My favorite local place to eat dinner, Modern Thai, has apparently closed. I say “apparently” because there’s renovation work going on in it, so there’s a small chance it’ll return… but there are no signs on the door to explain anything to patrons, which makes me suspect that it’s gone for good.
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San Francisco Airport recently added a “Cell phone waiting lot”, which provides an alternative to endlessly circling the arrivals area. It’s not that easy to find, and the signs for it aren’t that prominent. To find it, you follow the signs for “Long-Term Parking” until you see a sign that has a cell phone on it.
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My favorite local place to eat, the Red Door Café, is closing. I’m pretty sad about this, since the food there is just so good.
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I’ve been thinking more about biking recently, perhaps as a result of going mountain biking for the first time, perhaps because of some of the anti-cyclist vitriol I’ve seen online. I’ve never been particularly political about my cycling, it’s just an efficient, non-polluting, mostly-enjoyable, convenient and cheap way to get from A to B. Another reason I haven’t been political about it is because I haven’t had particularly bad experiences, and my employers have always been bike-friendly.
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Road signs. This is something that irritates me as a pedestrian, and a cyclist, and a driver. But it’s worst when driving. By “road signs” here I specifically mean the signs that let you know what the name of a street is. It’s truly amazing how much better the San Francisco infrastructure is for that than the Irish equivalent.
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While walking around San Francisco this evening, I considered how the city’s topography gives it a distinct identity—specifically, how that might influence its assimilation (or lack thereof) into a profoundly brand-driven modern capitalist homogeneity.
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I’m a big fan of Google Maps, but haven’t played around with it too much until recently. As far as I know it’s still prohibitively difficult to use waypoints for driving directions, but the the “My Maps” function lets you draw lines and set “placemarks”, which are useful for illustrative purposes. So I decided to map out the driving I did last night.
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I went to 330 Ritch Street last night to see Loop!Station at the Digital Bliss release party. They were great, and I came away with a bunch of CDs. I also came away impressed once again by the impact that cheap computing power is having on culture.
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I’m making an effort to use Zipcar a little less (despite how great it is) and cycle more. Naturally, the first time I choose to cycle where I’d previously been using Zipcar, it rains.
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As with Nancy Pelosi, I didn’t know too much about Barbara Boxer. But I had vague memories of having read coverage of her that I considered favorable. Her official biography page was appealing, as it put the environment in first place.
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The congressperson for my district is Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House. Despite my rather strong interest in politics, prior to her rising to that position I barely knew her name—and she’s represented the 8th District since 1987, well before I lived here. Even now, I don’t know much about her.
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The San Francisco Chronicle‘s Matier & Ross discussed an ugly incident that happened during the Critical Mass bike ride last month, in which some cyclists ended up attacking the minivan of a family visiting from Redwood City. Critical Mass is already controversial, and Matier & Ross do a great job of axe-grind reporting to add fuel to the fire. Bike/car politics aside, I think it’s a highly instructive example of how to slant a story.
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It’s very easy for me to forget that I’m living in an area that is rather likely to be hit by earthquakes in the near future. The occasional small one hits, and I remember, and then that goes away and an irrational sense of safety follows. At times it’ll come up in discussion, as it did at lunch today, but the awareness usually slips into the background fairly quickly. This isn’t good, because there’s a 62% chance of a major earthquake in the next 30 years.
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I’ve lived in the Bay Area for over eight years, and over that span I’ve travelled to Ireland many times, probably making more than thirty trips—each one of those being more than one flight. Now it looks like direct flights are on their way.
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After our Sartre session this evening, Seth and I walked up Taylor, from Post to California. And along the way got caught in what I think was the heaviest hailstorm I’ve ever seen.
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I learned tonight that the Canvas Café and Gallery will be closing on 1 May 2007. This doesn’t make me happy.
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“… experiencing a delay. We appreciate your patience.”
“Attention station agents and passengers. The delay affects the Castro, Church, or Duboce & Church stations. We appreciate your patience.”
“Attention station agents and passengers. The delay fled from Duboce & Church, apparently towards Van Ness. Inbound trains remain stuck for the time being. We appreciate your patience.”
“Attention station agents. We have a wandering delay loose in the train system. Last seen at Van Ness. Consider the delay armed and dangerous, and do not confront it.”
“Attention station agents. We have cut off access to the tunnels between Van Ness and Civic Center to trap the delay. Do not attempt to apprehend anything coming out of those tunnels.”
“Attention station agents and passengers. We have an all clear for outbound trains. Outbound trains should resume normal service soon.”
“Attention station agents. A SWAT team cornered and killed the wandering delay inbound between Van Ness and Civic Center. Cleanup crews have contained the resulting delay and hope to remove it very shortly.”
“Attention station agents and passengers. We have a cleanup delay at Van Ness. We hope to clear this within an hour. We appreciate your patience. Thank you for riding Muni.”
(200 words)