So, between the mini-vacations to [c]secondlife[/c] and [c]there[/c] plus my usual loitering around the 'strip, I've been spending a fair amount of time directly or indirectly with (e:paul) lately. Now he's actually crossed over to my dream state in kind of a weird way. Maybe I shouldn't admit this but I've had (e:strip) dreams before, and that didn't alarm me. But this is different. Apologies to all the dream diarists out there that I can't remember details of the dreams themselves, but the thing that was weird is the formatting of the dreams. In the lower right-hand corner of my imaginary field of vision was a fixed, semi-transparent, scaled-down userpic, kind of like the station ID logos you now see watermarked on all the TV stations. Except this was (e:paul) 's blinking eye userpic. I can honestly say I don't remember ever having a dream formatting issue like this before. It was freaky and comforting all at the same time. I have no idea what it means.

Not surprisingly, quite a few people biked to the Green Festival. Between 9AM-1PM we valet parked over 200 bikes.




(low-res cell phone pix)

The SF Bike Coalition organized the valet parking. I didn't realize this before, but all major outdoor public events in San Francisco are required to provide attended bicycle parking. Cool!

There were seven guys and me on the morning shift. These guys were serious bikers. One guy works for the Santa Cruz Hub for Sustainable Transportation and travels all over the place with his Brompton folding bike. I have to get me one of those.

I bike mostly just to get somewhere, and to get the hell outside. I haven't changed my biking style much since I was a kid except now I'm allowed to ride in traffic. It's a wonder I haven't gotten myself killed, come to think of it.

The Green Festival was super crunchy. I think my favorite exhibitor was the guy who makes stuff out of recycled chopsticks.

I "heart" midi.

Happy Together / The Turtles

::DOWNLOAD MEDIA::

Historical note: I'm busting out the seven midi's originally in this post so IE won't crash. I'll string 'em along in a midi-of-the-month plan so too many won't show up in the same journal listing display. Wanted to keep this one here where it started. Moved Brandy [inlink]twisted,29[/inlink] back to an unpublished post I horded from October. Am I over thinking this?

So much for unchained melodies...

Not everyone living in the South is a conservative. My Dad's been sending this around to his Dem buddies (most of them also native NYers, though):

The Republican National Committee announced today that the Republican Party is changing its emblem from an elephant to a condom. The committee chairman explained that the condom more clearly reflects the party's stance today because a condom accepts inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually getting screwed.

I must be moving through the seven phases of grief. Is gallows humor one of them?

I am utterly devastated. I couldn't believe it four years ago, and I can't believe it now.

Once again the popular vote is split down the middle with the gap between each side wider than ever. How can one-half of the country swallow another four years of "leadership" from GW Bush when we're so polarized on issues? Especially now that he has no motivation for even feigning bi-partisanship (if he ever did).

I can take some comfort in living on the (politically) left-coast. But four more years of a Republican president, Senate and House - not to mention the likelihood of Supreme Court nominations during that time - scares the b'jezus out of me.

So what do I do? Leave the country? Seems crazy that it could come to that, with all the checks and balances the founding fathers put into the system. Yet I have to say it's tempting. (Damn Toronto's cold weather!)

At the same time, I know 55M people feel more or less like I do. Doesn't that count for something?

I hate politics and god knows I have no answers for how to change things at that level. It kills me to see how money, negative campaigning, powerful lobbies and the media have more impact on the final outcome than anything substantial like issues or core values. It doesn't pay to play fairly.

For now, all I can do is not give up on what I believe in. I can't just roll over for four years and hope things will get better then. I keep thinking about how Newsom brilliantly orchestrated the same-sex marriage watershed moment in SF . Even though the lawsuit was later overruled, the impact of seeing 4,000 gay couples publicly wed was undeniable. Although for a brief moment after hearing 11 states passed same-sex marriage bans I thought maybe we had pushed too hard to soon. But no, no, no. You can't wait for the time to be right before doing what's right. Not these days. Civil disobedience may be the only way to go.

Anyway, stick together (e:peeps) .

Maybe I'll become a philosopher. Think there's any money in that? hahaha.

(If things don't go well tomorrow.) Not really up my fjord, but might be of interest to some peeps.

Hash smokers' heaven gets grounded / Denmark out to corral commune
But after 33 years as a hash smokers' sanctuary -- with its own radio station, newspaper, clinic, bakery, post office and open-air hashish market -- this extended commune of nearly a thousand people, more commonly known as Christiania, finds the normally tolerant Danish government breathing down its neck.

Hmmm...my grandparents skipped this part of the tour when we visited relatives in Denmark.

Ok, back to the propositions. If things don't go well tomorrow maybe CA will secede.

My neighbor's kid was dressed like a wind-up monkey. This was his first stop and already he has a stunned expression on his face.



Most alarming costume: ~11-year-old girl dressed like a pregnant teenager with two infants already strapped to her. At least I think it was a costume. The infants were definitely fake.

That reminded me of a weird sight last spring. I was biking over the pedestrian bridge the same time the school kids were crossing the bridge going home. About three pre-teen boys were carrying fake infants strapped in those sling things. Was it for sex education? Home Ec? Anybody seen/know about this? We didn't have fake babies when I was in school.

Well, enough about Halloween. Time to let it go. I'm supposed to be researching my assigned propositions for our election cheat sheet now. Tomorrow's the real fright fest.

In its quest to identify the programming elite, Google recently inserted an unusual aptitude test in such magazines as MIT's Technology Review, the Linux Journal, Mensa, Dr. Dobbs and Physics Today.

The 21-question test includes such geek brain twisters like, "How many different ways can you color an icosahedron with one of three colors on each face?" and "On an infinite, two-dimensional rectangular lattice of 1-ohm resistors, what is the resistance between two nodes that are a knight's move away?"

The test also includes more subjective, tongue-in-cheek requests like "Write a haiku describing possible methods for predicting search traffic seasonality" and "What is the most beautiful math equation ever derived?

Google Working to Recruit Brainy Elite


Google also has this employee benefit going for it:

Here's the real insider's view: "Google employees must have the sweetest bottoms in the high-tech world. The women's toilets at Google were over-the-top, Toto bidet/toilets. They sprayed, fluffed and warm-air-dried.'' Never mind the IPO and pending piles o' cash; no wonder everyone there's in such a good mood.

SF Chronicle Gossip Column

Waiting for Market Street lines re-routed underground.


Looking down Castro Street toward Market


Main stage on Market @Castro


BART service extended 'til 1AM. Big whoop. ;)

[hide]Short video clip (2 minutes) - dark, choppy, Blair Witch style camera work. Dramamine strongly suggested. [/hide]

Chronicle story and pix.

Note to (e:j3sse) - I was going to cut the video to "Sex Dwarf" [inlink]j3sse,12[/inlink] but that would have been more appropriate for the 'X rated' content which I sadly did not capture on film. Save that for Folsom.

Never did run into Haikuster. Maybe next time!

Ok, this doesn't look that different from what I ordinarily wear. Except for the skull mask, of course.



Getting down to the bottom of the candy barrel, then it's off to the Castro.