Bay Bridge closed "indefinitely" for emergency repair.

I can't imagine that it'll be more than a couple of days, realistically. But it sure sounds dramatic, doesn't it? (Of course, no matter how long it is, it's really going to suck for people who use that bridge to commute. And if it's more than a couple of days, my weekend plans could get... interesting.)

I could also go off on my rant about how we'd have a shiny new bridge by now if it weren't for Willie Brown and our need to grandstand against Pete Wilson, but I'll spare you all that one.

This is how I know it's Labor Day Weekend in San Francisco: I can hear the jackhammers hard at work on the Bay Bridge.

Also by the fact that the weather has turned into summer, right on cue. Although Weather Underground says it's supposed to be cooler tomorrow. Dear weather: stop raining (not literally) on my parade. It's September! The fog is supposed to take its annual vacation now!

No real plans for the long weekend at this point. Maybe that means I'll get to relax. Mmm, relax.

Today was Northern California May Day, at an alumna's gorgeous home up in the Sonoma Valley. The event itself was really enjoyable -- great to see lots of folks I hadn't seen in awhile; why do I keep letting myself fall out of the BMC loop? -- and on the drive home, I found myself getting nostalgic for Sonoma County: the green hills just starting to shade into gold, fields of grapes stretching away from gently curving highways. I don't expect I'll ever live up in Santa Rosa or Sonoma County again, but there's a way in which it still feels like home to me, and sometimes I miss it.

And then an hour or so later, driving down 101, I came out of the rainbow tunnels to the view of the Golden Gate bridge and the city spread out before me, and the sight of it brought a goofy huge grin to my face, as it so often does. Sonoma County may always be my old home, but San Francisco is where the heart is.

Despite having lived in San Francisco for 8 years, and the Bay Area for either 22 or 13, depending on how you count it, I had never made it to the annual Gay Pride parade. (Mostly because it seems like I'm usually out of town during the last weekend of June.) So as soon as I knew I would be around this year, I was determined to check it out. I think I picked a good year to go, because the mood seemed especially festive. So many "Just Married" signs, tin cans tied to the back of cars, people waving huge pictures of their marriage licenses and their wedding rings -- and wearing huge grins. There was even one couple having their wedding ceremony on a float. I had a moment of wondering whether it was staged, but I got a good look at the guys' faces, and my inclination is to say no, that we were all witnesses to their marriage. Gorgeous. Gavin Newsom got a big hand from the people around me, as did all the other elected officials, lawyers, and couples who were involved. And almost every contingent had at least one person carrying a sign asking us to vote "No" on the anti-marriage amendment. I don't know whether it was an official theme of the event, but it might as well have been. Lots of warm fuzzy feelings.

I took pictures, of course, but I haven't downloaded or sorted through them yet. But I will.

It's not the rain itself I mind so much (although ask me that again if it ends up falling for more than three days straight). Actually, I rather like a bit of rain; I found the sound of it on the roof particularly soothing.

The problem is, in San Francisco, rain almost invariably comes with wind. The kind of wind that swirls around and makes an umbrella next to useless. I'm not crazy about wind under any circumstances, but coupled with rain I find it particularly irritating.

I suppose this may be the universe's way of telling me to get a better rain jacket. Or at least a longer one.

The social whirlwind of the holidays is finally over -- my school and T's companies both had their official parties in January, mine last Friday and T's on Tuesday night -- and we found ourselves with a completely unplanned weekend for the first time in ages. Nice.

Yesterday ended up being a photo safari day. It was sunny and sort of warm and there was a "minus tide" (a super-low tide, they happen about once a month), so T decided he wanted to check it out. We started at Baker Beach -- somehow, despite about two decades combined living in San Francisco, neither of us had ever been there before. It has some stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's also SF's only nude beach. I had known this, but somehow I didn't expect to see anyone taking advantage of that fact in the middle of January.

