[BLOG] author: Nicole J. LeBoeuf

I told author: Nicole J. LeBoeuf a while back that at some point I'd get around to telling folks how much I like her "actually writing blog."

LeBoeuf is an inspiration in her willingness to say "I'm screwing around and need to get back to work" and her "read this blog and got these hints" and her "I'm working on XYZ and it is not going well" and, of course, her other writerly-related posts. This blog consists only of writerly-related posts and I like that focus.

Sometimes she posts too little because she's actually writing or off at Viable Paradise or busy doing something else, and then she's back on a semi-regular basis and ... life is good.

I like her snippets.

I like her focus.

I even like her whining.

[URL] passive-aggressive notes

passive-aggressive notes from roommates, neighbors, coworkers and strangers

for the purposes of this project, we're using a pretty broad (and to some extent, arbitrary) definition of "passive-aggressive" that roughly correlates with how the term is popularly used. (most people don't go diving for the dsm IV when someone describes his or her roommate as "so passive-aggressive" — or "so antisocial" or "so sadistic" or "so schizo," for that matter.)

some of the notes here are really more aggressive in tone, and some of them are more passive — polite, even — but they all share a common sense of frustration that"s been channeled into a written note rather than a direct confrontation. while it may be more accurate, "asshole-ish notes from roommates, neighbors, coworkers and strangers" (or "well-deserved notes from roommates…") just doesn't roll off the tongue quite as easily, you know?

Read 'em. Send in your own.

A companion blog to wrongkmiller.

[Thanks, cygnoir!]

[URL] WRONGKMILLER.com

Ah. The Web's a Wonder.

"Towse" isn't exactly the most common last name in the States (more like 77,020th most popular last name (surname) in the United States [ref: http://www.placesnamed.com/t/o/towse.asp]), so I don't get too many wrong e-mails addressed to a different s.towse, but Miller is a different story.

kmiller claims that Miller is the seventh-most popular surname in the States. (which placesnamed.com confirms)

Nearly five out of ever 100 people is a miller.

[actually 0.424%: k.miller didn't grok the difference between percentile (4.660) and percentage. ref: http://www.placesnamed.com/m/i/miller.asp]

the census doesn't calculate how many of those millers have a first name starting with "k," but i think it's safe to go with "a lot." maybe even, "a shitload." i should know: i get their email.

So, k.miller started a blog called WRONGKMILLER.com: there are lots of k.millers in the world. i get their gmail.

Entertaining, but then I'm easily amuzed.

[via a link at passive-aggressive notes]

What Should I Read Next?

What Should I Read Next?

Enter a book you like and the site will analyse our database of real readers'
favourite books (over 32,000 and growing) to suggest what you could read next.

e.g.

Enter title and/or author

Enter title: The End of Mr. Y
[click] What Should I Read Next?

App comes back
Did you mean:
The End of Mr. Y - Scarlett Thomas

Click the title above if correct, or amend the details below

[click] title above

results:

The Carpathians - Janet Frame See Amazon UK | US
My Life as Emperor - Su Tong See Amazon UK | US
Charades - Janette Turner Hospital See Amazon UK | US
The Pig Who Sang to the Moon - Jeffrey Masson See Amazon UK | US
The Gourmet Club: A Sextet - Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Anthony Chambers, Paul McCarthy See Amazon UK | US
The Secret World of Og - Pierre Berton See Amazon UK | US
Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust - Charles Patterson See Amazon UK | US
Quicksand - Jun'ichiro Tanizaki See Amazon UK | US
Tales of Hoffmann - E. T. A Hoffmann See Amazon UK | US
The Collected Stories of Frank O'Connor - Frank O'Connor See Amazon UK | US

more results ...

Interesting app. And, yes, Scarlett Thomas' other books do not pop up in that first list of suggestions.

Register if you'd like to be part of this Web2.0 app. Site money stream seems to come from those Amazon click-throughs.

[caution: The response time can be a bit slow.]

[mentioned in a post from the Project Wombat list.]

RUNNING THE NUMBERS: An American Self-Portrait by Chris Jordan

Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait

This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.

[...]


[Thank you, Auntie K!]

takeourword.com Blog

takeourword.com Blog: the companion blog to the Take Our Word For It webzine and site.

Melanie and Mike are back in action. Check out the blog. Check out the site. Word-huggers and amateur etymologists rejoice.

Writing markets stuff moving in with the writer colony over >>> there

I've decided to keep writing markets "stuff" at the writers' resources site from this day forth. The posts were taking up too much real estate.

The resources blog will carry the markets information I've been carrying here. Coolio writer stuff may wind up in both this blog and that. Info on the writers' resources site will be updated to include new markets information and links wigati. The resources blog will probably be updated from its 2002 look some day as well.

From now on writing markets info will live there not here. Those of you who read here for great apps, interesting sites, San Francisco foodie news and life, the universe and prayer flags can continue on uninterrupted. Those who only cared about the markets info will find their focus more focussed at the other blog.

This has been a management postie. We now return you to the normal blog content, sans writing markets information.

[PAY MKT] The Good Life

Writers' Guidelines

The Good Life is both for and about the people of Central Texas who live and work in the five counties (Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell) that make up the Austin metropolitan area. We do not publish articles about folks who don't live in this area. All the articles we publish must have a local focus and cite local sources.

***

We publish a wide range of feature stories, from hard-hitting articles about weighty topics to pieces designed for sheer entertainment. Adventure, the arts, democracy, fitness, health, hobbies, investigative reports, local history, overcoming adversity, parenting, profiles of interesting local people, relationships, spirituality, volunteerism, wellness, and many other topics—from the extraordinary to the off-the-wall—are good topics for features in The Good Life. The features we publish must be written in the style of journalism, that is, to include multiple points of view from a variety of knowledgeable sources.

We rarely publish fiction. We do not publish reprints. We do not publish travel articles. We do not publish question-and-answer interviews. We do not publish stories about businesses (except in our regular short monthly feature called Austin Originals; these pieces are scheduled months in advance and are written by a regular contributor). We do not publish essays except those produced by our regular columnists. We have a talented team of regular columnists covering a variety of topics and we do not envision adding more columns.

PAYS: month of publication

Health, wellness and fitness features that are published in the Gusto section of the magazine are usually assigned at a length of 1500 words and The Good Life pays $150 to $250 for these features, with the higher fees paid to people who have been writing for the magazine regularly or are widely published.

For all other feature stories, The Good Life pays from $100 to $600, depending on the writer's experience, the assigned length of the article, and the degree of difficulty. The higher fees go to people who have been writing for The Good Life regularly, or are widely published, and who take on more challenging assignments. Features that earn the highest fees address complex topics, require a demanding amount of research and interviews, and provide comprehensive, in-depth coverage.

[PAY MKT] CAPPER'S

Writers' Guidelines

CAPPER'S is a nationally distributed biweekly tabloid publication with a national paid circulation of approximately 200,000. It emphasizes home and family to readers who live mainly in the rural Midwest.

CAPPER'S purchases shared rights, which grants the publisher the right to publish or republish the work in any form in any country, at any time. The author agrees not to publish the work in any other media for a period ending one year after the date of the issue in which the work initially appears. After this period, the author retains the right to republish the work in any form.

CAPPER'S publishes manuscripts on average of two to 12 months after acceptance. Seasonal or holiday material should be submitted at least three months in advance. Notification of acceptance or rejection is made within two to three months, six months for serialized novels. No simultaneous
submissions. Query for novel-length manuscripts only; submit all others complete."

***

CAPPER'S uses historical, inspirational, nostalgic, family-oriented, travel and human-interest stories; unusual accomplishments, collections, occupations, hobbies, etc. Approximately 75 manuscripts are purchased annually (not including Heart of the Home). Use journalistic style. Payment is made upon publication at the rate of approximately $2.50 per printed inch. Length: 700 words maximum. Good quality accompanying photos considered.
Poetry

Free verse and light verse, traditional, nature and inspirational poems are purchased. Those selected are easy to read, with down-to-earth themes. Five or six poems are used in each issue. Limit submissions to batches of 5 to 6, length 4 to 16 lines. Payment of $10 to $15 is made upon acceptance; tear sheet sent upon publication.

Also buys jokes.

