Entries from November 2007 ↓

Oh, this is too good: Fred Thompson accuses Fox news of bias.

I’m not strong enough to resist the siren song of the culinary delights that surround me in the Bay Area. I’m either going to go broke or die of an acute myocardial infarction, probably both. Not sure which will happen first, but either way, I hope the health benefits have kicked in.

NY Times article about vegetarian restaurants in San Francisco

I have to be at work at 9. I like this start time. 8 is okay, but anything earlier is hard, not so much on me, but on those around me. 9 is best. I’m at my peak (which is a decidedly mild slope) at 10 a.m., so I ease right into prime work time when I arrive at 9.

If I walk out the door at 7:50 I can catch the SF bound train at 8:07. It takes me a little under 15 minutes to walk .7 miles (shut up, it’s uphill), then I’ve got 2 minutes to get to the gate, down the stairs and in line to board. After a relaxing ride through Oakland and under the bay I arrive at the Embarcadero BART station about 25 minutes later, then walk the 10 blocks to work. This even allows for a brief stop at one of the many coffee shops selling hot java and croissants that cry, “Buy me, eat me, enjoy a mouthful of bliss even though I cost twice what I should, despite being freshly made. Oh, and you walked here so those 500 calories don’t count.”

No doubt I’ll push this well-timed schedule to its frayed end, later rationalizing that if I sleep in and catch a later train I can still be on time, I just won’t be able to be tempted by those seductive sweet rolls. A few more slaps of snooze button and I’ll be arriving breathless at work at 9:05, hoping no one notices the coat. I do hope I hold off for a while on this inevitable behavior. I’m enjoying the leisurely walks. And the pastries.

I forgot to say I fell tonight walking down Battery St. after tripping on a piece of raised concrete on the sidewalk. It was one of those long, impossible tumbles that you think will never end, but it does, in a spectacular splat. In this instance my beverage went flying, even turning a few flips for added splash. About 10-12 people stood around me, trying to get to their kids or a cab or their train, and for some reason I expected someone to ask if I was okay. Of course, I was. It was obvious. But no one even stopped. An Asian woman with close cropped hair and thick glasses wandered over to me, squinting, as I picked myself and my bag and my beverage up off the ground. I smiled as she opened her mouth, expecting her to speak, when really she was trying to read the street sign directly over my head.

I stayed on the ground, in the street really, way too long. Walking to the station all I could think about were the lines and the times and the ticket booths that seem so cramped for the employees. It was then I realized why I think about platforms and trains and schedules and transfers. Because the rest of it is so overwhelming, and these first few days have been such a blur. I can’t grasp any of it just yet because I am so deep in it. Logistics, oddly for someone like me, brings calm.

It’s foreign, this kind of self-comfort, but then again it all is.

I have absolutely nothing planned for Thanksgiving. It’s kinda awesome. I may go hiking with the dogs. Our options are endless as far as trails go.

Girl #1: I am only going to eat one serving each of the bad carbs tomorrow.

Girl #2: You should make that one spoonful each. Seriously. Your pants are too short for a reason.

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors agreed yesterday to issue municipal ID cards next year showing name, birth date and photo - but not gender…[It is] argued that legally changing a name and gender designation can be time-consuming and expensive, and that IDs that don’t match appearance could out people and make them vulnerable to discrimination or abuse.

It seems to me that the blogosphere is beginning to reify and harden into a crusty realm of paid specialists, and thus the free exchange of ideas is beginning to shrivel like Apache Plume in a bone-dry Pecos arroyo.

SFGreasecycle is a citywide effort by the City of San Francisco to create a waste vegetable oil (WVO) recovery program that diverts Fats, Oils & Grease (FOG) out of the trash, away from the sewer and eventually into City fleet…This waste oil will be processed and sold to the biofuel industry, turning trash into fuel. [via]

Luckily my desk is far out of frame: CBS5 Newsroom Webcam