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!

[bgcolor]#000000[/bgcolor]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.

My W. Nile exterminators [inlink]twisted,39[/inlink] are bailing on me. I really hate that.

Might downgrade my costume to generic mystical-style spook. My heart's not in it the same way. Better keep it simple.

I think it's very unlikely I'll have a (e:peep2peep) encounter tonight, but maybe I'll color a blue "e" on a Mylar balloon and attach it to myself as an (e:estrip) beacon. If any (e:peeps) see one bobbing in the crowd, that'd be me. It's always good to have at least one inexplicable component to your costume. Screw 'em if they can't deal with ambiguity.