Saying Yes

A lot has been made recently about saying "yes", so yesterday I thought I'd take the word out for a spin. Sure enough, it took me to unexpected places; Half Moon Bay, California, to be precise.

As typical for a workday, I was camped out at a cafe (the fabulous Progressive Grounds) to work. My friend S joined me, and after lunch she tempted me with a mini-road trip South to Half Moon Bay to find a cafe there. I said no at first -- I was tired and feeling low. She told me I could sleep in the passenger seat and wake up someplace wonderful and new. Hard to argue with that reasoning.

 
Me, on Francis Beach at Half Moon Bay.

 
They grow some big jelly fish down there.

 
A seal, too. When S and I nearly got soaked by a wave, this guy made that noise that seals make. I think it's called "laughing".

 

Ah, YES!

Running Around Town, Part 2

It was a beautiful weekend, so I put on my running gear, grabbed my camera and went exploring again. This time, I decided to catch the J to Embarcadero Station and run from the Ferry Building to the Golden Gate Bridge and over.


View Ferry Building to the Golden Gate Bridge in a larger map

Had I bothered t create this map before setting out, I might have tried for something less ambitious. The Ferry Building is nowhere near the Golden Gate Bridge. But I survived, and got some decent pics along the way.

 
The Golden Gate Bridge as seen from Crissy Field, and my thumb as seen from the majority of my photographs.

 
The money shot.

 
After the run, I was a bit calorie deprived, so I stopped by the Crissy Field Warming Hut Bookstore and Cafe for a hot cuppa and a chocolate croissant. This is why we run.

Running Around Town, Part 1

IMO, there's no better way to get to know a town than to strap on a pair of running shoes and go. This is the first of two posts in which I did just that. I brought a camera along, too.

The first run was in the general direction of Sutro Tower, near the top of Twin Peaks. It's the gigantic TV antenna that dominates San Francisco's skyline. I had to investigate.

It's easy to get there. Just keep going up.

 
Twin Peaks, that-a-way.

 
Sutro Tower from the top of Twin Peaks

 
A view from the top of Twin Peaks, looking downtown.

 
A view from the top of Twin Peaks, looking South.

For me, it's a 25 minute uphill slog from Noe Valley to the top of Twin Peaks. I took a buncha snaps from the top. Does anybody know how to stitch them into one of those cool 360 degree views? That'd be rad.

Avoid Allmydata.com

For a while now, I've been looking for a way to backup my data and also make it accessible online. There are a TON of services available; the hard part is picking one. I've just crossed one off my list: Allmydata.com. Allmydata, how have you failed me? Let me count the ways.

1) It used all my disc space.

After installing Allmydata, the first thing I tried was to copy 25Gb of music files from an external hard drive to the network. Allmydata first tried to cache all of it to my system drive. Hullo, I don't have 25Gb of free space on my laptop. This left me to clean up the mess Allmydata made.

2) Their support forum wasn't supportive.

I posted my problems to their online support forum. Big waste of time. No feedback, no suggested workaround, no ETA on a fix ... nothing.

3) Random failures on file copy.

After cleaning up Allmydata's mess, I tried doing file copies in small batches. But by now, Allmydata was so thorougly fubar it was unable to even copy a single file to my network share. I even tried reinstalling their desktop application. No luck.

4) Nobody's home.

I figured I'd try emailing their support directly. (They don't have phone support.) Nobody replied. Really? Yes, really.

Sorry, Allmydata. You're fired.

Long in the (Blue)Tooth

Confession: by most geeky measures, I'm an old dog. I don't stay abreast of the latest advances in geek tech. However, becoming untethered has presented new challenges, and to cope I've had to learn some new tricks. My latest modest accomplishment: setting up my cell phone as a Bluetooth modem so I can connect my laptop to the Internet from anywhere I can get a cell signal -- that is, pretty much anywhere -- all with no wires. Can I have my geek cred back, now?

(All you übergeeks out there thinking, "Humph, I was doing this in '89 with nothing but an anolog modem and a Pringles can," can just eat it. For me, this is progress, ok?)

Installing the hardware was no problem. Setting up the dial-up connection, on the otherhand, was a bloody ordeal. To make it work, you need to know some essential pieces of information that you should get from your cell provider: your APN gateway, username and password. (I'm so sorry I know this now.) My phone is a Blackberry and my provider is AT&T. OK, I'll just Google for the information...

But everything I read online is WRONG! They'll all tell you that for AT&T, you can leave the username/password empty, and use "proxy" as the APN. Bah. Here's how I found what my real settings needed to be. Maybe this will help someone out there ...

On my Blackberry, I opened Settings->Options->Advanced Options->TCP. There, I learned that my APN is actually "wap.cingular" (huh?) and my username is "WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM". My Blackberry hid the password from me, but Google told me what it is. (Pssst! It's "cingular1".) Why all the "cingular" when my provider is AT&T? I'll probably never know.

After configuring my dial-up connection with this Top Secret information, I was finally able to connect to the Internet from my laptop through the Blackberry in my pocket. No wires.

Now I can do my work from a park bench. Or a beach. Anywhere.

The Long and Winding RoadID

Imagine this: you're in a strange land -- a digital nomad, perhaps -- and you have a medical emergency. Maybe you don't speak the language, or maybe (like me) you have a condition that could leave you unable to speak at all. How can you be sure to get the treatment you need and let emergency workers know about your conditions, medications, allergies and emergency contacts? Enter RoadID.

RoadID is an ID necklace (or bracelet) that gives emergency personnel all the information they need to fix you up and get you back home safely. It's also an online service. My RoadID dog tag has an 800 number and a web address along with a serial number and PIN that grants access to some medical information that I maintain on RoadID's website. Everything an EMT worker could possibly need to know (prescriptions, insurance information, doctors names and contact information, etc., etc.) is available 24-7-365. And I can update the information online without needing to order a new dog tag.

My RoadID has brought me such peace of mind that I feel naked without it. I'd like to thank Furball for finding the service for me, and my parents for buying me my RoadID and a 10-year service contract.

... And We're Back

This is for my Mom, who thinks I need to post more often. And she's right. Mothers always are.

I've covered a lot of ground since my last post. Here is my last few weeks ...

I spent a weekend with my friend K exploring Berkeley. We went for the Berkeley Pagan Parade and Festival with hopes that, like the Fremont Solstice Parade in Seattle there would be lots of naked people. There were not. And considering the pagans we saw there, we were glad. We did, however, find a lot of sun and a coffee shop I liked back in 2005 when I was there with Furball.


Cafe Strada in Berkeley.



K catching some rays on the UC Berkeley campus.

The next day, my friend S took me to a wild street fair in downtown SF called How Weird. Lots of DJs. Lots of people. Lots of food and drink. Not a lot of clothes. Love this town.

I also ran ING Bay to Breakers, a 12K "run" from, well, the Bay to the surf, through the heart of San Francisco and Golden Gate Park. I put "run" in quotes because, as anybody who's done it knows, not a lot of running happens during this run. More naked people, though. Sensing a theme to this post? As my fabulous gay hairstylist was telling me the other day, the way to draw attention to yourself in this town is to run around with your clothes on.

Next up, K and I took a day trip to Muir Woods ...


Me at Muir Woods.


Purty trees. See?

An old churlish friend of mine from Seattle was in town last week. We ate and drank a wide swath through this town, culminating with a trip to AT&T Park to watch the Giants get stomped by the Cardinals on my birthday. Harumph.

Other assorted goings-on from the past month: a trip to the aquarium, a wander through the North Beach neighborhood, a relocation to Noe Valley, and LASIK eye surgery.

Whew! As in the words of Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."