The coldest winter I ever spent
Archive for November 2005
To pre-celebrate my new place, Carmen and I went out to Home. The mac and cheese and the whole environment was really terrific. And then on to karaoke at The Mint. (And to answer your question, no we didn’t)
Not a bad red town painting forum Monday evening!
I didn’t get to see Combots this weekend. That evening of dance, single handedly shutting down an entire gay club, and hanging out with Laura, Tim and George was quite enough.
But I -did- find a photo of a robot I’ve talked about before. I Saw Fighting Robots. :-)
Last night was a blast. Holly’s friend Laura invited me to an evening of dance and debauchery in the Castro with two of her friends.
We started out drinking Dirty Girls.. that’s Go Girl Energy Drink*, vodka and… I don’t know, something else. After the second glass, it started tasting really good ;-)
We walked on down to at Badlands. On the way, Laura excitedly pointed out The Glass Coffin and other sights. We made it to the club and danced until everyone got hit on at least once.
W
e went over to to The Cafe with it’s different vibe and danced some more, bumping (and grinding) into all manner of folks. The most exciting part of the evening happened in the bathrooms… or more accurately, just outside. Laura and I went down to go and we smelled natural gas. Thinking this a potentially bad thing, I ran up and told the bartender, who radioed the manager. The whole place was cleared out in 10 minutes! The fire department arrived after only about 5 (nice response time). I was -hoping- that our evening would end with a bang, but nothing doing (not injuries, or a burnt down club, just, you know, a cool ball of flame or something). Instead, it ended with banana pancakes at Raggedy Andy’s.
Weee!
(The terribly shakey photo is me pointing at one of the two fire trucks that I summoned)
*I had supposited that the taurine in Go Girl and Red Bull et all could not be obtained from non-animal sources. I did some research today and found that synthetic taurine is now available but I couldn’t find any info saying that it had replaced naturally occurring (meat-based) taurine in the marketplace. That’s right, your energy drink is probably made from meat.
It’s true. I love Nigerian bank spam. It harkens back to a simpler time, when spammers put care and attention into their emails. Back then, you would hardly ever see a tawdry misspelled penis pill spam or one of those overwrought image-only foreclosure spams. Nigerian Bank spam writers would build exquisite bundles of lies that could sweep you up in a fit of excited hopefulness much like that thrilling, hopeful moment as you take your first swipe across a scratch-off lottery ticket. For a few elongated seconds, untold riches are within your grasp, riches that will wipe away all of the problems in your life, replacing it with that life you ought to have, that life you’ve been waiting for. Happiness hangs low on a branch for your outstretched hand to pluck and savor.
Today, I received such a letter. I present it to you without further comment
I signed the lease on my new place.
Here are some shots of the place. The furniture belongs to the previous tenant.
Continue reading ‘Signed the lease’ »
Last weekend I was seeing a whole bunch of places to live. I saw this place near downtown SF. As I was walking to the building, I noticed a police officer in one of those little 3-wheeled parking meter cars blocking traffic onto Market Street. I asked what was going on and he said that there was a Veterans Day parade going through because the holiday had been last week. I thought it was strange I had missed the holiday but then again, I don’t get a newspaper and haven’t watched TV in a while, and I sometimes don’t go out for a whole day. When I got home, I saw that my Outlook calendar said that Veterans day was on the 11th. I though, “That’s odd, I entered the date wrong. Oh well.”
Fast forward to today. Today is the day I sign my lease. I started out and went to the post office to pick up a package and… hey, the door is locked. Oh! today is Veterans Day! I went over to the bank I was going to get the cashiers check from and…. :-(
I request that Trav not trackback this article with a snide “Boys in Blue” article. ;-)
Fighting Robots return to San Francisco!
Join us Saturday and Sunday, November 12-13th for The ComBots Cup and Robot Fighting League’s 2005 National Championships! See the metallic stars of TV gather to fight it out to decide who’s the champion – in robot weight classes up to 340 pounds. Thrill to the spectacle as robots fight only a few feet away from the bleachers!
The heavyweight combots cup competitors will be fighting for a $10,000 prize! The highest prize in the US history of fighting robots.
(Combots)
I think I’ll be going Sunday Sunday Sunday! Racewaaay Park!
The will of the California people seems to differ somewhat from my own. Most of the Propositions I voted for failed and most that I voted against succeeded.
I found casting my semi-libertarian vote pretty easy. I voted for (in order, starting at #73) “warning labels” but not bans, competition in the workplace, informed consent, smaller government, unbiased government, open marketplace, open marketplace, open marketplace.
I need a new bed.
In most every bed I’ve ever slept in for more than a few months, this divot forms where I sleep on my side. Yes, yes, I know that you’re supposed to rotate your bed every couple months. I do that but it only staves off the divoting for a while. I think it’s that I fall asleep stay in once place; I’ve read how people toss and turn in their sleep all night but I think I toss very little if at all.
I spent like $800 on this snazzy bed a few years ago. 4 years later, the divot became permanent. I’m sleeping on an Ikea mattress right now; for the first 3 months I thought I had found a mattress that didn’t sag beneth me. Nope. I put a good-ol’ divot in my family’s guest bed too. The destruction continues.
I didn’t have this problem with a water bed and Stevie points out that his Select Comfort air mattresses don’t get divots.
I’m thinking about getting a Select Comfort bed. What do you think?
West Of mission Street – If you like it interesting and culturally fun, get a place also between Mission Street and the Castro, but closer to Mission street. If you can swing it, and if you like gentrified instead of funky, I would get a place between Mission Street and the Castro, closer to the Castro. The closer to Castro, the more wonderful, well-cared-for and personal the neighborhood gets. This area stops at Church street, which is parallel to Mission street. Church and Mission are about six blocks apart.
(source) (photos of the area by the same author)
I’m finishing the paperwork with the realtor on Friday! I’ll be moving into my new well appointed studio apartment in San Francisco on November 15th!
It’s a nice studio apartment in a very nice building, in a nice sunny part of town, near lots of things and culture and -stuff-, and (I grumbled at the realization that this had to be on my “must have” list) near 101 for my thrice-weekly carpool commute to Cupertino.
Now that I’m getting what I feel I need to thrive, I feel obligated to the universe to do something great with it!
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Yipe, I have no furniture!