Our next, and main, stop was Lands' End and the Sutro Baths. We took a trail from the former (an oceanfront park) to the latter, and it was a really lovely walk. The Sutro Baths are really neat -- it's a ruin of a resort complex built around a hundred years ago, and it makes for a cool combination of nature and the remains of architecture and ocean-water swimming pools. It's one of T's favorite places in the city, and we spent quite awhile there, walking around, T taking photos. We watched the sunset, took off for a bit of a snack, and then came back after dark for some moonlight photography. T is messing with the pictures now; if there are good ones, I will certainly post them. But it was worth going back just to walk around at night. The moon was nearly full, and the sky was clear -- unusual for that part of San Francisco. We could even see without a flashlight.

Today was more laid-back. Mostly we tided the house, although we did make a quick run for the Borders so that T could use a gift card he got for Xmas, and in order to catch a little sunshine (not nearly as nice as yesterday, though; it was both colder and windier). Then we made dinner, watched a little TV, and now we're settled in, me on LJ and him messing with his photos. It's a quiet day, but good.

Much quality time with the DS, lately. It's going okay with the hands. I use the stylus as much as I can, which helps. I'd been a little worried that the tiny grip would bother me, but so far it's been all right. I've been splitting my time between PuzzleQuest (hours and hours of Bejeweled! Yes!) and Final Fantasy III, which is fun so far. I like seeing these early versions of all the themes and fiends that have become so familiar to me. I enjoy games with jobs systems for the most part. It's a little early to say much about the story (just finished the Tower of Owen), but I like the characters. Arc is just about the cutest thing ever (I'm playing him as a Black Mage, and he's so adorable in the big yellow hat; I'm going to be sad when it comes time to change him). I've also played some Phoenix Wright -- we finished the first case and the first two parts of the second -- but that's going more slowly because T is playing over my shoulder, so I'm waiting for him to have the time and motivation.

Tomorrow will be nice. I have the day off, and T has to work, making it the first day in a really long time that I truly have to myself. Except for chorus in the evening, I have absolutely no obligations. Which is a lovely thought. Haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with the day yet. Of course, that's precisely why it's so charming -- I don't have to make any decisions until I get there. Excellent.

The second storm is upon us now. I can hear the rain and wind on the roof, although it's not nearly as heavy as it was yesterday. That was a nasty day, especially in the morning -- public transit snarls, everyone dripping wet, lots of power outages. Nothing that touched us here, fortunately, although we did go grocery shopping at a store that had been without power earlier in the day, and it was weird. Lots of closed or empty freezer cases, most of the fresh fish gone, all the poultry packed in extra ice.

Today isn't supposed to be as bad, although the weather report says there might be thunderstorms (which are rare here). It'd be a great day to curl up with a cup of tea, a book, and several blankets, but new faculty orientation waits for no one.

We were hit by one of our first big winter storms today, and another is supposed to be along any minute (no rain yet, but I can hear the wind gusting). T took advantage of the lull and got some really neat pictures. I'll probably post more later, but he got one in particular that I really loved.



This is just a detail; click on the image to see the whole thing.

Some time ago, the city of San Francisco outlawed the use of plastic grocery bags. I remember hearing about this at the time, and Whole Foods made the switch awhile ago, but it still came as a surprise when we walked into Safeway last week and the only bags in sight were paper.

It's not so much the carrying groceries in paper bags rather than plastic -- I'm pretty neutral on that, although the Safeway paper bags aren't great; the handles are pretty flimsy. But I use plastic bags for other things, and I know I'm not the only one: we use them to line garbage cans, when traveling, to clean the litterbox. That last thing I'm particularly concerned about. We can use paper bags in most of the other garbage applications, but how am I going to clean the litterbox every day without a plastic grocery bag? The only thing I can think of right now is to buy more plastic bags. Somehow, I don't think that's what the environmental groups who supported this law had in mind.

Well, I'm sure I'll think of something. The results aren't all bad. We went back to Safeway today, and they're giving out a free cloth bag with every $25 purchase. It's pretty flimsy as cloth bags go, but it's still more reusable than paper. So that's a win. I wish Whole Foods would do that, too -- their bags are a lot more substantial.

