Category Archives: San Francisco

Too stoked to stoke the stoke.

June 6, 2009

I had a fairly mellow day today, taking in the sights and sounds of my own neighborhood. I explored 24th Street and browsed the murals of Balmy Street, which celebrate the Hispanic heritage of this fine area in a lovely visual format.

Balmy Street Murals

Balmy Street Murals

What’s incredible, too, is the Google Street View of Balmy Street. It’s not nearly as cool as being there, but it’s still a pretty fine treat. If you haven’t played with the new Street View UI, do it now. It’s totally dope, and it addresses many of the reservations that had previously tempered my Street View stoke.

In other news, El Salvador took down Mexico in the World Cup qualifiers, and my neighborhood has been absolutely nuts in celebration. Really, it’s been like this all evening:

Man, I just can’t help but smile when diggin’ on people who are this stoked. Make sure to turn up the volume. If your ears don’t hurt, you don’t know what it’s really like.

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I’ll bet you can’t guess how this one ends.

June 5, 2009

The new bike is fast. It shaved five minutes off my three-mile commute this morning.

Chris, John and I, in celebration of surviving our first week as interns, took the Muni from SoMa through Chinatown to Italytown to grab some tasty slices of pizza. We ate them in a park while an old woman lurked behind us, waiting impatiently for Chris and John to give her their hurriedly-emptied cans of soda. Meanwhile, I gestured at pigeons.

Then we went to a baseball stadium and watched the opera.

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Spry. Or Perhaps The Faun.

June 4, 2009

Today I bid farewell to the Frankenbike, as my friend put the finishing touches on a more proper bike that he’s been building for me to use for my mighty summer. I talked to Kate, and she said the going price for a used bike in Walla Walla was about thirty bucks. I paid a bit more than that, but I shudder to think what a $30 bike transaction in this town would look like. It would definitely involve a stolen bike sold by a dangerous tweaker covered in scabs, who would demand that I meet him in the Tenderloin.

No. This bike is good and proper. Swift and nimble, it is a third the weight of the Frankenbike with a playfulness all its own. Small frame, large wheels, road tires, one speed, and one speed only. It has a lovely green finish and an aggressive racing posture, but most importantly it has brakes and it can stop.

I need to take this new bike for a good long spin before I can truly give it a fitting name, but that hasn’t stopped me from rolling a few around inside my head. You know, to see how they feel.

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Won’t you be my neighbor?

June 3, 2009

I’m proud to say that this all went down less than six blocks from my flat. Talk about busted.

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Tactile

June 3, 2009

This morning I learned that I might need to start dosing myself with caffeine before starting my daily bicycle commute. While traveling in a pack of bike commuters I realized I was pretty zoned out, which isn’t exactly the safest thing when biking in traffic. Things can turn gnarly in an instant, and it’s imperative that I stay in tune with my surroundings.

Nevertheless, I have learned a few things. While the working-class Mission hipsters like myself typically commute to downtown on Harrison, the hipster-class Mission hipsters commute on Valencia. Truly, the flow of bicyclists represent two totally different demographics depending on what street you take.

Tonight Chris and I grabbed some falafel goodness at Ali Baba’s Cave, and took in a late showing of Pixar’s Up, which was surreal, touching and absolutely beautiful. The story was heartfelt and lovely, and I couldn’t stop geeking out over the texture of everything. From paper to glass to fabrics to embroidery, everything had this complex richness to it that made it believably tactile. Incredible.

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If you want the scoop on where I live…

June 2, 2009

…YOU SHOULD GO HERE.

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Napkin

June 2, 2009

All my mail is being forwarded for the summer, and it’s always shocking how long it takes something to wind up at its desired location. After more than a month in the system a stern letter from the IRS finally wound its way to my disciplined staff of Dutiful Mail Handlers in Minnesota. I’m summarizing the finer points of the memo, but apparently a stained cocktail napkin with some numbers scrawled on it is not a proper format for one’s own federal tax return. Which is funny, because I swear I scanned in that napkin and sent it to them electronically.

I called the IRS, and after assuring their automated phone system that I wasn’t looking for money, that I didn’t think the government owed me anything, that I didn’t care about the stimulus package or tax rebates or “gettin’ mine when the gettin’s good”, I was finally able to connect to a real person.

And he was the kindest, most helpful person in the world. Truly. The IRS employs some classy people, and if you can navigate the labyrinthine phone system and trick it into connecting you to them, you’re going to find yourself in a good place. We talked it through, resolved the issue, and that was it. Done. Consider, too, that it was 8:30 at night, Pacific, which is, like, already tomorrow for you suckers on the east coast. No matter where that dude was, he was workin’ late.

And I appreciated it.

Today was Day Two at the ‘Path. We got to hang with one of the founders for awhile and attend some company meetings, and I started getting oriented within my project. It’s pretty big and complex, but it’s currently moving into a new phase where I’ll be able to flex my elite interaction design skills. Sadly I cannot talk in detail about my work, so instead I will talk about my co-workers. Such as Andrew, who says he maintains a fire under his desk so he can burn all his trash, rather than learn which receptacle in the kitchen corresponds to recycling, trash and compost.

