, change a sentence or two in yesterday’s work to make it slightly less odious. Go look at some other things. 3) Write a sentence or two, then think a bit about what I’m trying to write and where it’s going to go. 4) Finish a paragraph, then go look at something else. 5) Write another paragraph, then another. At this point, I’m pretty much typing, not paying attention to anything else online, in the real world, the person sitting at the table next to me, or anything else. I’m not writing as fast as I can physically type, but I’m doing pretty close. It’s a great feeling – similar to careening down a smooth-roaded hill on a bicycle or feeling the wind in your hair as you go faster in a go-kart. 6) Hit the wall. It’s usually external (have to go to the bathroom, the bus I’m on gets to its destination), but sometimes it’s just…well, I’m done. I’m averaging about 500 words/day right now, which is not too great – 1000 is a number that makes me feel like I’ve done something with my day. I’m fitting it in on my bus commute when there’s not other work to do, which is an interesting way to get the external wall. So that’s how I work. And sometimes I include this blog in that work…but sometimes not.
Category General | Tags:
-
Two ways to start a day
0April 25, 2013 by Dan
1) Read Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan. It’s amazing. Best morning ever. 2) Felt a little sting as I put my contact lenses in, realized that they were going to be unwearable today, but only realized that after I was on the bus on the way to work. Now, everything’s blurry. Sigh.
Category General | Tags:
-
MS Facebook mashup
0April 22, 2013 by Dan
It came to my attention the other day that if you use Hotmail, you automatically receive the Facebook profile picture of the person sending you an email, if that person has a FB account. How is this useful? I think that there is a dividing line (in my head, at least) between informal forms of communication (Facebook) and the more formal (email). It blurs the line a bit, and it just feels weird, and I would like to have some control over this sort of thing. Other than just “delete your Facebook account” – for various reasons I can’t do that these days.
Category General | Tags:
-
Running
0April 15, 2013 by Dan
I started running when I was fifteen, on the high school track team. Twenty-two years later, I still run, and I still run with a team, even though I run alone. I lace up my shoes at six thirty in the morning, jog through the city gloom to Golden Gate Park and put in the miles. I’m running the San Francisco Marathon this year – my second – and up until today I was a little worried about how it was going to go. I’m not worried any more. I lived in Boston for four years after college. I watched the end of the Marathon on Boylston, and put in hundreds of miles of roadwork along the Charles River in the snow, the ice, and the summer heat. It was a great running town, a place where people train through the pain of a New England winter for the privilege of running in the greatest race in the world, in front of the largest, best group of running fans anywhere. I like running alone, sure. But I also nod hi to the other runners that I see early in the mornings as I run in the park. When I used to run in Boston I would give a heads-up to the other lunchtime runners along the Charles. When I lived in Chicago I would say hello to the other people who were crazy enough to go out and do a few miles along Lake Michigan in the frigid winds of February. Sure, I run alone, but even when I’m alone, I’m part of one really big team. Whoever set those bombs did it to my team. I cried for my teammates – those who I’ll never get to run with or high-five after an end-of-race sprint. We will all keep …
keep readingCategory General | Tags:
-
Golf, running, sports
0April 15, 2013 by Dan
I read a little bit this past weekend about Tiger Woods and the Rules of Golf. (I’m not going to link to it, it was all over the news) What I found funniest about the whole thing was the phrase “the Rules of Golf.” With capitalizations. Even when quoting someone. Wikipedia doesn’t capitalize in the article, but they do capitalize the book name. Either way they succeeded in making golf look even more like a game for bourgeois wankers. I’m with Neil Tyson on this one. I’ve also gone nuts and am running the San Francisco Marathon this year. This means that for the next few weeks I am going to be constantly sore, hungry, and a little grumpy. On the plus side, I was running in Golden Gate Park this past weekend, and was passed by a couple of college runners. One was wearing a T-Shirt that read Our sport is your sport’s punishment. Loved that.
Category General | Tags:
-
I love Shipping. Really.
