fun
clock | July 21, 2007I am obsessed with Alcatraz. I plan to go next week to visit the Rock and hear the CLANG sound of cell doors closing behind me in the dark. Pier 69/Fisherman's Warf is the closest point to it in the entire Bay, so if you wanted to escape and swim in this freezing cold water, this was the best destination - except that this was also the most likely place to be greeted by a uniformed and armed welcome committee...
clock | July 21, 2007I also saw some seagull chicks, learning to fly, but only took a picture of this cormorant at the Pier 39:
clock | July 21, 2007Of course I saw the Golden Gate Bridge (I see the Bay Bridge every day from where I live). I am too scared of heights to actually walk over the bridge, though...
clock | July 21, 2007Best beer and best books - where I also bumped into a few Plossians/Plossers/Plosinians:
clock | July 21, 2007A horse and carriage at the Pier 39 (a very touristy spot) and, of course, the famous streetcars. I believe that my father, when he came to San Francisco back in 1966 1961 [thanks, Mom] on his choir tour (they even cut a record then), rode on the streetcar, of course.
clock | July 21, 2007It was a tough, long and gruelling week at work, so i decided, after sleeping late, to do what I have not done yet - play tourist and go see famous sites in San Francisco. I took a cab to Pier 39, then spent a few hours slowly walking back home. In this and next few posts, you can see what I saw, but, for the benefit of people with modems, I will put most of the pictures under the fold, so keep clicking on the "Read More" button underneath each post:
clock | July 18, 2007Get yourself some Harry Potter recipes so you have something to eat while reading The Book over the weekend.
retrospectacle | July 17, 2007I'm sure I'm not the only Sopranos fan around these parts, and I'm sure I'm not the only person to be a bit baffled by the last episode. It seemed like all lead up and no payoff. True, Tony's big rival and head of the New York mob was, er, dispatched of, but what really seemed resolved in the lives of the core characters?
The Sopranos main theme to me really seemed to be one of loss and death. By the last episode, many characters we had come to love over the years were physically dead (Tony's mom, Christopher, Adriana, Bobby, Sil (mortally wounded?), and many more could be considered…
clock | July 14, 2007Yesterday, I met Janet and her charming and brilliant sprogs at the Lawrence Hall of Science, where they have a cool exhibit called CIRCUS! Science Under the Big Top (which reminded me that I wanted to join the circus back when I was 18). One thing I did not know was that to get to the museum from Berkeley campus, it is a couple of miles of steep uphill, which I climbed on foot. Should have hitchiked!
Wifi is iffy right now, so I'll post as many pictures per post as the system will let me. First, just to show how high up the place is, the entire Bay Area is clearly visible - though, of…
clock | July 14, 2007Yesterday, a few of my friends from PLoS and I went to the Exploratiorium to see the Iron Science Teacher show. Lots of pictures (and a little bit of running commentary) under the fold:
First, the stuff outside:
Then we went inside. The place is huge - I'll have to come again when I have more time to explore (this was lunch-break only). Hands-on, hands-on, hands-on...and kids - gazillions of them - are having great fun. The show is (almost) every Friday during the summer and you can watch the video of each Iron Science Teacher show, including the one we saw yesterday (I have not see it…
clock | July 13, 2007Wow - this was (and still is) a very busy week. On most days, I just crashed early, without having the energy to blog very much (at least very much for me).
In the last dispatch, I forgot to mention I met Jimmy Wales who came to visit PLoS and we talked about Wikipedia and building online communities.
Under the fold are a bunch of new pictures...
Professor Steve Steve got to meet the CEO of PLoS:
...and they quickly bonded:
Yesterday, I went to lunch with the Editors:
Then, after all the work was done, I was exhausted and I had to walk about 1.5 miles during the rush hour to meet yet…
clock | July 11, 2007OK, so I've been here for about a week now. It's been so far an exciting and overwhelming experience - there is so much to learn! And I am impatient with myself and want to get in the groove right now. I need to learn to slow down a little...
Anyway, I did manage to drop in here at the blog a couple of times and report on meetups with some local bloggers, but here is a little bit more about the week so far...
San Francisco is quite a unique city - I really cannot say it reminds me of any other place I've been to. Quite ecclectic and freewheeling. And hilly! My house is on top of the…
clock | July 10, 2007Professor Steve Steve (see more of his pictures) is now over his jet lag and decided to go to work with me today. Here he is meeting with Liz Allen, the PLoS Director of Marketing and Business Development:
stoat | July 4, 2007Thanks to Hank for http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png (in the comments off where you'll never see it).
Its a fun site though. I liked regexp; random; godwin and this. And lots of others... fun to browse.
clock | June 21, 2007
This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
* sex (18x)
* death (13x)
* suicide (6x)
* hell (3x)
* dangerous (2x)
* penis (1x)
Thanks, Jennifer
clock | June 20, 2007I got tagged by Steve Poceta -(if you are more interested in sleep disorders than circadian clocks in funny animals, his blog is more interesting to you than mine) to participate in the Eight Random Facts Meme. Here are the rules:
1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
3. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been
tagged.
So, here are the eight random, late-night-after-a-busy-day-and-a-strong-beer facts about me:
1. I used to wear a goatee. When I arrived in the…
stoat | June 18, 2007Well of course we are - everyone does. But are we all going to die of global warming? Lovelock thinks so, and so does a member of Royalty: we are "all going to die like the dinosaurs and another species was going to take over": to find out who said this, check the comments at Diplomatic incident.