5/31/10

Day 151: tgif


So I've always heard about it, knew it was there, but never bothered to visit the row of houses that shows up on the opening of Full House until my friend coerced me into putting it into our tour of San Francisco itinerary.
eh? eh?

Seeing this in person has added to my list of buildings that appear on old sitcoms that I've visited in real life, the first being Cheers:

and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air house (which is actually in Brentwood, really)

So I've decided to make it a point to visit more of the homes of our old favorite tv sitcom families. So far all I've decided on was the Family Matters home (1516 W. Wrightwood Avenue, Chicago), the Monk Cafe from Seinfeld (2880 Broadway, New York) and the Mrs. Doubtfire house (2640 Steiner Street, San Francisco).

Any other suggestions?

5/30/10

Day 150: tourist for a day


Today was Carnaval, a San Francisco street fair/parade tribute to the drunkenness and ambiguous sexuality that is the real Carnaval in Brazil.

It was loud, it was colorful, it was extravagant, and some floats promoted good causes like going green or were sponsored by schools in the community.
as a parade float sponsored by a school, how did they miss that misspelling of "wanna?"

Also today, by request of a friend who needed a San Francisco tour guide, I found myself riding the cable cars for the first time in some 15 years. Thing is, most locals would never ride the cable car on their own whim considering the steep $5 fare and the fact that other transit is faster. However, as a native of the bay area who works in the transit industry, I felt like such a failure when I had to ask a tourist how the cable car fare structure worked and couldn't answer a simple question as to how the cable cars function. I later found out at the Cable Car Museum.
if you don't know, now you know

5/29/10

Day 149: photoshoot


Up until today, I've only heard about photo shoots and saw them as something I wouldn't ever play a legitimate role in (albeit, I was just designated stuff holder for the artistic director behind all of this). Being involved in one today has made me realize that:
1)I will never be a model...I'm not nearly skinny enough
but that's okay, because...
2)Modeling requires alot of standing still while maintaining a straight face for long periods of time. I'm fidgety and clumsy and start sweating when I stand.

5/28/10

Day 148: look up


According to a friend of mine, the theme for May's "NaBloPoMo" is 'Look Up.'

Basically NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) challenges bloggers to post everyday for a month. They give you a theme, and you find some way to blog about it each day.

Since I do that anyway, I'll reserve one day for NaBloPoMo, and this month's theme being "look up," here's a picture of me looking up at my office building. The top left of the building is my office, and I'm currently standing at the federal building that happens to be across the street. Don't mind the random guy standing at the statue.

5/27/10

Day 147: nemomatic


It was an art exhibition in my office lobby today, showcasing yet more of odd works I posted about a couple of days ago. I walked over to the other side of the lobby and observed the rest of his structures.
I don't follow the theme here, a squid, a reindeer, someone riding a bike...
...and now a robot of some sort?

The cool thing was that in addition to serving light refreshments, the artist himself was there too. Seemed like a cool guy.

5/26/10

Day 146: bird's eye view


I never usually get to see the view from the top on buildings in downtown San Francisco, so it's pretty cool whenever I do get to.

It's like I'm playing SimCity in real life.

5/25/10

Day 145: modern art strikes again


So my building finally decided to replace the old piece of modern art that graced our lobby.

Uh...huh. Who was that decided that all modern art had to be abstract and unconventional?

5/24/10

Day 144: mushroom carpets


Thanks to a false fire alarm last week, I was able to discover a hidden gem in the 17th floor of our otherwise predominantly corporate office building. The 17th floor is apparently abandoned by all counts, and happens to be the gathering place for all fire drill procedures (but in the case of a real fire, are we on the 21st floor really expected to wait on the 17th floor for help?)

Either way, it's a nice place to enjoy time away from the cubicle during lunch. Hooray for funny looking carpet.

car-free challenge

I'm not one to try and guilt people into supporting a cause, but this being something I'm joining and involving myself out of my own free will and interest and not because my school is forcing me is saying alot. So what is this cause?

I'm joining the Car Free Challenge, a week in which participants are challenged to reduce their dependency on the car by utilizing other forms of transportation such as biking or transit. The overall message that

"...Between oil spills and climate change, now is the time to show our leaders that things like better sidewalks, more bike lanes, and frequent and affordable public transportation are part of the solution."