Today, as an environmental awareness action/publicity stunt, the city of San Francisco turned off lights on selected major landmarks for an hour (8pm to 9pm), and invited its residents to do the same. T wanted to get a look at the scene from a distance, and maybe get some photos, so we headed over to Oakland to set up a vantage point at a park along the bay. We met up with R, S, and E for dinner beforehand, and then the three of them joined us at the park, hoping for a good look at the show.

( Photos and more! )

Feels like forever since I've posted anything really meaningful here. Life continues on its merry way. Things happen but nothing ever really changes. That's not a complaint -- I have a pretty good life, I'm content with it for the most part. But when I sit down at the computer, none of it really seems worth writing down.

Yesterday T and I went to the Asian Art Museum to see two special exhibits on Japanese storytellers: the 19th century printmaker Yoshitoshi and the great manga-ka Tezuka Osamu, best known in the US for Astro Boy. I enjoyed both exhibits a great deal. Probably what struck me most in both exhibits was the level of detail both men lavished on their work. I certainly noticed it with Yoshitoshi, but it struck me even more in the Tezuka. Some of his drawings of rainstorms, in particular, were exquisite. I also found the breadth of subjects to be totally fascinating. Tezuka wrote a manga version of Crime and Punishment, and another on the life of Beethoven ("Ludwig B") -- the panels on that one had some of the most dynamic visual representations of music I've ever seen. But the thing that bowled me over the most was the segment on "Princess Knight (Ribon no kishi)", because I recognized it immediately. It had been made into an anime that I watched on television as a kid. I loved the show but could never for the life of me remember the title. I've been trying to recollect for years, but no one I've ever asked has recognized it. And now, 25 years later, I finally know what it is. Of course, you can't get it on video in English, but at least now I know it's out there.

The rest of the weekend has been pretty much spent around the house. We made white chili yesterday; it was good, but I ended up with "jalapeño hands" -- the oil got embedded in my fingertips and burned my skin all night. Now, 24 hours later, it still hasn't completely worn off. Taking out my contacts was an adventure. My other main project has been working on the website. Still nothing ready to present yet, although I feel like I'm at least starting to get a bit of a handle on the CSS. If only I could figure out how to make everything line up the way I want it to. Hopefully I'll have at least something to show off soon.

Wrote a little bit, too, although not as much as I'd like. The Kissing Battle got me rolling (from Monday night through this afternoon I wrote eight ficbits including, um, two for FFXII, I am really not quite sure how that happened) but then I got sidetracked by CSS and the burning fingers, which made it really hard to concentrate on much last night. Still, the kissing ficlets were a great deal of fun. I enjoyed the chance to cut loose and play with pairings and characters I don't usually touch (as well as revisit a few old friends) in a low-pressure situation. I hope to see more fic challenges like it.

Oh yeah, and I got some planning done for my upcoming trip to Chicago for concertinette's wedding! We leave on Friday and come back on Tuesday. That should be fun -- good friends will be there, I haven't been to Chicago in ages, and T has never been, so I'm excited to show him all the exciting architecture (and of course to get a look at it myself). Definitely looking forward to that one.

Sometimes on my way to work, I stop on the way to get coffee at my favorite local place, which happens to be right next to the main Muni station for the financial district. This station tends to get the best subway musicians, probably because the banker types who work in the area give the biggest tips. Today, there was a string quartet there, quite good, playing Pachabel's Canon. And this woman stood right in front of them, so close that at first I thought she was part of the group, her eyes closed, holding out a cellphone to catch the sound. I've never seen anything like it, at least not in this context.

Anyway, I wandered off to get my coffee. By the time I got back into the station, they'd moved on to "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik". Crowd-pleasers, to be sure, but at least they were being played beautifully. I wish I'd had more time to stop and listen. As always when I hear good subway musicians, I'm reminded of this experiment sponsored by the Washington Post, in which world-class violin soloist Joshua Bell played in a Metro station during morning rush hour. Fascinating read, btw, definitely worth your time to watch the videos if you haven't seen it before.