[PAY MKT] Chronogram

Writers' Guidelines

Chronogram is a regional magazine of arts, lifestyle, politics, environmental issues, holistic health and culture published monthly. Chronogram is an outlet for reportage and point of view that are not often found in the mainstream media. We like to think of ourselves as "progressive" in the broadest sense: We believe that an enlightened, democratic society is attainable as long as citizens-our readers a small group among them-are informed with reliable information. Our writers write the critiques, praises, philosophizings and personal anecdotes that provide the detail to the larger picture, the colors to the outline (often coloring outside the lines).The editor's ears are always open for new voices and all story ideas are invited for pitching. Chronogram welcomes all voicesand viewpoints as long as they are expressed well. We discriminate solely based on the quality of the writing, nothing else. The length of articles we usually run are from 1000-3500 words.

PAYS: on a sliding scale. No kill fees.

[PAY MKT] Literary Traveler

Writers' Guidelines

Literary Traveler is seeking articles that capture the literary imagination. Is there an artist or writer that has inspired you? Have you taken a journey or pilgrimage that was inspired by a work of literature? We focus mainly on literary artists but we welcome articles about other artists: composers, painters, songwriters, story-tellers, etc.

Subject matter can be anything artistic or creative. Each one of our articles in some way, is about someone who creates. Some of our articles are subjective first person travel pieces. Some take a meditative slant on a visit somewhere, and reflect on a theme. Others are objective articles about places or writers, or artists. Please read some of our articles to see if your article is right for us.

PAYS: flat rate (but doesn't tell what that is)

RIP Terry Ryan, the author/daughter of the Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio.

Author Terry Ryan, 61, dies in S.F. home

I've been sorting through boxes of books lately. Came across Terry's book just a couple days back. I hadn't realized she was ailing.

Survived by her nine siblings and Pat Holt, her partner of almost a quarter-century. Pat and Terry were married on Valentine's Day weekend, 2004. The state nullified that marriage.

That wrong can never be righted now. Here's to the day things change for those who carry on the good fight.

And here's to Terry, may she be remembered fondly.

Hocus-Pocus, and a Beaker of Truffles

Is nothing sacred? Daniel Patterson writes about truffle oil in Hocus-Pocus, and a Beaker of Truffles

[NYTimes. Registration required.]

A TRUFFLE by any other name may smell as sweet, but what if that name is 2,4-dithiapentane? All across the country, in restaurants great and small, the “truffle” flavor advertised on menus is increasingly being supplied by truffle oil. What those menus don’t say is that, unlike real truffles, the aroma of truffle oil is not born in the earth. Most commercial truffle oils are concocted by mixing olive oil with one or more compounds like 2,4-dithiapentane (the most prominent of the hundreds of aromatic molecules that make the flavor of white truffles so exciting) that have been created in a laboratory; their one-dimensional flavor is also changing common understanding of how a truffle should taste.

[continues]

Patterson's restaurant, Coi, is amazing and just a hop, skip and jump away -- four blocks, maybe five, near the corner of Broadway and Montgomery. Delish food in a soothing venue. $$$ or we'd eat there more often than we do. Coi includes service in the bill, one of the few restaurants I know that does. Wish more did.

Prayer flags in North Beach: Global Books on Columbus

The flags from Lhasa got old and tatty and finally ripped apart in a storm. I mended them and then searched until I found some more down on Pacific Avenue.

When those needed mending (the weather here is rough on the flags ... those flags are still flying mended), I went off to Wonders of Tibet on Lombard, near the condo at Broadway and Laguna. Those flags were cotton and went stiff and sticky in the first rain, needed to be shaken and unstuck after rains and ... well, they're still hanging too.

Haven't found yet flags like those we bought from the non-Tibetan Han Chinese vendors in the square in front of the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.

But we need more. These are wearing. The guys come next week to tear off the photo-voltaic panels and then more guys to tear off the roof and replace it. Then our solar guys come back to replace the panels.

The prayer flags up on the deck are on their last legs and need replacing. They probably won't survive the activity.

A couple weeks ago we went back to our purveyor on Pacific and found he was moving up and around the corner onto Columbus. We went up to Columbus, but he wasn't open yet.

Today for lunch we hied over to the House and had deep-fried salmon roll with a chinese hot mustard sauce to start, unagi and avocado sandwiches with a side salad with sesame seed oil dressing that came with the sandwiches. Tapioca pudding with mango swirl for dessert. Ym.

Afterwards, we decided to check whether Global Books and Art had the Columbus Avenue location open yet.

They did.

"When did you open?"

"Nine-thirty."

"No, when did you open here, after moving?"

"Last Wednesday."

The new space is excellent. Large windows onto Columbus. A MUCH larger space (and selection) inside.

Global Books and Art can now be found on the west side of the Columbus block between Broadway and Pacific.

Go thee there. Buy some prayer flags, some pashmina shawls, some jewelry, some thankas, some books.

Or just say hey to the guy who runs the space. He is very happy with the new location.

We really hope he does well. Quite a gamble. Hope it pays off.

Butt naked

Jan Freeman's 13 May 2007 column on eggcorns

[via Benjamin Zimmer's Language Log ]

[PAY MKT] Yoga Journal

Writers' Guidelines for Yoga Journal

Yoga Journal covers the practice and philosophy of yoga. In particular we welcome articles on the following themes:

1. Leaders, spokespersons, and visionaries in the yoga community;
2. The practice of hatha yoga;
3. Applications of yoga to everyday life (e.g., relationships, social issues, livelihood, etc.);
4. Hatha yoga anatomy and kinesiology, and therapeutic yoga;
5. Nutrition and diet, cooking, and natural skin and body care.

Payment varies, depending on length, depth of research, etc. We pay within 90 days of final acceptance: $800 to $2000 for features, $400 to $800 for departments, $25 to $100 for Om Page and Well-Being, and $200 to $250 for book reviews.

No unsolicited e-sub.

[PAY MKT] Escape Pod

Writers' Guidelines for Escape Pod, a podcast genre 'zine.

EP is a genre 'zine. We're looking for science fiction and fantasy. Please don't send us anything that doesn't fit those descriptions. And by the way, we mean SF/F on a level that matters to the plot. Your story about a little boy receiving a balloon before his heart transplant may be touching literature, but it probably isn't something we're interested in, even if you edit it so that the balloon's an alien and the heart came from Satan.

(UPDATE: As of August 2006, Escape Pod no longer runs horror. We've spun that off into a sister podcast, Pseudopod, edited by Mur Lafferty and Ben Philips. We do not share our slushpiles, so please send them your horror stories directly. It's a great podcast to listen to, by the way, if you like to be disturbed.)

We're primarily interested in two lengths of fiction, which we've dubbed (somewhat arbitrarily) 'short fiction' and 'flash fiction.'

PAYS: $100 for short fiction (2-6K wds) and $20 for flash fiction (up to 1K wds. "sweet spot": 500 wds.)

[...]

[PAY MKT] Paying poetry markets

List of paying poetry markets from sfpoetry.com

[PAY MKT] South Florida Parenting

Writers' guidelines for South Florida Parenting.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
Most South Florida Parenting articles are purchased from freelance writers. In a typical issue, readers will find a variety of regular departments: Out & About, Baby Basics, Preteen Power, Family Money, Family Health and more. We also run feature articles of 800-2,000 words on topics of pertinence to South Florida parents. Features require careful research, independent reporting and well-developed interviews with South Florida sources.

Our focus is on our three-county market and we prefer features that use sources and settings in South Florida. Assignments, when given, go almost exclusively to writers who live in southeast Florida. However, we do consider insightful, captivating essays and features from outside our area, particularly those that deal with universal themes and issues. All stories must include clearly identified, real sources. Articles or essays that use only first names, composites or fictional examples will not be considered.

We welcome your submission of material previously published outside South Florida, if offered to us on an exclusive basis in southeast Florida. No submissions or queries that are offered to other publications in southeast Florida will ever be considered. We do not buy work from writers who are published by our competitors. For reprint offers, send either typed manuscripts or clips and let us know where the material appeared.

E-sub only.
$150-$300 for first publication
$30-$50 for reprints, including online rights.
You *must* not submit work to any other publications in South Florida.

(n.b. The wording is weird: do they mean must not submit *this* piece of work or *any* piece of work? ... If you're interested in the market, might behoove you to check ...)

KFOG KaBoom! 2007 Highlights

KFOG KaBoom! 2007 Highlights

The video and soundtrack for the 2007 KFOG KaBoom! are up! Twenty minutes worth of fireworks with music.

Enjoy.

Happy Mom's Day

from Google.