0March 26, 2013 by Dan
When I was but a lad (well, OK, I was in my twenties) I was working on the 18th floor of the Bank of America building in downtown San Francisco. I liked the job just-kinda, but I loved the location. Downtown, fifteen minutes on my bike from my apartment, walking distance for lunch to Chinatown, North Beach, and the sandwich-factories of the financial district. A few days per week I’d bring my lunch and eat it in our lunch room, which was perhaps the best part of all. The lunch room was on a corner, and each side had an enormous picture window. One looked right smack into the skyscraper across the way, which was topped by several granite statues of faceless women. The other had a nearly-unobstructed view of the bay. I would sit there and eat my sandwich or my Trader Joe’s Rice Bowl and watch the boats sail on the bay. After a few months of this, I started to really notice the cargo ships full of containers. Where were they coming from? What was inside? How big were they, actually? Back then, the San Francisco Chronicle would publish the schedule of vessels coming in and leaving the Port of Oakland, and there was usually a copy lying around. So I would bring in my binoculars and happily compare the listings in the paper to the enormous, hulking ship on the water. I left that job, and the wonderful lunch window, but whenever I was running on the Embarcadero or hiking at Land’s End, I would stop and stare when a container ship went by. It wasn’t that they were beautiful (although, as you will see below, they can be)…it was, I think, what they represented. Each ship, from so far away, full of so many things …
keep readingCategory General | Tags:
-
One neat dude
0March 26, 2013 by Dan
I was coming back from the grocery store the other day, and I saw this guy: And I know I’m all “the world is a wonderful place these days, but…man. That’s a very Mustachian way to transport a grill, isn’t it?
Category General | Tags:
-
The world is a wonderful place
2March 6, 2013 by Dan
I was thinking about that phrase just now. “The world is a wonderful place.” No, wait, let’s go ahead and make it better. “The world is a wonderful place!” OK, that’ll work. So, what’s put this into my now-in-my-late-30s, curmudgeonly head? I live in a small apartment in one of the most expensive cities in the world. When I went running this morning I ached and I was irritated because I was still hurting from a cold that had kept me laid up all weekend. As I ran, I passed by the graying piles of people who were sleeping on the sidewalks on Page Street, which is where most of the Haight homeless seem to crash these days. When I finished running I was still cold from the raw wind that made its way from the sea all the way to my front door. After running errands, I had to drive for 45 minutes to get to where I’m typing this, which is an office. But…let’s turn it around. I live in a small apartment that I share with someone I love very dearly, with whom I’m going to spend the rest of my time, ever. We keep it small because we have very few things, and we live here because we can do what we did last night – walk a few blocks to a neighborhood sushi joint and eat at the bar, eavesdropping on college kids as they gossiped about their sex lives. So fun. I ached this morning because I was back to running after only five days off. I was really sick, but I sure didn’t stay that way. I ran past the homeless, and that’s sad, but it’s a problem that I can’t solve on my own. And I’ve never been low enough to be …
keep readingCategory General | Tags:
-
A morning walk
0February 18, 2013 by Dan
This morning I walked from my house down to my favorite cafe. This is what I saw. A little further down… Then I passed a house that caught on fire last year. They’re rebuilding it, and the door was open. And then I saw this contrast. Then I came here and ate French toast with coffee and read a book. I’ve never been to my favorite cafe on weekend morning at eight before – it’s quiet, and a very different crowd than the afternoon-working crew I’m used to. I like it.
Category General | Tags:
-
Frightened Rabbits
0January 31, 2013 by Dan
No joke, the only band that tours that I make it a point to see these days is the boys from Frightened Rabbit. They have a new single, which is very exciting to me.
Category General | Tags:
-
Cops, San Francisco, a new one!