- I had an errand to run on Saturday morning, and it took me near the new Panera that's opened up not far from my house. I'd been meaning to try it, since various people on my flist have talked about it, and I once went with amybang and had a salad that I remember fondly. So I picked up a cinnamon bagel and the house latte, and can I just say: yum. The latte especially -- it's flavored with vanilla and spices and sweetened with honey, and it is so tasty. The bread looked really good, too, and the pastries. Good thing/too bad it isn't really on my way to work; I'd probably be there every day.

- On the way back from the errand, I took the train, and had an "only in San Francisco" moment: there was a poster advocating the adoption of older children. The family? Two middle aged men, one white and one black, and a mixed-race teenage girl, probably 14 or 15 years old. Awesome.

- Otherwise, yesterday was fairly lazy, but yesterday we ended up with a pretty busy day. T and I went down to Sunnyvale to meet SE and SF for that city's annual street artisan festival. Mostly I was there to find a sunhat for Hawaii (which I succeeded in doing) and to visit one of my favorite jewelery makers. After that, T and I trekked over to REI, where we got some stuff for the trip, including hiking boots for both of us. (Yes, I willingly purchased closed-toe shoes. Try to contain your shock!) A fruitful and fun day overall.

A good weekend, if busy. amybang was in town, and she came to my concert on Friday night. The concert went well, as expected -- the pieces went by really fast, especially the Vaughan Williams. We sounded pretty good, I think. The orchestra was excellent, which always helps.

The next day we hooked up with a small group of people and went to the Maker Faire, a sort of art/craft/science/DIY/random stuff expo. We saw giant robots, and a city of Lego, and a life-size game of Mousetrap, and the Diet Coke & Mentos guys (that was impressive and fun, even if it was 20 minutes of standing around for a 2 minute show), and a car covered with pens, and sculptures made with a 3D printer and granulated sugar, and all other kinds of neat things. Definitely worth an afternoon of my time. Afterwards, amybang, SE, and SF came over to pet kitties and play old arcade games (we have a NAMCO collection for PS2 that contains such classics as Pac-Man, Dig Dug, and Pole Position).

This morning, T dragged me out of bed at 7:30 AM-- let us all take a moment to consider the improbability of that sentence.

Okay, I'm done now. ;) Anyway, like I was saying, T got me up early and we wandered downtown to check out the Bay to Breakers. This is an annual 12K run/walk across San Francisco that starts at the Embarcadero and finishes at the ocean (hence the name). People dress in costume and make floats and tie themselves into "centipedes". I've lived in San Francisco for seven years and never seen it, so with only a minimum of grumbling I allowed him to drag me along, and we took in the spectacle. I don't think I've ever seen so many people drunk on cheap beer at eight in the morning, but otherwise it was fun to watch. Lots of variety and creativity in the costumes. Much more of a festival/party atmosphere than I expected, even among the spectators.

Then we came home and pretty much crashed. Did some laundry, played some Okami, I wrote a bit. A good weekend overall. But I intend to program my Memorial Day weekend a little less. Hello couch, it's nice to see you again.

That's what T called this, possibly the most-photographed piece of concrete to be used in highway construction ever. It's part of the new connector between I-80 and I-580, probably better known to most of you as the bit of freeway that melted when a gas tanker crashed on a piece of roadway that ran beneath it.

By all reports, the accident hasn't resulted in the traffic nightmare that everyone was predicting, at least not in terms of spill-over onto other routes. And it has yet to affect my life directly, although there've been a couple of East Bay events that I might have driven to, had the freeway been in place, but I took BART instead, both times. So the highway disaster made me a better citizen, at least.

Currently in the midst of a concert week. Rehearsals yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and the performance is Friday. The pieces are in pretty good shape, especially when I compare us to the state we were in at this time last quarter. Of course, we're singing two nice, straightforward pieces this time ("Five Mystical Songs" by Vaughan-Williams and the John Rutter Requiem. The Rutter may even be a little too straightforward for my tastes, although the "Agnus Dei" is quite possibly one of the most gorgeous movements I've come across in any choral work ever), which makes a huge difference.

But I will be glad when it's done. Concert weeks are always draining.