[I'd pop up the graphic here, but decided (copyright infringement-wise) to send folks over to Google to take a look there ... One gripe with iGoogle is that I don't get my Google graphics fix.]

KFOG KaBoom! 2007

KaBoom!

Yesterday's Chron:



Program cover:



Pics:



My pics don't do the show justice. (I'll link to the KFOG video, which gives the fireworks and the music background, when it's up.) Amazing. Thump. Thud. Heart-crashing fireworks set to a KFOG soundtrack. The "single barge" that the Coast Guard was making arrangements for turned out to be five barges full of fireworks lashed together.

KaBooM!

Live music beforehand. This year: Ozomatli, Guster and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. If you go some time in the future, be sure to come before the gates open (we arrived at 3:30p and still had to stand in a very long line to get in) and bring a blanket or something (we brought a couple which we folded to spare our tailbones) to stake out your space on the piers. The last hour before the fireworks, the piers keep getting infill with people stopping if there's a spare 2 sq ft of space for them. I get a bit weirded out by crowds cramming in around me. The blanket-sized space keeps me sane.

KFOG's KaBoom ends with hundreds of thousands of people walking home (or back to cars or to public transit) on the Embarcadero. The Embarcadero was closed to Mission, but in reality, the pedestrians had the streets until more like Market. When there are thousands of people walking north, the cars must move carefully up the single lane that pedestrians were allowing them.

We wound up at Globe for a snack-ish dinner around 10p. I had tuna tartare (with bread snips and black olive tapenade) and a sausage/garlic pizza. His nibs had a chunk of lamb with garbanzo beans and green garlic. We split a bottle of French cabernet franc. I had some Bonny Doon muscat for dessert. His nibs had some delish crepes stuffed with strawberry cream-cheese and almond filling. (Went well with the muscat!)

Up the steps. Home again by 12:30a. Slept in.

Happy M-Day to the Mothers and to those who Mother without having the actual title.

Paul Madonna's ALL OVER COFFEE. Just what I expected. And more.

I'd been trying to grab a copy of Paul Madonna's book, ALL OVER COFFEE, (based on his work in the San Francisco Chronicle and just out from City Lights) since I first heard of it. City Lights was selling pre-sale copies but wanted to charge me to mail it over. Why? I can just walk down hill for pete's sake.

I dropped a note to Madonna. Can I arrange something through you? He said that City Lights would have signed copies when it came out and if I wanted something personalized I could come to his book release party.

I walked over to City Lights last week and they did have copies of the book but nothing signed. "You'll need to go to his book release party for that. He hasn't been by."

So, Friday (yesterday) we hopped on a 30 and took it down to Market, then hopped on an F and rode to Laguna/Guerrero, hopped off and walked down to Valencia and 14th -- Mina Dresden Gallery, to be precise, 312 Valencia.

Brilliant idea Madonna had. The gallery had his work hanging and for sale. They were selling books in back. If you snuck up on Paul where he was standing at a bar table schmoozing, he'd sign your book. (By the time we turned around twelve ... fifteen ... more people had had the same idea. ...)

The table with the "book signing 8:30p" wasn't keeping people from waylaying him while he tried to be sociable.

The small gallery was a crush. I'm obviously not the only person who really likes ALL OVER COFFEE.

The book is brilliant.
BUY THIS BOOK if you are at all intrigued by the snippets at his Web site.

I love this book.

[OBIT] Wally Schirra -- Mercury, Gemini, Apollo astronaut

When Wally Schirra Said, "Go to Hell"

Well written, well done, Jeffrey Kluger of Time Magazine.

[URL] John Woram's Galápagos History & Cartography

The Encantadas: Galápagos History & Cartography

Wide-ranging collection of materials on the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, collected by the author of CHARLES DARWIN SLEPT HERE.

Ephemera, maps, texts, factoids. Darwin's Journal. Darwin's Diary. H.M.S. Beagle logs. Eleanor Roosevelt "My Day" (her description of her trip to the Galápagos in 1944).

More.

The Siege and Commune of Paris (1870-1871)

His nibs' great great aunt, the peripatetic (and boat and horse and camel and stage coach) traveler, she of the photos of Venice, Japan and elsewhere in the late 1800s, was still in her teens, early twenties, on a trip with her parents when, family legend has it, they were caught up in the siege of Paris. We still have some books around that she bought at the time. French.

Some day (I have fifty or so more years, after all) I will learn me better French than I have and take a crack at reading the things she read while she was cooped up, unable to get home. That's the intent anyway. The old family books in French and Italian and German, the Spanish-Greek dictionary and the like, show that Americans, at least those in his nibs' family, used to be far more fluent in languages than we are today.

Northwestern University's McCormick Library of Special Collections has a terrific collection of photographs and images of the Siege and Commune of Paris (1870-1871).

This site contains links to over 1200 digitized photographs and images recorded during the Siege and Commune of Paris cir.1871. In addition to the images in this set, the Library's Siege & Commune Collection contains 1500 caricatures, 68 newspapers in hard-copy and film, hundreds of books and pamphlets and about 1000 posters. Additions are made regularly.

Search by word or phrase, browse by image type, scroll through the master index (title) and the subject index.

The collection doesn't let you just click [next] and get to the next item, which would be swell. You must click a link, check out the item, go back to the link list, click another link ...

Even so ... you are there and sometimes elsewhere and not always in the narrow date span that the title of the collection implies. Some of the photographs come from the early 1900s, f'rex, and yet, if you like looking at old photographs of people and buildings, come along and wander through this archive.

Amazing thing, this World Wide Web.

[URL] San Francisco Architects

David Parry, a San Francisco REALTOR® has articles he's written about San Francisco architects on his site.

Want to know about Willis Polk, Bernard Maybeck, Conrad Meussdorffer? Check out Parry's collection of information.

[via Curbed SF]

[BLOG] Gastronomie

Out and about today, we were heading down Townsend and noticed DISTRICT.

"Have you heard of DISTRICT?" I asked his nibs.

"No," he replied. "Must be new."

Bar? Restaurant? I'd never heard of it and even if it is brand spanking new, there should've been some peep in someone's "here's what's coming up" column. We're talking SOMA, here. We're talking the clubbing, see-and-be-seen set.

His nibs checked Zagat, and the place turns out to be a wine bar with bar food/tapas/small plates. He was searching for DISTRICT's Web site but a search for /"san francisco" "district restaurant"/ kept bringing up hits for "xyz, a Mission District restaurant" and the like.

I tried /"san francisco" district winebar restaurant/ and BINGO!

I found a most excellent review at Gastronomie, a foodie blog (subtitle, "culinary adventures in San Francisco & beyond") which comes at you with detail and a straightforward, "here's what I thought" style.

Go read Gastronomie, Fatemeh's blog, and tell me what you think. (That I agree with her wholeheartedly about Globe -- we've stopped off there twice in the last month or two, on our way home from some other event -- has a smidgen to do with it, but not much.)

Gastronomie's review of DISTRICT
DISTRICT's Web site [Caution: hip music!]
DISTRICT's menu

I love reading words written by people who can write well about the places they go and the foods they eat.

San Francisco values

Why is it that Republicans are so offended to see two gay men holding hands, but do not have the same moral outrage about two children who are being turned away from the hospital because their parents can't get health insurance. What about that moral outrage, what about those values?

Gavin Newsom on "San Francisco values"
San Diego, CA
29-Apr-2007

Conspiracy theories 'r' us

Read it and weep.

4/29truth.com

e.g. Did Arnold Know?

Here is a hypothetical timeline of events:

4:02 highway collapses
4:05 Governor receives phone call
4:20 Showered and dressed (assume 15 minutes and that he shaved in the car)
5:08 Arrive at site after 48 minute drive @ 100 mph
5:13 Press conference starts (assume 5 minutes to get it going)
5:33 Press conference ends and site tour begins (assume minimum 20 minute press conference. Note that Schwarzenegger, Newsom, and Dellums all talk and these are politicians talking.
5:48 Tour of site ends (assume 15 minutes).

Yet the photos clearly show it's still pitch black during the entire press conference and site tour, i.e. much earlier than the hypothetical timeline above. How could Schwarzenegger have arrived at the site any earlier? The answer is that the he knew what was planned.

Except, of course, that Gavin'd been down in San Diego at the state Democratic gathering and had to handle things at that end, get a briefing, make statements, give a speech and then return home.

The photographs of the scene that included Gavin and Schwarzenegger were taken during the tour that took place the evening of 4/29.

Another favorite?