1January 28, 2013 by Dan
I have many, many obsessions (container ships are one. Burritos used to be one. And on and on), things that make me excited. One of them is San Francisco-based police agencies. There are a ton of police and police-like agencies in the city, and this past weekend I saw a car of one that I hadn’t added to my mental list. Which means that I should probably have a list that’s more than mental. So here’s the list: The San Francisco Police Department. The big guys. The Sheriff Department. Sadly, they are never chasing down the Dukes, but they run the jails and things. California Highway Patrol. They, obviously, handle the highways. But not security of the actual Golden Gate Bridge (see below). The BART Police. Infamous for the Oscar Grant thing, but they do have arresting powers right around stations, and underground. The San Francisco State University Police. I was never quite sure why they had cars, but while I was a grad student there, the cops I interacted with were fantastic. One helped me with a bike flat tire one time. The University of California, San Francisco Police. I’m assuming they’re similar to the State guys. University of San Francisco Public Safety. I’ve only seen one of their cars, once. They have a much smaller campus to deal with than the other schools. Now we’re going to start getting into the odder ones. San Francisco Park Rangers. They handle enforcement in all of the city parks. US Park Police. These guys handle all security and law enforcement on federal parks within the city – think the Presidio, Crissy Field, etc. The US Mint Police. Very special for us! There are only six offices of the Mint Police in the country, and our local one is actually in my …
keep readingCategory General | Tags:
-
New Year, New Stories, New Awesome
0January 10, 2013 by Dan
It’s 2013! For me, this is a big year because it marks the tenth anniversary of me moving back to California. I was looking through this site and trying to find out if there was any writing about that particular move here, but…there are over a thousand posts on this site. That’s quite a few posts. So anyway, I’ve been hear nine years, coming up on ten. I’ve had many jobs, obtained a master’s degree, met my (now) wife, partner, and greatest person in the world (really. She’s rad. She’s going to have a website soon, because she’s got a freelance writing career that’s better than mine ever was). I’m still workin’ away on the young adult thing, and moving a little slower on it than I’d truly like to. I’m training for a half marathon and (perhaps) a full marathon, and thinking about all of the wonderful places that we’re going to get to go this year, and all of the amazing things we’re going to get to see. I’m writing this in a situation that would have been physically impossible when I moved to this state – I’m on a bus from San Francisco to Menlo Park (none existed, and the company I’m working for didn’t exist), online with a Macbook (the bus has wifi. That’s crazy), writing on a blogging system that didn’t exist. I kinda like that – it means that some things are progressing. Even if it’s only technology.
Category General | Tags:
-
The things you see
0December 20, 2012 by Dan
Woke up this morning and went for a nice, easy run over in Golden Gate Park – a run I do at least twice per week as my basic 4.5. It was cold – not ice-sheets-near-sprinklers cold, not frosty-grass cold, but cold enough for me to see my breath and be happy that I’d layered up a bit before leaving the house. I think the most fascinating thing that I saw was…well, what I didn’t see. I didn’t see any large encampments of homeless folk near Alvord Lake. Just one guy on Page Street, huddled in a sleeping bag. Maybe the weather has driven people to shelters. I didn’t see hordes of kids headed to the Urban School, perhaps because it was too early for them to be dropped off. I did see a set of ominous clouds to the west; if it had been thirty minutes earlier, and I had been a sailor, I would have taken warning. I did see several other joggers, and a couple of women coming back from a long bike ride. As runs go, it wasn’t bad at all. I got home and thought – geez, am I lucky to be able to do this in the mornings.
