The same tropical system that brought the short thunderstorm to SF last night (and some muggy air during the day) has put some really cool clouds in the sky. Not the typical low clouds and fog that you usually see around here.
July 2003 Archives
A rare San Francisco thunderstorm rolled through last night at around 3am. It must've been directly overhead, as the delay between the lightning and thunder was very short. After the initial wakeup shock (no pun intended), things quieted down very quickly, so it was back to sleep.
One thing I've gotten used to over the last two+ years of working from home is the weekly test of the air raid siren. Every Tuesday, at noon, on the dot. You could set your watch by it.
When I first hear the siren, the first thing I do is check the time. I think I'd probably go hide under the bed if I heard it at any other time, on any other day of the week.
Today is Amit's 27th birthday. Last night we celebrated at El Mansour, a Moroccan restaurant in SF. Luckily for Amit, I wasn't able to get a picture of him dancing with the belly dancer. (However, I now have great blackmail material on his older brother.)
Today, the folks and I drove out to the 103° heat of Brentwood to check on the progress of my house. While there was no vertical construction, the foundation is done, and framing should begin soon. Read on...
On Thursday, my friend Marc and I played tennis for about 40 minutes. Definitely the most exhausting exercise of the week. We used to play weekly a year or two ago, but then he got a job and we stopped. Playing tennis is a great way to discover just how out of shape you are. Thankfully I'm not very sore today.
Today Marc and I went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. I've been going to this for the past 6 or 7 years, I'm guessing. And like those other years, it was very hot. I guess I need to get used to hot -- as my future home will be in one of the warmest areas in the Bay Area.
Anyhow, we ate a lot (steak sandwich, stuffed mushrooms, pesto noodles, and more), walked around a bit, and watched some "extreme sports":
After all that eating today, I need to get outside and get more exercise!
Today turned out pretty well. Lunch with Nikon went well, with great chinese food at Eric's, good conversation, and some new cameras to play with.
The highlight of the day was the Giants game though. Big thanks to Ron and Andre at PriceGrabber for scoring 8th row seats right next to Barry Bonds. I brought along my D60 and big lens and took some nice shots. I had a lot of heads in the way, so I had really crop my photos -- and having 6 Megapixels at your disposal really helps you there.
One of these days I'd love to borrow one of those gray "real lenses" for sports photography and get a press pass so I can really take some closeups. But as you can see above, even from left field, I managed to get a shot of Barry hitting yet another one out of the park. This one didn't quite make it into the water, but who's complaining? I have a great track record for seeing HRs by Bonds... almost every game I'm at, he delivers.
Shortly, I'll be having lunch with some folks from Nikon. I assume I'll see new stuff, but I'm not going to tell you about it, so don't ask. Later tonight I'm going to the Giants game with my friends from PriceGrabber.
This is the most I'll let someone "wine and dine" me. I recently turned down two very lucrative trips from a camera manufacturers, because it just doesn't feel right. Apparently I'm the only one with journalistic ethics, as everyone I spoke with thinks I'm nuts for saying no. My view is that I don't want to feel like I'm being bribed, nor do I want to give that impression to the million+ monthly visitors to my sites. So lunch and baseball is far as I'll go.
On Monday, I took the advice of the the helpful folks who left comments (only 3?!) and got some exercise. I went for a 40 minute walk around the neighborhood, which went well, except for a wrong turn up a one way street that also happened to be straight uphill. I brought my trusty iPod with me, which helped keep things interesting.
Yesterday, I rode the stationary bike that's been gathering dust in my apartment for 3 years for 25 minutes. I read Newsweek for a while and then an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm on the TiVo.
The question now is, can I keep this up, or will it just fall apart again in a few weeks. Today my exercise will be walking around the city... to lunch, and later to the Giants game.
One weird thing about my 1am entry on Monday... I climbed out of bed to get it off my chest. I was writing, and it actually started raining for about 2-3 minutes. Then it stopped again. I'm always been superstitious about the connection between weather and emotions, so this definitely raised an eyebrow.
I was in bed thinking about this, so I decided to get up to write so I could empty my brain and go to sleep.
Back in my younger years (~ 10 years ago), I was somewhat of an athlete. Not a great one, mind you -- just average. I used to do cross country and track (mostly 400/800m and hurdles). Running 7 miles wasn't a huge deal back then.
Then came college and I realized that I didn't have to exercise anymore. It was easier not to. Combine that with "freedom" from mom's cooking, and you get your "freshman 15".
Jumping ahead to the present time, things haven't changed. That freshman 15 is now more like 25, and I'd really like to get rid of it. And since I like to eat, I'd rather exercise than diet.
The problem is that I just can't stay motivated. I can start an exercise regimen and keep it going for a few weeks, but then I find some convenient reason to stop.
It's not that I think I don't need to exercise. Besides the fact that it'll make me look and feel better, it's also the healthy thing to do. Add in the fact that diabetes and heart disease is in the family, and it should be a no-brainer.
The problem is that, even with those factors, I still am not able to keep it up for more than a few weeks. Is it because I haven't found an exercise that I enjoy doing? Or because I've got no one else to motivate me to do them?
This issue bugs me more than almost anything else. Maybe someone out there has some tips to get me moving in the right direction. I'm not looking to be the athlete that I once was -- just some place between now and then.
One of my favorite guilty pleasures is watching reruns of "Cops". But one thing worries me: the ads that are played during the commercials. I see ads for bail bonds, check cashing places, phone companies that you get when Pacbell won't sign you up, and more. This is at 8pm, too.