"G-A-Y" is spelled "429" on a standard American telephone. The attacks occurred only 8.5 miles from the notorious Castro Street homosexual district. COINCIDENCE?

'nuff said. Has to be a spoof. Or some very dim bulbs.

MySpace Photo Costs Teacher Education Degree

Be careful what you post online.

MySpace Photo Costs Teacher Education Degree

Fair? Unfair?

The photo in question (from an article at The Smoking Gun, of course)

I think she should've got rid of the red-eye fer sures.

Bob Pastorio: Restaurateur, raconteur, friend

A couple weeks back, Carol linked to a profile written by Charles Culbertson, a friend of Bob's.

I just got around to reading it. Culbertson really caught Bob's essence. Very nice.

anna louise's Journal

Update your Bloglines or whatever it is you use to track RSS feeds or whatever. Anna Louise Genovese (although still a consulting editor at Tor) has started a freelance editorial service called Aleuromancy and has transferred her blog from anna louise's Journal to Aleuromancy.net.

Go thee thither.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop - Official Site

The official site for Renzo Piano's Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

Nice use of Flash.

RPBW are the architects for the new California Academy of Sciences which is going up in Golden Gate Park, across the Concourse from the DeYoung Museum. The new Academy will open late 2008. 370K sq ft -- of which 95K sq ft are public space. Living roof. Zounds.

We almost stopped into the Academy's temporary digs on Howard Street yesterday, but I was tuckered out, having walked down to SFMOMA to meet up with his nibs and visit, among other exhibits, the Picasso and American Art exhibit. Get there if thee can. Exhibit closes Monday, May 28, 2007.

Philistine that I are, I did not get Brice Marden, especially his monochrome work.

Where were we? Ah, yes: Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The RPBW site covers projects, bio, history, &c. An interactive map gives access to projects worldwide.

Interesting.

(Walked back home again, too, even though it was a free transit day: RT was 4mi+ and then there was all the walking around inside SFMOMA)

JPG Magazine: Photos

JPG Magazine: Photos

Explore.

May is National Foster Care Month

This eye-opening article from the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families takes a look at some of foster children and their circumstances and asks why.

The San Francisco Chronicle has an on-going campaign for foster children, both those in California and nationwide. Latest addition: an editorial 22Apr2007. The editorials/articles listed go back to September 2005.

California has 80K children in foster care. Their stories are damning for a nation that claims dedication to family values. What are children, if not family. If they have no family, aren't they ours?

There is some encouraging news, however.

For more information on National Foster Care Month: FosterCareMonth.org

Derren Brown - subliminal advertising

Derren Brown on subliminal advertising.



... on NLP

Fascinating stuff.

Derren Brown on C4's site

Derren Brown's Web site

I'd never heard of Derren Brown until tonight. I just went back to see how I'd fallen into this Derren Brown universe. My original heads up was from a post on AdRants.

The driver hailed a taxi which took him to Kaiser Hospital, Oakland

Had a note from our beast wrangler about "news" and how it would affect her drive over here the next time we went on a trip. She guessed she'd have to use 101.

News?

I checked online and found that 250 yds of the MacArthur maze interchange leading to the Bay Bridge collapsed this morning after a tanker truck loaded with 8600 gallons of unleaded gasoline on its way to a gas station in Oakland lost control and overturned at 3:40 a.m.

The driver got out of the truck under his own steam and walked to a nearby gas station where he grabbed a taxi which took him to Kaiser Hospital, Oakland. Kaiser later transferred him to the burn unit at St. Francis Hospital, here in San Francisco, where he's being treated for second degree burns. And that's it! That's the extent of injuries!

Alas for the roadway, though, the truck didn't do as well. After the driver got out, the truck exploded. The firemen got the fire out by 5:50 a.m. but by then the fireball had burned so hot (in excess of 2000 dF) for so long that the steel in the roadway softened and twisted, the bolts holding the concrete failed and the structure collapsed.

MAP

We keep wondering what will happen if something happens to that bridge. 270-280K people a day use the Bay Bridge to get from here to there or vice versa. Well, here goes. A wakeup call. It could've been worse, a lot worse.

Luckily, the bridge is intact. You can get across the bridge but once you get to the east end its roundabout detours to get where you want to go if you usually take the pieces of freeway that were damaged and getting onto the bridge to head west is also a problem. There are alternative routes that are usable. BART is adding more cars. ACTransit is advertising its bus service. Traffic will be hellacious.

Update: Will Kempton, CalTrans, says that the two roadways that are damaged carry approximately 30K vehicles a day each. Even if your route isn't compromised, you'll be stuck in traffic caused by those whose routes are.

Update2: Schwarzenegger sez free rides! tomorrow on all transit. BART sez FREE PARKING IN THE BART LOTS! His nibs sez, "Who's going to pay for all this?"

What a mess. It will be months before the busted parts and the parts that may have been weakened can be rebuilt and usable.

What a mess.

News. Pics. Video.

KCBS coverage
Chronicle coverage
NWZCHIK checks in

From the too-much-time-on-their-hands department: online Etch-A-Sketch

Online Etch-a-Sketch

Click screen to clear. Use arrow keys to control.

[Arleen wrote about this.]

Are you ocean people?

http://www.ocean.com

It is the mission of The Ocean Channel to provide 'ocean people' from around the world with a comprehensive and centralized source of ocean news, education, conservation, and entertainment.

[...]

Focus is the aggregation, production and distribution of premium ocean content for an array of media--specifically, broadband Internet, television, and DVD home video

Deep resource. Conservation issues. Film.

It is only through knowledge and education that we can expect our audience to recognize the challenges the sea faces now and in the future.

Wander through this one.

The earth shook, people died, the reefs rose, a PT boat is now sitting 10 feet out of water

Quake brings WWII PT boat up from ocean floor

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Wreckage from a World War II torpedo boat was tossed up from the sea in the Solomon Islands after a powerful 8.1 earthquake hit the area in early April, an official said Friday.

Jay Waura of the National Disaster Management Office said the explosive-laden boat was exposed when reefs were pushed up three meters (10 feet) above sea level by the April 2 quake, which caused a devastating tsunami in the western Solomon Islands that killed 52 people.

The Solomons' coastline is still littered with decaying military wrecks from World War II, including the torpedo patrol boat commanded by U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

[...]

Do you have your earthquake kit ready?

Amazing Cake Art

Amazing Cake Art (more than just the one cake pictured below) found at englishrussia.com -- allegedly totally edible, allegedly made by Zhanna from St. Petersburg.



[repurposed from SG's tumblr site]

Doll Face by Andy Huang

Doll Face by Andy Huang ~4min.

Doll Face follows a machine's struggle to construct its own identity.

Strange. Thought provoking.

[Lifted from halsted's del.icio.us links]

Margaret Dorothy Killam Atwood

This week the Globe and Mail published the obit for Margaret Dorothy Killam Atwood, who died last December, aged 97.

What a wonderful homage to Margaret Atwood's mother, written by the daughter.

The obit begins,

Someone said to me recently, 'You must have had an unusual mother.' True enough.

Read.

[from SG's cosa nostra blog]

Update: with any luck the new link won't ask you to pay for the obit text. ...

'copters circling

The last time I heard multiple 'copters circling overhead was when morning broke on 27 February, the day a piece of Telegraph Hill slid down onto buildings on Broadway. All the news crews were out with first light to get pictures of the pile o' rock.

... but what's up this afternoon?

Checked sfgate.com. Nada.

Checked kpix.com which morphed into cbs5.com.

Ah, yes. Silly, forgetful moi.

It's the last Friday of the month.

Critical Mass starts at 6p.

The bicyclists are starting to gather at Justin Herman Plaza, just >>> over there.

Last month's Critical Mass turned real ugly and most of blogville seemed to take sides in the aftermath.

Here's hoping tonight's peaceful and hoping his nibs remembered and will be home before the mass moves.

Film clips from yesteryear

The Web's a wonder ...

Film clip of the opening of the world's largest bridge. 1937.



[spotted on Curbed SF]

Bye, bye, incandescents. Sorta

I don't have much influence in Sacramento so when the news came out the other day that AB 722 (introduced by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys) had emerged from the Utilities and Commerce Committee and was on its way to the Appropriations Committee, I didn't yack about it one way or the other.

Earlier this week, though, Don yacked about it and when I went off to track down what the bill really says (rather than what blogville and media meisters tell me), I found that the bill is more sensible than it's been given credit for and isn't really quite so precious and idiotic as some folks have opined.