So how does this work? Well, I normally drive 120 miles a week. Living in an area where transit is readily available and resources exist that encourage transit, there are probably ways I could reduce this number greatly (and I work for Transit.511.org! I help program transit trip planner itineraries!) My challenge is to reduce that number to a fraction of what it normally is (I'm aiming for 30) between June 1st and June 7th, all in the name of reducing my dependency on my car and overall to reduce the amount of negative impact I'd have on the environment by driving.



The event is designed to raise awareness of the need for better walking, biking, and public transportation options. And the funds raised will be used to support transportation advocacy work in California, more specifically to advocate for lower green house gas emission targets for the Senate Bill 375, which will shape the next 20-30 years of transit funding in California. Lower targets that are set will allow for counties and cities to have more funding to achieve these targets. This will affect zoning, land use, and housing developments.

So how can you help? Well visit my profile page, read my testimonial, and if you can, any little bit of donation would help.

Thanks for your support!

"when they got me training on this program again a few years back, I took up smoking again."
-KK

5/23/10

Day 143: gewurztraminer


As you may recall from my last wine related post, the second batch was due, and the bottling commenced today. I got 26 bottles from this yield (so now when I say I'll send you a bottle, the prospect is a little more realistic). This is a batch of gewurztraminer, which pairs well with hot and spicy food, rich poultry dishes, munster cheese, and smoked salmon.

Now, some pics from the process:
the contraption used to put the cork on the bottle...

...which had only marginal success, at best.


5/22/10

Day 142: tailgate!

boo.
Now I'm no A's fan, and I am even less of a fan of seeing the A's beat the Giants (you win this time, Oakland!), but what I am a big fan of is a beer and meat binge pre-game party.

woo.

5/21/10

Day 141: iAppreciate


I won't go into the boring details about what's actually written on this award, but receiving it along with a $25 gift card makes me feel just a little bit bad about applying to another position elsewhere.

5/20/10

Day 140: future employers?


Interview day! If given the position here (as an intern for a transit agency), I would be forced to deal with the classic "keep-the-job-that-brings-home-the-bacon-but-you-hate or drop-it-to-do-something-you-love-for-a-major-pay-cut" dilemma.

I'm not saying anything until I get the position though, of course.

5/19/10

Day 139: your San Francisco Giants


Added to the bucket list: watch a Giants game from a boat or kayak in McCovey Cove.

Hardly ever do I see AT&T Park from this angle, and someday I'd like to be able to afford to take my own boat out and hope for a splash hit and a chance to get a game ball (but with today's Giants' hitters, that's hardly likely. Fun fact, by the way, of the 51 Giants' splash hits at AT&T Park's 10 year existence, 35 of those were from Barry Bonds...oh, and all you Barry Bonds haters [read: Dodgers fans], say what you will about his steroid use, but don't forget that Manny Ramirez ain't exactly clean himself either)

5/18/10

Day 138: artsy


I don't visit arts and crafts stores very often, but I know enough that this is alot more creative than your standard "Michael's" sign.

Plus, I have an affinity for art wire, apparently.

5/17/10

Day 137: even better than a key-tar


I've had this keyboard for at least the past 15 years. In all honesty, I'm not sure why my parents got this for me...we had a perfectly good real piano in the living room that I played regularly. In either case, this thing has followed me around wherever I've gone, be it home, any gigs with the band in high school, or my subsequent future apartments.

As of late, however, it's just been sitting in a storage unit, unused, unloved, mostly because of the lack of space here in my sister's bedroom and also because I only touch a piano maybe once every few months nowadays. Luckily, today, I found a friend who would give it a nice home. Unfortunately, the music stand and the bench that goes along with it are still somewhere in the storage, still unused and unloved at the moment...

5/16/10

Day 136: kids, don't drink and try to run a 12k

NOTE: As I am lacking the means to transfer my pictures from my camera at the moment, all I have available are the crap quality cell phone pics. I'll update as necessary when I can.

"Ran" the 99th Bay to Breakers today. For those of you unaware of this event, it's an annual 12k footrace that takes place in San Francisco, and takes you across the city through the different neighborhoods from one end to the other. What makes this event so unique is the whole seriousness of the event (that being none). I mean, how many people can say that they've run 7.4 miles buzzed?

People dress up in costumes (or not dress up at all)...

The residents along the race route throw parties for weary runners to stop by...