So I'm sitting in the outdoor courtyard of the cafe across the street from my building. It's one of those rare gorgeous spring days in San Francisco -- warm enough to sit outside in shirtsleeves, no wind, perfect blue sky, not super-hot like yesterday. The cafe is pretty deserted, since it's too late for people to be taking coffee breaks but too early for the folks headed for the ballpark. So it's just me, and my laptop, and some birds, and the traffic that I can see driving along the Embarcadero through the fenced-in courtyard. I dropped by here after work to have a drink (seltzer, since the only iced tea they had left was mango-flavored) and a cookie and get some writing done. It's a nice spot for it. I've spent my entire life reading in cafes, but I've never really tried to write in one before, and I'm finding I quite like it. Just the right level of external stimulus -- not so quiet that it's distracting, but the noise of cars and trains and pedestrians is easy to background. Also, there's no wireless here (this is being composed in TextEdit; I'll post it when I get home), so that particular distraction is removed as well.

It's interesting to note how mobile computing has changed my habits. Several days, now, I've pulled my laptop into the living room and chatted with folks while watching television (baseball works particularly well for this), or written and surfed while T has played games or otherwise done his own thing. I'm not having to make nearly as many choices about what I want to do -- multi-tasking is the name of the game. Whether or not that's a good thing long-term I haven't decided, but I'll figure it all out. I end up taking the laptop to work probably about twice a week. Last Thursday, I brought it along so that I could take advantage of the public library's free wireless rather than having to come all the way home between work and going out to dinner. Worked out beautifully. I imagine I'll do the same thing this week.

Time to get back to the connected world. Still, this was a nice experiment. I should do it again.

T and I went to the Exploratorium today (the local hands-on science museum, one of the best of that type that I know). We took the bus there, and on that ride I had a new experience: a bus driver who flat-out lied to people when they asked him for directions. This particular bus has two different terminals, one at Fisherman's Wharf and one out in the Marina District, close to the museum. Several people asked him whether this particular bus went to the Marina, or Beach Street, or the Exploratorium. "No," he'd say, every single time. "You want the bus behind me." So I fretted the whole way, waiting for the bus to stop short. But it didn't. It stopped at Broderick and Beach, mere blocks from the Exploratorium. Teach those tourists to believe a word the bus drivers tell them! Except I have literally never seen anything quite like this. Mistakes are one thing, but outright lies? It was a little disconcerting.

We spent most of our museum time in the sound and vision sections, which was fine by me because those are my favorites. There were cool pictures taken, which I hope to get around to posting. I played with xylophones set to the pentatonic scale. We watched swans and seagulls swimming in the lake next to the museum. Then we came home and played Okami, which I continue to enjoy immensely. So overall a good day. But that thing with the bus driver? Definitely strange.

Final Fantasy 12 in two days!! Must manage expectations, must manage expectations...

Anyone have suggestions about ways to find an FFXII userpic without spoiling myself to death?

Also, on a completely unrelated topic, photos from Critical Mass, a monthy bike ride/protest in downtown San Francisco.

This one is my favorite:

( Fire! )

Between working Saturday and today's ballgame, I don't feel like I had much of a weekend. At least next week should be fairly mellow. Also, three day weekend! That always works.

It has often been said that only in San Francisco would the candidates' hair become an actual issue in electoral politics. And yet, that's exactly what happened in 2003, when Gavin Newsom ran against Matt Gonzalez. Gonzalez had floppy, messy hair; Newsom a very polished, gelled look. All kinds of articles and discussion about whether it was indicitive of personality differences and whatnot. In the end I voted for Newsom and have never regretted it, too much gel or no. And I don't mind the helmet head look so much; it works for him.

But still, when the mayor goes out for the first time without his shellacking, it's big news. All over.

And, I kinda have to say: rowr. Floppy hair and glasses? Count me in.

San Francisco looks into charging tolls for downtown drivers

An interesting idea, although I would vote for improving transit and other options first. MUNI is okay (used to be much worse) but spotty, and not well integrated enough with regional transit. Better taxi service would help, too.

Anyone out there dealt with this in London? Is it working out there?