Text of AB 722

(1) 2012 is five years away. People will have time to get used to it.

(2) General Electric says they can produce incandescents that use far less electricity. Mandate energy use, GE says. Don't ban incandescents. Q for GE: If you could do it, why haven't you?

(3) The bill doesn't affect bulbs less than 25 watts or greater than 150 watts.

(4) And just look at the exceptions!

A general service incandescent lamp does not include an
appliance lamp, black light lamp, bug lamp, colored lamp, enhanced
spectrum lamp, infrared lamp, left-hand tread [sic] lamp, marine lamp,
marine signal service lamp, mine service lamp, plant light, reflector
lamp, rough service lamp, shatter resistant lamp, sign service lamp,
silver bowl lamp, showcase lamp, three-way lamp, traffic signal
lamp, or vibration service or vibration resistant lamp.

No worries about the light in your oven, folks. You people, and you know who you are, who um. use plant lights? No worries.

Don't know what kinds of lights some of those are? I tracked down a nice little publication on Appliance Efficiency Regulations from the California Energy Commission (the outfit that defined general service incandescent lamp) that explains (among other things) what all these different sorts of lamps are.

The left-handed tread lamp? Well, turns out "Left-handed thread lamp" means a lamp on which the base screws into a lamp socket in a counter-clockwise direction, and screws out of a lamp socket in a clockwise direction.

So when all's said and done, I'm not griping about this legislation. Turn in those bulbs. Fluorescents work better these days and light up fast enough to be used with motion sensors. Certain new fluorescents can even be used with dimmer switches.

There's a new world coming.

More info here.

2901 Broadway, SF

The folks selling 2901 Broadway (Broadway at Baker) have finally come up with a price. (They originally said the place was priceless and anyone wanting to buy it would have to come up with an offer that reflected what it was worth.)

Price? $55m

SFNewsletter has an entertaining take (Comparison Shopping) on the price. Puts the price in perspective, doesn't it?

Reminds me of those descriptions of a trillion dollars and how many times a trillion dollar bills laid end to end would wrap around the Earth. (four thousand times)

Some history on 2901 Broadway.

Real estate porn from the listing agents.

Dang! Meeting notes. Port of San Francisco: January 25, 2007

Meeting notes. Port of San Francisco: January 25, 2007

I'd been searching for more information about the proposal to develop San Francisco's new (and needed!) cruise ship terminal using the existing terminal at Pier 35 and the overflow terminal at Pier 27 (instead of Piers 30-32) when ... buried there in the midst of it all in the January 2007 Port Authority meeting notes, "Port will fund demolition of P36 in Port's FY 07-08 budget."

No... no... nonononononono....

 

    Taken 10 Aug 2006

Funny. We'd been at the Telegraph Hill Dwellers meeting on 26 Feb 2007. Monique Moyer, Port Director, was the speaker. I specifically asked during the Q&A session what was happening with Pier 36 and she did not say they were putting funding to take it down in the next budget.

sigh

I asked her later about it too after the meeting was over and she did not say it was a done deal. She said it would cost $5m to demolish Pier 36. She also said that if anyone wanted to refurbish it, they'd have to spend $5m to take it down and then spend whatever it took to rebuild it.

If I could only win the Lotto!

Baldwin sez sorry for ripping his 11-year-old daughter, but Basinger has driven me 'to the edge'

Baldwin sez sorry for ripping his 11-year-old daughter, but Basinger has driven me 'to the edge'

Yah yah yah. Wah wah wah. Excuses. Excuses.

sniff -- I'm so sorry for ya, Alec.

I think the most telling thing of this (yes, brutal) phone message (text here) left for Baldwin's eleven-year-old daughter is this

I don't care that you're twelve or eleven or whatever, are you pig [or so the transcript reads. maybe should be "big"?] enough to pick it up? I'm a good father, and you're a pig. I don't give a shit. Good father. You think this is abuse? You think this is abuse, you thoughtless pain in the ass?

So. Does Alec think his daughter that he loves so much is twelve? or does he think she's eleven?

Why doesn't he even know fer sure how old she is?

What a darling he is.

Walk around in the neighborhood

A few neighbors had a walk around in the neighborhood last evening from 6 until, well, after getting home and clearing up our messes, it was 2 a.m.

The first of more I hope.

The original idea was something K and I hatched when she was new to the neighborhood and didn't know anyone. She'd dropped in at a party next door hosted by P & Y and introduced herself.

We both left at the same time and I invited her in to take a look around. We talked about how entertaining it would be to have a party where everyone could poke noses into each other's places instead of having to wait until the place was for sale and the agents were showing a real estate open house.

But then we were gone, and then K was gone and then we were gone again and then P and Y were gone and we were ...

Finally in February Y and I were talking about it again.

"We'll be gone in late March/early April. March isn't good."

"Let's just choose a date and a few people and we'll plan a smallish gathering and expand it to include more neighbors later if we have fun."

"How about later. How about April. How about the weekend after taxes are due. Okay by you?"

"Okay by me."

"If the date's okay with K, we're on."

And it was. ...

We sent out invites. Y sorted out who would be where on the walk around. We all gathered at K's down the walk where she and M, who lives in the same building, provided cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at 6p. Then, on to A's next door for salad (and to catch a glimpse of S and B's brand-new (as of Sunday) baby) and then to P and Y for tapas and then here for more tapas and then down to the next walk down (in the pouring rain) to J's for dessert and coffee, hosted by J with help from J and G.

Fun time was had by all.

Tapas here were empanadas: (1)cashew chicken with a honey/soy sauce (2) homemade pesto and toasted pine nuts (3) marinated beef with onion and peppers (4) sausage and peppers and cheese.

The pastry was kind of tossed together because I couldn't find the butter pastry recipe I remembered so I checked what ratios Christopher Kimball used for fat to flour (he used part butter and part vegetable shortening) and made up two batches of pastry. Chilled in frig. Rolled and filled and pat-a-cake pat-a-cake. The pastry ingredients for both batches combined were simply 5C flour, 1 pound butter and about 12T cold water. Easy peasy.

The cooking of the various fillings, the cooling of same, the making of the pastry, the rolling of circles, the filling of the pastry circles and the crimping and the baking until almost done so I could finish the baking in just a few minutes after the party arrived here took far longer than I'd thought it would, but it all turned out as good as I'd hoped and there were a few left over.

Reheated empanadas for bfst. Ym.

We're already talking of another one. More neighbors. More fun. Next time!

Have to start planning now, though. I checked this morning. That original party where I met K and we started talking about a walkaround party? November 2005.

Gonzales "has the full confidence''

Bloomberg.com: U.S. -- "Gonzales 'has the full confidence'"

Reminds me of my corporate days back when when someone would be "advanced" and moved to an office (with a window!) to pursue five-year plans.

"Full confidence"

"heck of a job, Brownie"

[WRITING JOBS] Funny media-spoofing writer? This one's for you!

FUNNY WRITERS WANTED for media spoofing

Archer, this one's for you! SG, you too. (You could be the EU correspondent!) Kos.

Or ...

Have at it, folks.

RIP Jill May

Her children pay their respects.

No one should ever ever die this way.

Ever.

I'll be with you in cherry blossom time ...

As luck would have it, that's when we arrived.

As luck would have it.



Hana-mi (cherry blossom viewing) is a BIG DEAL in Japan. The weather reports for weeks beforehand track and predict when the cherries will bloom and which weekend will be the "official" weekend for sakura viewing so that everyone can make their plans. (Typical plans: picnic in the park under the cherry trees with friends. Drink sake. Maybe to excess.)

All the usual sites were swarming with locals on holiday to see the cherry blossoms. Some of the sites were open free for the public in honor of the season. Several of our guides warbled the sakura song over the bus speakers for us. (Some better than others, but all with enthusiasm.)

***

A few years back, we decided to take the oldest grandchild on a trip with us, sans parents or siblings, after she turned twelve. My friend Susie had done this with her grandchildren and thought it was an excellent experience. Twelve is just old enough, she said, and not too far into the teen years. A perfect age.

"Anywhere in the world," we told W. (Disney* and USAn spots excepted. ...)

W. chose Japan because she likes sushi and octopus and squid and gardens and anime and manga. Could we arrange all that? We could.

We started planning long before she had her bday in January.