Category General | Tags:
-
Pinning and Christmasing
0December 7, 2012 by Dan
So I got an email from Pinterest today, and I realized that I have looked at it perhaps twice, right when it was blowing up, and never since. So I went in and disabled all email (I get too much junk email, and try to do a look-and-unsubscribe at least once per month), which essentially shuts down my account. Which is fine. And I saw this post on Time via the Daily Dish about whether Facebook is killing the Christmas card, and I thought I’d ruminate on that for a minute or two. For some it is, sure. But if you’re like the writer and have 1500 friends (200 real, 1300 folks who you know online or met once at a work thing or whatever), you’re probably actually not seeing all of the things that your real, actual friends are posting. If they’re posting at all. Nina Burleigh’s reasoning is a bit off here, because she’s assuming that all those people on her list actually read and look at all of the stuff she’s putting up online. My money is that they don’t – they’ll skim, perhaps, but they won’t stop at every post, look at every photo, think about what those things mean to Burleigh as she posts. Facebook is kind of a passive experience – you throw stuff up there, and if your groups of friends have been following everything that’s going on with your life that you put up there, it may make a reasonably coherent story. But more often than not…no. I had an email back-and-forth with a real friend yesterday that illustrates the point. I saw on FB that they were in escrow on a house – I had no idea that they were moving. So I emailed and asked what’s up, which led to …
keep readingCategory General | Tags:
-
Odds and Ends and Commuting
1December 5, 2012 by Dan
I’m writing this from a bus, which is yet another one of those things that makes you think that We Are In The Future. It’s one of the San Francisco Corporate Shuttles that are either a major boon for the Bay Area environment, or the One Thing That Will Destroy The City. For me? It beats driving. But on this, my second day, I got to thinking about how incredibly lucky I am. For my entire post-college adult life – sixteen years, now – I have regularly driven to work exactly once, for six months. That was when I was living in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, working for a small Internet company, and living in a very crummy two-bedroom apartment (my rent was $275/month. Wow) with two housemates, two miles from our office. I drove every day. Since then, never. In my current job I drive places every now and then – but never more than once per week. This gig, although out of the city, at least enables me to not-drive. Don’t get me wrong – the three hours of commuting per day is pretty harsh – but at least I’m not in a car, stuck. So that’s a thing. I’ve also started writing something new, that I’m calling Dystopian YA Thing. See, it’s a dystopian thing that takes place in high school, and I’m trying not to use too many bad words, so that makes it, I think, YA-ish. My plan is to work on it on the bus as much as I can, and see where I can take it.
Category General | Tags:
-
Rodriguez
0November 26, 2012 by Dan
I was in a local cafe yesterday, having a bagel for breakfast. The cafe is the kind of local place where the owner is from Eritrea and has a PhD in economics, and has turned her place into a neighborhood clearinghouse for pretty much everything, with a great view of everything that goes on at the bus stop in front of the big window. I like it there. The music is usually something international – reggae, a bit of folk, maybe something jazzy. This particular morning, I thought I was listening to the Velvet Underground; the bass walked up and down in a jaunty way, the guitars strummed, and the singer had a sharp, very male voice, speak/singing words that made me want to tap my feet along and rewind them and listen again. I don’t have Shazam, so I wrote down some lyrics quickly and then Googled them up. And so I found Rodriguez. When I got home, I added Searching for Sugar Man to my Neflix Queue, but I might go see it in the theater. And so…that’s how you find art in the 2010s, I suppose. So different than how it was when I grew up.
Category General | Tags:
-
Medium – contest entry!
0November 19, 2012 by Dan
I went ahead and entered the short fiction writing contest over at Medium. My entry is here; it’s an old Charlie story that I happen to like very much. I really, really like the Medium editor.
Category General | Tags:
-
The Medium is Medium
0November 15, 2012 by Dan
I just signed up for Medium, mainly because I saw a link that they had for a job as a Storyteller, which is much more attractive than a title that starts with “Marketing…”, followed by any word. Medium is the Blogger guys, putting together a new platform. The idea behind the platform is to produce quality content. The Web and the world is awash in all kinds of words these days – I’m adding to the overload as I type here – and any effort to curate it is going to be welcome. As far as I can tell, they’re working on a share-and-recommend model, with a bit of a collection-of-things twist (how’s that for language?), all mixed together with a good bit of tech. I like the idea – finding quality stuff to read is a bit manual – but it makes me curious about several things. As happened when Quora came out, an abnormally large chunk of the stuff on Medium is about things that people care about in the Bay Area. Or, more specifically, things that people in a startup/tech culture care about. Lots of stuff about work, and about things that are ostensibly fun (music), written about in a very tech-type way. On the front page of Medium, as I write this, 14 of 24 articles fit broadly into that theme. I’m not saying that anything’s wrong with that at this point; they’re still in beta and are doing an invite-only thing for posters, and that means the people on the site will be people who the founders know, and early adopter types. People who care about that broad theme, and write interesting things about it. I think what I’m trying to get at here is that while the writing right now on Medium is good, …
keep readingCategory General | Tags:
