Lee.org

(I had posted this on Yelp on 5-16-07)

Suppenküche
525 Laguna St
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 252-9289
German

Excellent. Authentic. German. Familial. Loud. Bar. Food!

(I posted this on Yelp on 6-27-08 after going with Charlotte)

Valentina Ristorante
419 Cortland Ave
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 285-6000
Italian

A terrific meal. The decor is excellent. Another commenter had said something about the walls being not well painted. They have recently redone the walls with a very impressive multi-tone paint job that even matches the art on the walls and, humorously, the nail polish of our server.

(I posted this on Yelp a few weeks ago)

Rumi
227 3rd St.
San Rafael, CA 94901
(415) 455-9797
Persian/Iranian

Went there on April 5th, 2009 for lunch. It was fabulous. Sauces and meats were fantastic, excellent service, very nice decor, we ate outside in the front. The food was a little more expensive than you initially might think it should be but the dishes are all WELL worth it.

(Charlotte and I wrote this and posted it on Yelp after dinner tonight. We ordered takeout after driving around for 30 minutes in the Lower Haight looking for parking… On to the review)

Memphis Minnies
576 Haight St
San Francisco, CA 94117
BBQ

2 appetizers and a dinner were $30.

Memphis Minnies makes a pretty decent potato salad. Of course, I didn’t order potato salad, I ordered cole slaw take-out. But when I opened the bag at home, there was the potato salad.

The fried cheese grit sticks are pretty darn good. They’re fried, how can you go wrong?

We ordered the 2 meat dinner. The guy at the counter said that wouldn’t be enough for 2 people, but it was waaay enough food. The beef rib was tender and good. The tri-tip was fine. The pork rib appetizer was fine.

However, a big reason one goes to a barbeque joint is for their signature sauces. One of the sauces they gave me was a thin, tangy, mild vinegar sauce. The other was a tangy, thin, mild mustard vinegar sauce. Sound similar? They were. :-( Both lacked depth and subtlty. There were no hot, spicy, mild, or sweet sauces.

Curiously, all the meat came only with a dry rub. There was no sauce except for what was in the little containers. Not liking any of their sauces, I made my own.

Dearest Lazyweb

I want an application that will easily let me send and receive large files.

For example:
A customer has a set of files they want to send me but it’s too large to email. So I do the following:

1. I email the customer a unique link to my web site
2. The customer uploads their large files using the link
3. The website informs me about the upload so I can download it

Similarly, I want to give files to customers by uploading it to the service and giving the customer a web link.

I’ve found a ton of these services out there. Some look shady, some look silly expensive. But it should be open source. It’s just so very simple.

In this video, one of the creators of Wuala gives a pretty good explanation of reed-solomon error correction and erasure codes.

I did a bad thing ;-)

I got yet another telemarketing call from “The Carpet Cleaning Company”. Over the last couple years I’ve tried getting myself off their telemarketing list, starting with being on the National Do Not Call Registry. I tried “press 9 to remove yourself from our list” maybe 3 times in the last year (they call a lot). I tried talking to the nice lady who comes on and have alternately been hung up on and told that I’d be removed. Let me also say that I have no carpets that might possibly be cleaned! The biggest rug in the place is the throw in the bathroom.

So today I signed up to have my carpets cleaned. They’ll be here Thursday between 8 and 10 am.

I gave a ficticious name and a ficticious address. They said they’d call before coming out. I’m debating whether I should call it off when they call to confirm. I mean, all I want is for them to realize it’s not in their interest to call me. I don’t want to put some guy in a van out.

What do you suggest?

Update 4-23-09: The Cleaners Arrive

I got a call at about 9:30 from “the carpet cleaners” saying they’d be arriving shortly. At about 10, there they were!

I took a few photos of their truck, waited a few minutes and then approached them.

The conversation started out like this as best I can recollect. I’m forgetting  some little bits but you get the idea (next time, I’ll record video of everything)

As I approached from across the street, the angry cleaner  immediately asked something like, “So what about the carpets you need cleaned?” I guess I had “clean my carpet!” written all over my face. I had been trying to be all nonchalant. Oh well. ;-)

Lee – I don’t have a carpet needing cleaning. It’s illegal for you to have called me because I’m on the Do Not Call List.

Cleaner – Hey but we’re here.

Lee – Your company has called me 10.. no 20 times in the last 2 years and I’ve tried to get off your list every which way.

Cleaner – Hey maybe it wasn’t us that called you. There are a lot of companies like us out there.

Lee – Well, you’re here so it must have been your company.

I heard his phone ringing for a while and he picked it up. He handed me the phone telling me that I could talk with his company about it. There was a woman on the phone that I told much the same story to. I gave her my real name and phone number and she said something like she’d look into it or remove me from their list or something. As we spoke on the phone, the cleaner got more agitated and I ended up talking to him more than the woman. He took back the phone and we talked more.

The cleaner was getting angry that I had photgraphed his truck and said he wanted the pictures back. I saw it was getting ugly and thought to turn on the video function of my camera.

Watch the video. NSFW: profanity:

Pay particular attention where at 1:13 in the video the cleaner commits assault, gesturing angrily and saying, “I’m gonna screw your ass. I know where you live. Ok bitch?”

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Here is the contract from the video that the guy was so adamant about not giving me. (right-click to view a legible size)

Notes:The back of the truck has the email address  scrtysiltns@yahoo.com on the portable job box. It’s a Ford F-150 pickup truck, white with orange near the bottom. California licence plate 8T12730.

The invoice he kept waving at me has the following written on it “Rug Steamer  Tel: 888-587-5482”

Maybe I’m off their telemarketing list. It’s definite that their value proposition for using illegal telemarketing has decreased.

Update 12-10-09: I haven’t gotten a call from them in months. I think I’m finally off their list :-)

There isn’t.
It’s kinda funny how long that acronym is.

Charlie Gadeken wrote:

Tom Kennedy a great man, a great friend, a wonderful husband and world  class artist, passed away last night. We will miss him and the world  will miss him. He was caught up in a rip tide on Ocean beach and was  pulled out to sea, a friend was able to bring him back in but they
were unable to revive him.

he was love and he will never be forgotten.

 
More information can be found on LaughingSquid     and  TomKennedyArt.com

Phwew, there sure are a lot of social networking sites. I just installed Wordbook. Hopefully my friends on facebook will catch what’s up in my world with this plugin