I'm certainly not in that demographic, as I've never been to those places. What kind of people are watching this show? I watch it to see the messed-up people getting in trouble -- that's the whole point!
Jackson is my sister's yellow lab. He's a retired guide dog and he's great fun to be with (to a point). I'm not a huge dog fan (prefer cats myself) but I always enjoyed my time with him. I was pretty sad when my sister moved to Southern California a few months ago, taking Jackson with her. I haven't seen him since, but I'm told he'll be up next month. I can't wait... dogs always get so excited when they see someone they like.
Here's a picture my mom took shortly before Jackson moved:
Today was a big day for me -- they finally started building my house! Early this morning I had my pre-foundation walkthrough. Things are about to start moving quickly! Read on...
I hate Macromedia Dreamweaver MX with a passion. It's a complete piece of crap. I use it daily and I really wish someone would come up with something better. My issues:
- It's slow as heck. It was even a conversation starter in a cafe a few weeks ago. I can out type it on my dual G4 system.
- The menus are cluttered
- Editing lists is a royal pain
- It crashed today while writing a review... doing... guess what -- editing a bulleted list.
I've heard GoLive isn't any better. And no, I'm not going to go back to editing by hand.
I'd like to do this to a Dreamweaver box:
Being a self-employed person, I enjoy going out to cafes and coffee shops to get some work done. I do this a few times a week. Working in such places isn't easy, as there are many distractions, such as people watching and listening to conversations.
I've overheard some interesting conversations in the last two years, but today took the cake. I'm not going to go into details, but let's just say that two women sitting nearby were discussing something that you wouldn't normally discuss in public. The storyteller was trying to be discreet, but I picked up on it right away. I don't know if she had any concerns about talking about the subject (hint: sex) in public, but I'm positive that everyone else sitting around these two heard and understood what she was talking about.
One thing I should add to my July 13th listing: one reason why I'm working so much is that camera companies don't loan you stuff for very long. Just a year or two ago, I'd get stuff loaned for a month, sometimes more. In rare cases there wasn't even a due date.
Jump to 2003 and you'd be lucky to get more than 2 weeks. Right now I have a camcorder for one week (that we waited 6 months for), and a last month I had a digital camera for less than 36 hours.
I wish I could use my clout as the guy who runs the #3 digital camera site on earth to get stuff for a little longer... it would greatly reduce my workload -- not to mention my stress.
It seems that every photographer is required to take a shot of a flower with a bee on it. I was at the rose garden in Golden Gate Park today and saw my chance. This isn't the first time I've taken such a shot, of course, but I knew I had to do it. I'm always nervous shooting these, as I'm afraid that I'll offend the bee, and he'll call his buddies over and chase me -- like in the old Looney Tunes cartoons -- in the shape of an arrow or something.
I'm stuck in a vicious cycle that's not getting anywhere. I'm working more than ever, which leads to a more successful site. All my hard work leads to burn out, which is how I've felt lately... I need a break like nobody's business. That leads to more traffic, and in turn, higher hosting costs. The problem is, income isn't growing as fast as my costs. I'd love to hire someone to help out, but can't afford to for the reason I just mentioned. I wonder how much longer I can put up with this? Sometimes I think that I'd like to just dump my sites and go back to a real job and a more "normal" life.
They've finally started the prep work for the foundation of my future home. Check out today's house journal update for more.
My friend Amit (who is not a flake) has started a site called Spamotomy, which is a place to find out about anti-spam tools. I've been using Spamfire for quite some time and am pretty happy with it myself.
I must say that spammers are getting pretty desperate lately. Yesterday I got offered an acre of land on the moon for only $29.95.
Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.
Leave it to Consumer Reports to spoil the fun for everyone. Apparently the Hillshire Farm Yard-o-Beef is really only 16.75 inches long. I feel cheated. In addition to causing heart disease, the Yard-o-Beef also doubles as a model rocket (see this and especially this).
Last night's fireworks photo-taking went pretty well. Not my best work, but pretty good nonetheless. The show, as you'd expect, was excellent. We were VERY close to the action... and I actually needed a wider lens. The best shell we saw was the "nuclear blast" that was barely above the ground. Have a look at the pictures in my gallery.
It was also funny that I was right next to a guy with the newer version of my camera (me: D60, him: 10D). Midway through the show I had him sold on a remote shutter release cable, as his hand was getting tired.
As digital cameras go, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-U60 is pretty bare bones. No zoom, no manual controls, no viewfinder. But it has one unique feature: it's waterproof right out of the box. Sure it can only go 5 feet deep, which means it's not for scuba, but for snorkeling or fooling around in the swimming pool, it's great (just don't drop it). Here's a shot (resized, sharpened) that I took with it today at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach, CA.
Pete must've read yesterday's item, because she was very excited to see me today. No scratching, biting, hissing, or spitting. Lots of purring and attention. In fact she didn't want me to leave. Then again, feeding her tuna-flavored Pounce treats probably helped considerably.
Pete has always been a real grump. She's not a very friendly cat, and when she bites and scratches it seems like she really means it. She is the anti-lapcat.
I have been feeding Pete and her 19 year-old sister, Cupcake, while my parents are back east. I showed up on Monday, fed Pete, and found her on the dining room table. She was very happy, purring and wanting attention. Soon, Pete decided it was time to do the old "fall down and expose the belly" trick. I decided to go for the belly rub and I paid dearly. She got up, hissed, chased me along the table, hissed, and spit. This is after I fed her for the first time in two days. Ingrate.