A woman on our trip last fall to Xingiang Province (China) and the Hunza Valley (Pakistan) said she'd made a trip with her grandchild at about that age and suggested we use the service she had, a service that arranges group tours for grandparents and their grandchildren.

Um. No.

The point wasn't just to go traveling with a grandchild. The point was to have adventures, to break out of your cocoon, to get lost and found again. We wanted to do this trip as a welcome-to-the-rest-of-the-world, not as a guided and safe tour with a batch of other twelve-year-olds and their grandparents.

We'd arrange for touring so we could get to and around the sights, but we would not be caught in a group with the same people for day after day. We'd be on our own -- with the safety net of tours booked and hotel rooms and transportation arranged.

We confab'd on a date with her mother. Which should it be, after school gets out in June (when it can horribly hot and sticky in Japan) or sometime in spring (when W'd have to miss some school for the trip)?

We settled on Spring Break which, when teamed up with a teacher-in-service day that the students got off, gave us enough time to fly W. out from the wilds of the back of beyond, layover one day in San Francisco (in case her flight out was delayed), fly to Japan and spend nine days or so poking around, fly back and layover one day in San Francisco, before sending her home in time for her family Easter. She'd only miss a few days of school.

We set up plane tickets on our own and arranged hotel rooms and transport and Sunrise tours with JTB, on the advice of a work mate of his nibs, who had successfully taken her own family groups to Japan using JTB's services. "Here's what we offer," JTB says. Choose the poshness of hotel you'd like. Tell us what you want to see. Abracadabra!

If we were taking a train from here to there to get to a hotel they'd booked or to hookup with a sight-see they'd arranged, a JTB staffer would make sure we had our tickets and didn't miss our rendezvous.

The trains in Japan run on time.

Schedule:

25 Mar W. arrives from the hinterlands, flying solo. Southwest allows twelve-year-olds to fly without requiring "unaccompanied minor" status. W's first adventure: flying on her own without an adult keeping tabs on her. We made sure the flight was non-stop; we didn't want her to have the adventure of missing a connecting flight. Southwest gave her mom a pass that allowed her past security so she could sit in the waiting area until W's flight boarded.

27 Mar Leave SFO before lunch.

28 Mar Arrive Narita. Airport bus to hotel in Shinagawa district.

29 Mar We grabbed a Sunrise Tours shuttle from our hotel that took us to the Hamamatsucho Bus Terminal next to the World Trade Center. We turned in our chits for tour tickets and boarded our Sunrise tour bus for a morning tour of Tokyo spots: Tokyo Tower, Imperial Palace,



drive through Ueno and the Akihabara on way to Asakusa Kannon Temple



and Nakamise Shopping Street. The tour ends (surprisingly, eh?) at the Tasaki Pearl Gallery which gave us an explanation of how cultured pearls are produced, gave us an opportunity to look at their wares (Shop! Shop! Shop!) and then, very nicely, drove us and the other scores of folk who had also been dropped off at Tasaki back to our hotels.

His nibs and W. went back to Akihabara by train to check out the manga offerings. Some buildings had five! six! floors of manga!

30 Mar The bus picked us up at the hotel again and took us to the Hamamatsucho Bus Terminal, again. We were starting to get a feel for how JTB worked. We caught the Sunrise tour to see Toshogu Shrine at Nikko,



Irohazaka zigzag drive up to Kegon Waterfall and Lake Chuzenji at the foot of Mt.Nantai. Irohazaka zigzag driveway down the mountains, and bus back to Tokyo with a drop-off in the Ginza district after dark when all the neon was blazing.

The bus had a problem getting to its usual stopping spot in the Ginza when the driver found the left lane of the street blocked off. When the guide tried to move the cones so we could pull up to the curb, a police officer came over and yelled at them.

"I've never seen this before," our guide said, as the bus circled around for ten minutes to find a spot to drop us off somewhere near the train station.

What's this? Turns out the left lane of the main drag had been blocked off for a political action march. Streams of people were marching down the main Ginza drag in the far left lane, making noise and waving signs. Multiple unions represented, hundreds of folks, signs.

The guide claimed she couldn't really tell what it was all about. She said she'd never seen anything like it before.

Man, I need to learn to be halfway proficient in kanji and kana. I wondered what the signs really said.

Had no grasp of the language this time. Oh,well. For sure before we go again. Caught the train back to the hotel.

31 Mar Leave Tokyo. Caught the shuttle bus at the hotel. Off to the bus station with our bags. Onto the Sunrise tour bus with our bags and on to Mt. Fuji. Up to the fifth stage for viewing. Snow. The bus continued on to Hakone and Lake Ashi. The winds were wicked up at the fifth stage and elsewhere. The cableride we were scheduled for at Hakone was swapped for a less gusty one as the cable we'd intended to ride had shut down for safety reasons.

01 Apr Our bags for Kyoto were whisked away and we bus'd to Odawara with minimum luggage to catch the Shinkansen to Nagoya where we picked up Kato-san, our guide for the next three days. Took the limited-express train to Takayama where we checked into hotel and walked about with Kato-san to the Yatai Kaikan Hall (festival floats) and the Kusakabe Folkcraft Museum and roamed the old town.

We stopped by a soy sauce manufacturer and had some delish miso soup and nuggets of sesame candy. I bought some tasty sesame candies for our beast sitter, who does not need any more trinkets.

Something to eat, I thought. That's the ticket. (Hi, Auntie K!)

Our hotel room's "third" bed this time was a tatami room instead of the sleeper sofa we were routinely given as our third bed. We let W. sleep in the authentic tatami room style.

02 Apr Miyagawa morning market in Takayama and shop! shop! shop! (I am such a shopper! as everyone knows ...) We took the bus toward Lake Miboro and along the Shokawa River. Folk museum of the old Toyama family. On to Shirakawago, a village under heritage protection.



(Nothing like the protections at St Cirq Lapopie in the Dordogne, France, but still strict enough that it's no cakewalk to make a living or live in Shirakawago. The younger population is moving away. ...)

On to Gokayama for a demo of Washi paper making, including making our own to take home as a souvenir. Continue to Kanazawa, singing Karaoke on the bus. No, really!

03 Apr Kanzawa tour. Kanazawa Castle's Kenroku-en Garden. Lovely.



Admission to the Kenroku-en Garden was free for the day in honor of sakura. Then we were off to Kutaniyaki Pottery kiln where we watched potters throw pots and poked our heads into the kiln building and elsewhere. I bought a very pretty little bowl made by the fifth generation potter/owner. On to Higashi-chaya street and the Eastern Pleasure Quarter with a tour of a geisha house then on to Farmer House "Shima".

Said "Sayonara" to Kato-san and off on a train to Kyoto. Dinner at a restaurant next door to the hotel and up a floor. The staff had no English, but they'd had their pictures out front, so his nibs put restaurant slippers on and went out with the purveyor to point out which dishes we wanted. I had tobiko sushi. His nibs had unagi. W. had grilled cuttlefish. We were all happy campers.

04 Apr Kyoto: Golden Pavilion,



Nijo Castle, Kyoto Imperial Palace. Lunch at Handicraft Center. The buffet was booked out for anyone without a reservation so if we'd shown up there without a ticket, we'd've been out of luck. The buffet was just so-so. Why so popular? Busy times, these cherry blossom days. Sanjusangendo, Heian Shrine, Kiyomizu Temple.



Popped on the bullet train and back to Tokyo. We wanted to get off at the Shinagawa station, where our hotel was, but the staff handing us our train tickets told us QUITE EXPLICITLY that we were to get off at the Tokyo station, that the JTB staff was expecting us at the Tokyo station and wanted to make sure we'd arrived before they popped us into a taxi back to our hotel in the Shinagawa area. OK. If you say so. Cost an extra 3000¥ and forty-five minutes, but they made sure we hadn't somehow got lost between getting on the Shinkansen and arriving.

05 Apr Hotel bus to Narita. Flight was to leave around 9:30a, but we had a three hour delay for "mechanical problems." Long line of people at the counter, rearranging connecting flights. Not us. We were back to SFO, through Customs some time after noon and home-again home-again riggety-jig.

Photos will get appropriate labels that reflect what they are better than DSCN6*** some time soon-ish.

For now, the batch of trip photos (sans labels) are here.

Added comment: Something we'd never had before on any trip we'd been on. We were the only Americans we encountered on the entire trip until we were in Narita waiting for a plane back to SFO. Throughout our Japanese adventures, we were always in English-language tours, but the tourists were from Finland, Wales, England, Australia (loads of Australians), a multi-generational family of eight from Singapore and tourists from other parts of the world eastwestnorthsouth.

No other Americans. How weird is that?

For Paula: What to ask for for Mother's Day.

Archival nit pickiness

Revamped my archives. Made the drop-down reverse order so the latest archives are first. Changed archiving to monthly archives so the list isn't so lengthy.

Thanks to roveberg for the bloggerhack.

Something for that someone who has everything

Something for that someone who has everything or maybe something for Mom that isn't a plaster handprint or copper-plated baby shoes.

Pirolette = major coolness

$149.95 + S&H is pricey but what a conversation piece!

[URL] Tax Tips and Resources for Writers

DRO has posted her updated "Tax Tips and Resources For Freelance Writers" over at InkyGirl.

Here's my annual updated list of useful tax resources for freelance writers. Sadly (for me, anyway, since I live in Canada), most of the info is specific to the U.S., but I did manage to find some info specific to Canada and other countries, listed below in the "international tax info" section partway down this list.

I was unable to find ANY tax-related resources of use to writers outside of North America. Suggestions welcome! [...]

Google adds "themes" to your Google homepage

I like plain ol' vanilla Google. It works. It's simple. No fuss. But earlier today, I decided to just check out the various themes that Google has developed for its Google homepages and settled on "city."

Very nice. Mellow. The colors and accoutrements change with the time of day and weather. (You need to give them a ZIP for it to work properly.) Right now it's shades of purple and blue with stars and a crescent moon. Nice.

My one concern is that the Googlelogo is a single, set color.

What happens when it's George Orwell's bday and the Google logomeister comes up with a spiffy logo-for-the-day?

All that remains to be seen, but the cityscape is nice and I'm enjoying it.

[YOUTUBE] Hillary mashup

The YouTube Hillary mashup made it to the front page above the fold of today's Chronicle.

Found two versions at YouTube:

Short: Vote Different (1:13)



Long: VOTE SMART: a warning to all women about hillary clinton (5:14)




Obama's campaign sez they had nothing to do with it. Others are pointing fingers to the same folk who brought us the Swift Boat Veterans.

Being as the presidential primaries don't kick off until the Iowa caucuses next January, it looks like it will be a very interesting tit-for-tat election this time around.

Update: Above the fold, front page, SFChronicle today (20 Mar 2007) as well, with a buzz buzz article about who might have mashed it and why. A Rove device to slam Hillary and catch Obama in the crossfire with one swat?

Have you watched both videos? I think the short one is more effective. The long one just goes on and on and on, well past my patience. I believe the long one is a revamp of the short one. Who co-opted the short video? Wonder what the original masher thinks of that?

Update2: Archer has a link to a Barack 1984 video. As I commented there, Too bad the Clinton supporters are so lacking in originality. They're ripping off a mashup, for pete's sake. Do your own clever thing, peoples. This just looks petty. And stoopid.

[YOUTUBE] Middle Ages Tech Support

[via hisnibs who received it in e-mail from SueJ. Thanks, Sue!]

Monday's walkabout: along the GGNRA Coastal Trail: dinner at the Cliff House (12 Mar 2007)

Monday, his nibs wanted to go do something and the weather was fine. We decided to walk the newly furbished Golden Gate National Recreation Area Coastal Trail from China Beach down to Ocean Beach and see what we could see.

Walked down to Washington Square Park and caught the 30-Stockton to Union Square where we transferred to the 38-Geary and rode it all the way to 33rd, where the bus turns south off Geary onto 33rd. We walked across Geary and up the hill past the Lincoln Park Golf Course



to the Palace of the Legion of Honor.



Sure, we could've waited and transferred to the 18, but decided to take the walk instead.

From the Palace, you walk past the Holocaust Memorial and turn east, walking down the drive on the far side past the Peace Memorial and further until you get almost to China Beach, where you see the signage for the Coastal Walk. There you begin.

We had a great walk. Beautiful views. Wonderful smells. Lovely day.

We stopped for a while at Mile Rock Beach and admired the balanced stone piles people had made,



watched the waves crashing



and checked out the container ships coming into port.



We arrived in mid-afternoon at the ruins of the Sutro Baths and stopped off at the Cliff House to use the facilities and check out the gift shop.

Didn't buy anything, but we did see a stack of FINDING FAULT IN CALIFORNIA, written by our favorite geophysicist.



His nibs was talking about sticking around until dinner time and eating at the Cliff House, but it seemed too early for dinner, so we walked down to Ocean Beach



and over to the Safeway to make sure we knew where we could catch a homeward bound bus after dinner.

We headed on to the Park Chalet for a Chalet-brewed beer.

Imagine our delight to discover that beers are $1/each from 3p-closing on Mondays. Our lucky day! We sat on the steps outside in the sun and took advantage of the Monday offer.

Later, we headed back to the Cliff House and scored a table in the Sutro dining room. The place was busy but not crushingly so.

The food was delish. The staff was capable and friendly and gave good pretence of enjoying their jobs, if indeed they didn't.

Appetizers:
(me) Dungeness Crab "Sutro" roll (4 pcs) with unagi and avocado
(his nibs) Crab Cake "Louis" (2 cakes) with butter lettuce and Louis sauce

Both were excellent. We swopped halfway through.

Main:
(me) Applewood Bacon crusted wild Salmon with Truffled Potatoes, Bloomsdale Spinach, Calvados Broth, and verrry thinly sliced apples.
(his nibs) Swordfish with a yummy sauce, sliced new potatoes, spinach

Again, both were excellent. We kept saying to each other, "Who would've guessed the food here would be this good?" There's the old standard warning: if the view is great, don't expect the food to be too. We were delighted to find out the Cliff House not only had a view, but great food too.

We had a Calera Chardonnay with dinner, in honor of the Calera winemaker's dinner we'd been to at Pres a Vi in the Presidio last Wednesday.

I took at least half of my salmon home and made a meal of it yesterday. Portion sizes are generous.

Caution: After the sun sets there's nothing to see outside. Wander along the beach and watch the sunset and then eat, or ask for a table that allows you a view of the sunset at dinner.

For dessert his nibs had the custard trio: Butterscotch Parfait, Pistachio Crème Brulee & Tangerine Crème Caramel. We shared that along with a glass of Bonny Doon Vin de Glaciere Moscato, one of my favorite dessert wines.

After dinner, with my little box of salmon in tow, we walked down the hill and caught the 38-Geary back to Market & 3rd, where we caught the 30-Stockton and home-again home-again riggety jig.

Note to self: remember the $1 beer Mondays at the Park Chalet and the relative ease of public transit over to the delish food at Sutro's.

The complete set of shots from Monday's walk is here.

Found at Cliff House on Monday (12 March 2007)

A long ramble (perhaps) to follow about our excursions on Monday and dinner at the Cliff House.

Suffice to say, that we were pumped to find one of Hough's books



at the Cliff House gift shop when we stopped by to check out the merchandise before dinner.

Gavin Newsom chatted with Dave Morey and his wacky gang yesterday morning

Gavin Newsom chatted with Dave Morey and his wacky gang at KFOG's Morning Show yesterday morning.

I missed the show live but downloaded KFOG's podcast/mp3 of the show and listened to the yack-yack this afternoon.

Why read other people telling you what Newsom said when you can take a direct listen?

[BLOG] Today in Letters

Today in Letters: Letters and Diary Entries from this Day in Literary History.

Today (08 Mar) brings us

Lord Byron: March 8, 1816

A letter to Thomas Moore.

I rejoice in your promotion as Chairman and Charitable Steward, etc., etc. These be dignities which await only the virtuous. But then, recollect you are six and thirty, (I speak this enviously—not of your age, but the "honour—love—obedience—troops of friends," which accompany it,) and I have eight years good to run before I arrive at such hoary perfection; by which time,—if I am at all,—it will probably be in a state of grace or progressing merits.

[...]

Pastorio

For those who know him who haven't heard about his dire health situation, Carol has setup a LiveJournal site to keep people informed and to serve as a repository for notes from people who know him.

I've been reading every single email and blog comment to Bob, and he's been surprised and touched that he is so well thought of.

Addendum:Here's the post that explains what follows.

VisualDNA™

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

[via Sour Grapes @ tumblr]

Free beer! and bushi-tei

Went to dinner last night at bushi-tei in Japantown. ... for the third time.