Yes. San Francisco offers curbside composting.

Besides the people who relieve themselves on your front steps.

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Anything You Could Possibly Want

May 31, 2009

I finished reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas this afternoon, following it up by watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Too much fear and loathing? Nay. Johnny Depp’s narration is still soothing and brilliant.

“Don’t take any guff from these swine.”

I spent today largely running errands, and I’m still disappointed that I haven’t been able to find a source for curry leaves in this tiny seven-by-seven square of a town. Casa Thai on 16th and Mission didn’t pull through, though I did grab a bunch of bananas from them for 90 cents. The city life still amazes me, in that I can walk out my front door, cross a single street, and two minutes and 25 cents later return to my kitchen with a beautiful yellow onion. The only way I could do this in Bloomington would be to break into someone else’s apartment and steal their onions.

Which may not be all that bad an idea.

People say I would do well to check out Whole Paycheck, but I would also do well not to put myself in a financial position where I need to sell myself on the street for groceries. That said, Josh tells me there are some kind prostitutes that hang out on my street corner, so if things get rough I can probably get an apprenticeship or something.

Yes, anything you could possibly want is available within a two-minute radius from here.

Except curry leaves.

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Imperative

May 30, 2009

Drew and Daniela dropped by for dinner this evening on their mystical journey through the American West, and we had a delicious and rowdy time at the Velvet Cantina. I also had a long and wonderful conversation with Sally tonight about life, interaction design, freelancing, the underlying philosophies of biking, and the obvious moral imperative that Jake and I start a business together and call it Unstoppable Force.

Today I went to Maker Faire down in San Mateo, which was full of awesome stuff that awesome people built that was awesome. This also allowed me the opportunity to see some real life steampunks, who otherwise don’t have a whole lot to do during the other 357 days of the year that aren’t Burning Man.

Steampunk Keyboard

I do enjoy the aesthetic of steam punk, however, as I love wood, brass, cogs and springs as much as I love lavish Victorian elegance. Oh yes, and goggles. Always with the brass goggles.

Here is something that is on fire (that is presumably supposed to be on fire):

Pnuema Fire Sculpture

And this is the walking robotic version of President Barack Obama, inexplicably welded to a chariot and carrying an American flag:

Walking Obama Bot

Also, you may be interested in these videos, which depict events that happened days ago and thus would be considered historic artifacts by today’s standards.

Here Josh gives us bold statements regarding his surfing proficiencies:

Here an angry pack of gulls attack a wetsuited fellow, but only if you have no depth perception and believe that everything that happens in front of your eyes happens in only two dimensions:

And finally, here is the welcoming parade that the city of San Francisco was kind enough to throw in my honor:

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Every man has his limits.

May 28, 2009

My grandiose plans for the day were aborted this morning when I locked myself out of the house. Our flat is on the third floor so squeezing through a window was out of the question, and after hopping our 15-foot gate and squeezing through its greedy wrought iron spikes I discovered that yes, the back door was locked as well. I took the BART into downtown so I could grab my roommate’s keys, and by the time I had sorted myself out of my little predicament it was too late to leave on my prescribed bike ride.

Oh well.

This evening I went to Adaptive Path to learn about Mobile Literacy, a research and design project where they traveled to rural India to understand how illiterate users interact with mobile technology. It’s a fascinating project, with strong currents of cultural sensitivity, social justice, and the role that empathy should play in design. Their blog continues to reveal further details regarding Mobile Literacy, so it’s worth a look if you’re into this sort of thing.

What’s super cool is that Adaptive Path has released all of their primary research under a Creative Commons license. Research findings, interview videos and transcripts, the whole shebang is open for you to study and pick apart, firsthand.

Their process culminated in two proposed devices. One is the MobilGlyph concept, which aims to make data tangible by sharing it through two-dimensional bar codes, similar to Cheng Fan’s wayshowing work last semester. The other is the Steampunk concept, which aims to make the functions of the phone as physical as possible, granting them affordances that invite dismantling and tinkering.

Finally, it’s been nearly five years but it still rings true today. Jeffrey Veen is still larger in life than he is in legend. We are lucky that he is such a kind and gentle soul, because he could very well crush every last one of us. Fortunately, instead of scheming how easily he could mash humanity into a fine paste, he directs his energies into building amazing things like Typekit, which stands to revolutionize how you use typefaces (or “fonts”, for those of you who aren’t an insufferable snob like myself) on the web.

Yes, Jeff is a benevolent giant, but I am a man of small stature and predictable bitterness. Thus I will use these newly found typographical powers only for evil, blanketing the landscape with cruel renderings of Papyrus, Hobo and Copperplate.

But not Comic Sans. No one would dare go that far.

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