[I.O.U. one pic]

and plus, it gives me an excuse to wear this:
By obligation, I have to keep my blog family friendly. But also as I have had to justify to people earlier today, this isn't disgusting, this is classical art.

It's always been a family tradition of ours to participate in this race, but unfortunately the last time I actually tried this thing was in 1998. Though my time today (2 hours, 56 minutes) is a far cry from my averages in the past (usually sometime between 1.5 and 2 hours), the spirit is still the same since I did dress up as Simba one year (there are pics somewhere, I'm not entirely sure where...and no promises on whether I'll find them).

So, just some pics to sum up the essence of the race (just a reminder, I will update this part when I free my pictures from my camera):



finish line! tried to run a victory lap a la chariots of fire, ended up getting a leg cramp instead.

5/15/10

Day 135: "free" shirt


At the ING Greater Body Expo, basically the pre-party for the Bay to Breakers (more on this on tomorrow's post). Didn't really have a reason to come here except to pick up my shirt for registering for the race, but what I was most disappointed in was the lack of free (but mostly useless crap that I wouldn't use the week after) stuff that has been readily available in years past.

5/14/10

Day 134: I'm back


And that's all I have to say about that.

5/13/10

Day 133: I see what you did there


Way to go San Jose, for finding a way to turn something that would normally be regarded as reprehensible and ugly (an empty, abandoned lot) into something that is aesthetically pleasing to the urban environment (and is possibly a panda wildlife preserve too. Awesome).

5/12/10

Day 132: ninja, ninja, (bubble) wrap!


Our lease to our office runs out in June, and as such, we're making the move...down the block. Being one of the very rare companies to actually be expanding during the Great Recession, we needed more office space. Today, the moving company dropped off quite possibly the greatest package a self-described amused-by-mundane-things-aholic could ask for.

5/11/10

Day 131: jet setting


My dad is leaving on a jet plane tonight, don't know when he'll be back again (wait, yes I do. May 24th). Traveling to Hong Kong, he'll be the first of anyone in our family to see my brother since he made his exodus to Asia back in November 2008 (and subsequently started a family and began raising a kid).

It's my dad's first time visiting Asia, and having grown up through McCarthyism and the Cold War and whatnot, his 2nd biggest fear of visiting is that the "reds" will jail him (his biggest fear being the lack of toilet paper there).

5/10/10

Day 130: yeah yeah, another screenshot


I normally hate having to use screenshots too for my picture of the day, but it being fairly slow today, I couldn't help but notice something I haven't seen in a loooooonnnng time.

Isn't it pretty, folks? I haven't seen something like that in years.

5/9/10

oh right

Almost forgot. Happy Mother's Day, everybody!


"fuck a boat? well, I'm really in no position to be picky right now..."
-ST

Day 129: mission


Woke up in Monterey this morning, slightly hungover after a 12 hour drunken binge with my family (we did start drinking champagne at noon). So, how to atone for our fun times? Go to church, of course.

Some fun facts about this historic California mission we visited in Monterey. San Carlos Cathedral just happens to be:

-Established in 1770
-California's first cathedral
-The longest still-in-use place of worship in California

5/8/10

Day 128: monterey


Found myself in Monterey today, for a family gathering for my Grandma's 80th birthday party. Was able to see parts of the family I haven't seen in months, even years. It's always a good time when we all get togther, and definitely reassuring since years down the line, I know I'll always have drinking buddies.

But anyways, here's a picture of a lonely old sea otter, all by his lonesome on someone's raft.

That is all.

5/7/10

Day 127: stadt durch die bucht


Yes, yes, I realize how similar this is to my previous driving-on-a-bridge picture, but I hardly ever have a reason/excuse to drive on the Golden Gate Bridge (in fact, most Bay Area residents don't unless they really really need to), so I figured I'd better properly commemorate this rare occasion.

5/6/10

Day 126: why does it talk like a lamb?


Every now and then I find myself in the elevator at home with this adorable little puppy. I've been meaning to get a snapshot of him for a picture of the day for the past few months, and today, I have finally succeeded.

PS...no, it's definitely not creepy of me to try and secretly take a picture of a dog in an elevator

5/5/10

Day 125: cinco


In celebration of the day that Mexico won a battle over France in 1862, my family decided to make tacos and margaritas for dinner. While opening the tequila however, I heard my dad yell out in disdain. I ran over, saw this, and my, what a sad sight it certainly was.