It has been a crazy week. I wish I could go into details, but here are some highlights.

Biking into work on Thursday, (well, actually it was biking home from a sleepover in Alameda Wednesday night, which would have positioned me quite advantageously for my ride back into work on Thursday (assuming a borrowed change of clothes), EXCEPT for the fact that my ex-boyfriend, Mark, had borrowed my car the day before and parked it in a Thursday 8a.m. street cleaning zone. (NOOO!!!!) So I had to bike to BART at 6:45 am, BART into the city by 8am, move my car (after finding my spare set of car keys AND my car), then shower, change, and BART back to work. Ok, I know I've lost you by know.

But one of the interesting things I encountered was "Project Homeless Connect" at the Bill Graham auditorium when biking back into work on Thursday. What is "Project Homeless Connect" you say? Glad you asked.

So I'm reading this article about the imminent opening of a 1.5M sq foot megamall downtown (not quite as bad as it sounds - preservationists prevailed and even though they're tripling the size, they're restoring thousands of the original elements, including the glass dome).

But forget about all that. This paragraph jumped out at me.

Some retailers are using the expansion to introduce new concepts. For instance, Gap will open its first Forth & Towne store in San Francisco, aimed at women 35 and older; Bebe will open Bebe Sport and Neda; Abercrombie & Fitch will open Ruehl and Hollister; Gymboree will open Janie & Jack; and American Eagle will open Martin + Osa.

Forth & Towne? Ruehl and Hollister? Ok, Janie & Jack I can get (although I wouldv'e gone with "Jim 'n Marie" for Gymboree, get it?). But Martin + Osa? That's supposed to scream American Eagle? What's up with all that?

At least the rotunda is cool.

Ok, so my cell pic looks as craptastic on the big screen as it did on my little cell screen. Only difference is, now I can't look up and see the original. That really is the UC Berkeley's Bell Tower, and the lights of the Bay bridge in the background.

Anyway, in looking online for a photo to do it justice, I found this interesting article:

Ok, maybe it's only interesting to me, so I'll include the gist of it here (with the better pic) and save you trouble of clicking.



UC-Berkeley's Greek Theatre is the home to a great summer concert series, and when musical acts ranging from Radiohead to Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris to Death Cab for Cutie take the stage this summer at the Greek, they'll be playing at the first major music venue to commit to offsetting the carbon emissions of the whole concert season. Clif Bar, Inc. has partnered with Another Planet Entertainment to purchase carbon credits and to implement a whole range of environmentally-conscious practices at the outdoor amphitheatre:

"In partnership with NativeEnergy, Clif Bar is purchasing enough renewable energy credits or "green tags" to help build new wind turbines that will offset all of the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced during the 2006 Greek Theatre concert season, which runs June through October. The carbon emissions associated with the 8,500-seat Greek Theatre result from all of the electricity used to power and light the venue.

Clif Bar's purchase of renewable wind energy credits is equivalent to offsetting 88 tons of CO2 emissions, or the amount of carbon dioxide created by 176,000 miles of car travel. Electricity produced from clean, renewable wind energy displaces energy that otherwise would have to come from burning fossil fuels such as oil or coal, which create CO2, the leading cause of global warming.

"We're excited about joining with Clif Bar to spread environmental messages to a diverse audience, in a fun and approachable setting," said Gregg Perloff, C.E.O of Another Planet Entertainment. "The music industry can be a very positive force for the planet."

In addition to the carbon offset purchase, the Greek will also feature printed materials made from recycled paper with soy-based inks, biodegradable utensils and wine cups for concertgoers and artists, and an Organic Cafe with organic food choices. Recycling stations with educational materials will be located throughout the venue. Clif Bar will sell NativeEnergy Cool Tags at its booth so concertgoers can offset their travel to and from concerts.

p.s. - I should probably mention who I was there to see. Bloc Party, with Broken Social Scene. Tonight is The Contractions, and Monday is The Editors.

Excerpted from The Chronicle

This most recent revival of live-work startups is powered by young do-it-yourselfers who are taking advantage of better, faster and cheaper technology to bootstrap their young companies rather than take on investors and give up a greater stake in their vision.

Living and working together around the clock certainly accelerates the breakneck pace of innovation, the Meetro entrepreneurs say. They want Meetro to become like MySpace for neighbors, where you can meet and make friends with people on the Internet who live near you.

"The Internet is a cold place. There is no feeling of physical place. This gives a face to the neighborhood. You can see photos of people near you, chat with people," said Vincent "Vinnie" Lauria, 26, who left a job at IBM in New York to take the startup for a spin.

The Meetros are their own most avid users. After they first moved to Palo Alto, the guys used their new service to find their nearest user, who lived four houses away, to borrow a vacuum cleaner after theirs broke.

And they believe their dedication is paying off. Founder Paul Bragiel, 28, says Meetro now has nearly 100,000 users around the world, all of whom have signed up through word of mouth. Their goal: to be able to use their own product anywhere they travel in the world.

"We think we have a big idea," said Bragiel, who bankrolls the startup, including $2,000 a month in rent and frequently stratospheric electricity bills. "Why else would we slave like this? We are here to make this happen. We think in six months that we will increase our value by a great amount."

Meetro.com

So I am dogsitting again, this time for Rusty - the 7-year-old Golden Retriever my friend Cindy adopted last month. She doesn't want him to feel abandoned after just starting to settle in, so she's really appreciative I could stay with him. We're having a lot of fun, and it's nice to be living in a furnished house with a TV and working kitchen for a while.

Only problem is, Cindy is a morning person, so Rusty thinks 6 a.m. is more than late enough to let me "sleep in." When I stayed with Cindy before I could move into my place, she would take an hour-long run before catching the 6:20 a.m. express bus into work. (At least that's what she told me - I slept through the whole thing.) I tried to convince Rusty it was the weekend, but then I remembered on the weekends, Cindy would get up before 6 a.m. to take a 50-mile bike ride. Yes, some of my friends are even more insane than I am, just in different ways.

This has been an ongoing battle all week, mostly with me losing. The only battleline I've held is I won't get up if it's still dark outside. Even the youngest child can understand that concept. Once it's light out, if he's really persistent, I'll let him outside to pee, then go back to bed, which leaves him completely flabbergasted. At that point he'll start to amuse himself, which of course means inappopriate licking. Ok, maybe it's not inappropriate to a dog, but I sure as hell don't want to have to hear that when I'm trying to get back to sleep.

That's why I found myself taking a walk at the ungodly hour of 7a.m. It was a fairly short walk, followed by a 2-hour power nap. Then I felt so refreshed, I decided to take him for a real walk, since it is the weekend after all. Seemed like a good chance to revisit my old biking haunts, and get the pooch pooped and scooped. So I folded down the back seat of the car and we headed for the Bay Farm Island portion of the Bay Trail.

The minute Rusty launched his 70 lb frame into my car, I started to wonder if this might be too much fun for him for me to handle. I've already got shinsplints from straining against being dragged at the end of his leash the past 3 days. We get there and sure enough, I think he's going to have a coronary he's so excited. The rocky shoreline is riddled with brazen ground squirrels, with the Bay glistening beyond. That was almost too much for him to take. I thought we were both going to end up in a the drink a few times.

An hour and a half later, we're both pretty pooped. Time for me to hit the shower and rustle up something to BBQ at Brenda & Kathy's. Have a great weekend everybody.