I think the moment I realized that I was in a very, very fucked-up place was when I lifted up my head and saw a half-size replica of the Eiffel Tower - that's over 200 meters, for those of you who haven't googled it up yet. 200 meters of steel and concrete, costing probably dozens of millions of dollars, and for what? Just to stand out, a bit, on ( Read more... )

  Of the past 72 hours, I have slept for about 3. So a more detailed accounting shall await. In the mean time, I give you The Dresden Dolls in concert:


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It is easy to put a finger on 1995/6 as the beginning of the end for the glory days of the arcade. When Sony released the Playstation, it took video games out of the kids' hands and into mainstream culture. In a few years you could find Playstations in bars alongside pinball machines, and rappers playing PS on their videos.

What did it mean? It ( Read more... )

Jukeboxes are fun. Whether they're the old spinning-45's getting-stuck-until-The-Fonz-hits them Wurlitzers or the more modern CD based ones, they give you a feeling of participation. Especially if the bar isn't too full and several people work the jukebox in turn, responding to the other's selections.

And the coolest bits? When the jukebox is ( Read more... )

The Bay Bridge (top) connecting San Francisco and Oakland.
The Golden Gate Bridge (bottom) connecting San Francisco and Marin County, including Sausalito.

Bonus fact #1: The ugly color that the Golden Gate bridge is painted is called "International Orange".

Bonus fact #2: Even though the Golden Gate Bridge's San Francisco end is inside a park, ( Read more... )

One of the rivers that criss-cross Vancouver, hosting a large marina. Mountains in the background. Some clouds. Yes, you can go see for yourself. Click it. It's fun.
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I was told by several people recently that I don't post enough pictures of my trip in this here blog. I reckon that this is true, and I think the reason for that is that I think of this blog as primarily a verbal medium. I post pictures when they accompany a story or an event, to illustrate or to explain. They can be the focus of an entry, but I ( Read more... )

Now I really feel that I've experienced the Bay Area properly. Not with the Golden Gate bridge or the hills of San Francisco, but because I sat this evening with friends in a diner in Palo Alto, the heart of Silicon Valley, and discussed possible plans for a startup.

When we noticed what we were doing, we felt a pressing need to write some sort of ( Read more... )

It's Fleet Week in San Francisco. Hundreds of Navy boats moored in the harbor, and thousands of sailors wandering the streets - loud, tattooed and very drunk, they fill the bars. They shout out to each other from across the street when they see someone they shipped with in the past. They drink gallons of beer. They watch football on TV and get very ( Read more... )

The Golden Gate bridge. 3 kilometers of concrete and steel and girders and triumph of man over nature and blah blah blah. You know what I mean.

For all that the bridge is a gate into San Francisco and a major transportation hub and all, it's ridiculously hard to get there and back. It's in the middle of the gigantic Presidio park, so walking is ( Read more... )