Those who know us know that we seldom eat anywhere more than once, maybe twice. We must think bushi-tei is yummy. We do. It is. There are so many good restaurants in this town, that eating anywhere more than once or twice is absurd unless we think the restaurant is a keeper.

bushi-tei's appetizer to die for is /Seared fresh foie gras, pumpkin pot de crème, pistachio, red onion marmalade/. The pumpkin pot de crème sounds like it would be weird with the seared foie gras (the foie is settled in the middle of the pot de crème), but the pairing is perfect. Delish. Mine!

His nibs had /Lobster and Crab, Chrysanthemum leaf, papaya, bacon, ginger cream, curry oil/. A salad of sorts only there's very little greenery and LARGE CHUNKS OF LOBSTER! Tasty dressing. The bacon and papaya bits add intriguing shots of flavor. The salad is more crab and lobster than anything else. Tasty. We swopped our plates halfway through.

For the main course I had /Pan roasted Sonoma duck breast, spinach, mascarpone-mustard, dried chutney/, cooked medium rare. I figured if I had duck liver for the appetizer, it was only fair that I should carry on with the rest of the duck for the main course. The duck was cooked perfectly. The mascarpone-mustard was smooth and mellow and didn't overwhelm the duck.

His nibs had /Pan seared Maine scallop, black rice tabbouleh, eye berry- cucumber yoghurt/. Delish as well. Have we ever had anything not delish here? No. For dessert his nibs had an apple dumpling served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, a drizzle of caramel and a sprinkling of crushed pistachio. I had a glass of Ichinokura Himezen saké.

LaWand Mathern wrote a fine review of bushi-tei last August that I won't even try to compete with except to say the food is great, the setting is calm and serene and the bathrooms! Well! We have friends with toilets that do everything but sponge the spilt wine off your shirt. These are those kinds of toilets.

But wait! you say. What about the free beer?

Well, Muni cooperated (don't say it never does) and we walked down to Washington Square Park where we were whisked off on the 30Stockton which dropped us at Union Square just in time to catch 38LGeary and we found ourselves at Bushi-Tei a half-hour before our 7p reservation. (Early reservation because his nibs was due for a conference call concerning raises and staff bright and early this morning.)

The early start to dinner meant that we finished at an unheard of early hour and (backtracking on the 38 and the 30) found ourselves back in North Beach, getting off the 30 at Panta Rei some time around 8:15p. We were walking up Green from Columbus when his nibs decided that the night was still young and we should stop into Maggie McGarry's for a pint of Anchor Steam before making that last push up the hill.

The barkeep said, "You here for the trivia?"
"No," we answered. "Just stopping by on the way home from dinner."

And yet ... we were still there when the trivia contest (every Tuesday!) started 'round about 8:30p. The quizmaster gave us a pencil and an answer sheet booklet. The night was still young. Why not try our luck and our smarts -- the luck being in the quizmaster asking a question we knew the answer to.

His nibs won a free pint at a drawing mid-session. The session went on for six rounds. We were totally skunked for the music round. We made unexpected points in the hip-hop 'round. We were lagging behind, but made it up in the last "last call for know-it-alls" round and wound up in third place out of maybe eight teams competing. We were clearly a couple decades older than the rest of the contestants. Yay, us!

One of the youngsters came over ostensibly to get another round of drinks but in actuality to ask his nibs if he could tell her who sang Leader of the Pack (one of the answers in the music round). She must've figured we were old enough to know, but we couldn't help her. Did I mention total skunkage in the music round?

Our third place finish earned us chits for two more pints of beer.

Free Anchor Steam. Can't get much better than that.

Before breakfast or even a cup of coffee: Updates to Internet Resources for Writers

Checked and updated all links in the Business section of Internet Resources for Writers.

Before breakfast! Before coffee even!

The page includes over one hundred links classified in subsections:

• Unsorted
  
• Agents
  
• Book Publishers
  
• Copyright
  
• E-Publishing
  
• Legal, Contracts, & Taxes
  
• Marketing, Sales, Promotion, & Publicity
  
• Print-On-Demand Publishing
  
• Self-publishing
  
• Your Website

Replaced some broken links. Added a few. Commented out links to my articles on Web design and copyright that I wrote for Computer Bits, which is no more. I need to bring those articles onto either this site or internet-resources.com some day, now that the Computer Bits online archives are no more.

[URL] Craigslist Curmudgeon is the Yahoo! Daily Wire site of the day.

The Curmudgeon cranks on about Craigslist ads that offer next to nothing (or worse!) as payment for wordsmithing.

Yahoo! sez: The Curmudgeon's chief complaint: would-be content providers that offer wordsmiths no pay. More specific no-nos: ads offering piddling in-kind compensation, ads with dubious payment schemes, ads offering nothing but "exposure," and ads offering no pay for ridiculous assignments.

And the ad-meisters fire back.

Entertaining all around.

[nod to Yahoo! picks]

TICs and Andy Sirkin, Attorney

I'm not a huge TIC fan. I can't imagine ever buying a TIC unit. Sure, I know. TICs are usually a chunk of change cheaper than a similar condominium, but the legal squirreliness involved with TIC agreements and the funding behind them just shiver me timbers.

And yet. ... There are those who buy TICs and there are those with questions about TICs who need the straight scoop about what they're getting into.

Anyone with questions about TICs (apartment units sold to buyers who own the entire building as Tenants In Common) should not ask the agent who was showing two TICs that we went through today.

Potential buyers who didn't even know the difference between a condominium and a TIC were peppering her with questions. That agent was glossing over the drawbacks of TICs, giving misleading information about the ease of converting to condominiums, and other forked-tongue exercises. She claimed that the City limited the number of TICs that could convert to condominiums each year because the City wanted to keep rental units available and not have the City fill up with condominiums.

Huh?

Well. No, I can't even say, "kinda." There is no law against renting out a condominium. A TIC doesn't have to be owner-occupied. Neither does a condominium. I don't know where the agent was getting her information, but she was blowing smoke on this and on other TIC/condo conversion matters too.

The rules about TICs and TIC conversions go far beyond what the agent was telling the naifs who were taking her word as gospel. There's a history behind the rules and regulations governing TICs and condo conversions in this fair ville and it's nothing like the gloss-over she was giving her potential buyers.

Read up on the issues swirling around TICs and then if you have questions (and you should), head over to Andy Sirkin, Attorney's site. Sirkin is the guy who wrote the book (and the agreements) and is the go-to guy for TICs.

Don't rely on the word-of-mouth not-legally-binding schmooze from a real estate agent trying to sell a TIC. Get your information straight from Sirkin, no frills, no trussssssssst me, no BS.


... and before you make an offer on that TIC you have an eye on, find yourself a real estate agent other than the one selling the property to represent you in the transaction. Both real estate agents are paid by the seller, but the one representing you will have more of your interests at heart than the one representing the seller.

Jayson Wechter's Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt

Had fun last night at Jayson Wechter's Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt.

(I'd won a pair of tickets from sfist.com. Thanks, Jon!)

We'd never played before and were in the Beginner category. Hundreds (and hundreds and hundreds!) of people showed up to pickup their clues before getting the rah-rah-rah and go-ahead from Jayson hisself 'round about 5p at which point we all ripped open our clues and hunkered down to plot a plan before taking off from Justin Herman Plaza. We had until 9p to solve the clues, write down the treasure answers and get back to the Plaza to turn in our scorecard.

Oh, those clues were tough, tough, tough, even for my comrade-in-arms, his nibs, who is a fifth generation San Franciscan.

As we hunkered down for our initial clue solving, a middle-aged man in suit and tie stopped beside us. "What is going on?" he asked.

"A treasure hunt," we replied.

"Oh."

We thought we had it tough until we bumped into our DiMaggio Playground cohort, GregC, whose team was doing the challenging Master Hunt. Whoo boy. Those clues are far beyond my wee comprehension.

We didn't get all the clues, didn't find all the treasures, but we had fun and then headed home to roast lamb and parsnips with mashed potatoes and lamb drippings gravy.

Next year we'll have a better idea of what's in store, what makes sense to bring (brighter flashlights for one), and what can be left home. (I should've left my heavy HarleyD corduroy shirt home instead of carrying it along in my accoutrements bag -- we were moving too fast to ever get cold -- and it was just an added burden.)

Besides GregC, we bumped into a flock of wild RNs who used to work with his nibs at the startup in South City. I'm sure there were others in the crowd we would've known, but there were just sooooo many folks out hunting last night, not to mention the thousands who lined the streets of Chinatown for the New Year's parade.