As for the rest of the election, maybe I’ll find some time to write some more about this, but in general, I’m really looking forward to some good changes enacted by the Obama administration, (despite Picked Nits’ fears — interesting counterpoint reading, if you’re into it, btw…). I’m befuddled by the whole Yes on 8 thing passing, it’s just sad. I’m happy that the train proposition is looking like it’ll pass… and I’m annoyed that L didn’t pass. Grr. I’m really tired of walking around piss and poop in this city, and if something like L worked in NYC, then maybe it would work here too. Luckily, the funding has already been approved, so hopefully we’ll get to see if it works.
So, I was emailing back and forth with my friend Dan this morning, an efficiency expert.. A long-standing debate between us has been whether or not IM increases or decreases one’s work efficiency.
Anyway… of course, as per most conversations that involve me, our discussion digressed.
On Sep 17, 2008, at 9:39 AM, Dennis Yang wrote:
see? this is why IM is better than email.
On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 9:45 AM, Dan wrote:
ah yes…. but like a sword, IM has two edges. as long as you’re using the right edge, you’re okay.
On Sep 17, 2008, at 9:47 AM, Dennis Yang wrote:
i dislike that metaphor. who says that there’s a “wrong side” of a double edged sword anyway? i mean, last i checked, a double edged sword affords the wielder *more* cutting power, both in a thrust and a backhanded swashbuckle. i don’t think that having a sharpened opposing edge of a sword really increases the danger to its wielder appreciably. sword wielding skill is still paramount, and if you’re hitting yourself in the head with a single edged sword, it’s really your fault, and not the sword’s.
Ahh.. summers in Ohio. What did that mean? Trips to amusement parks and carnivals, mainly: Cedar Point (the gem), Geagua Lake (since closed, sadly), and Sea World (closed for awhile apparently, even though on my last trip to Ohio, I happily advised my row-mate to “definitely go check it out” — oops. Figures, it never really made sense to put an ocean park in OHIO of all places, did it?).
Anyway, without further adieu, here’s my list of carnival games that I love. I was talking with Steph the other day and that Roller Bowler game came to mind, and that was inspiration enough for this post. Thanks Steph!
Roller Bowler.
Man, this game was awesome. Deceptively simple, yet wickedishly hard. Oooo.. There’s one for sale on eBay! Only 104 days till Christmas! Act Now!
Whac-a-Mole.
Ok, even though I said that Steph inspired this post, that’s only half true. Cuz Masnick wrote up a post last night that mentioned this game, and I was like “Wow, two mentions of carnival games in one week — yah, I should write this up.” I do remember that it was fairly easy to cheat at this game though. At some kid’s birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese’s in like 1986, I recall four kids, each with their hands holding down a mole. The moles had no chance, and the machine was streaming out tickets like a mofo, natch.
That Spinny Rope Ladder Game.
I did love this game, although apparently being a fat, nerdy kid does not prime you for a career in spinny rope ladder walking. I never did get even remotely close to that darned bell. Oh, the bell!
Other games that I love, but this list is getting long.
Shoot Out The Star (man, I love that game). Shoot The Clown In The Mouth With A Water Gun. Throw Darts At Balloons. Throw Rings At Bottles. Throw Balls At Bottles. Throw Dimes On Plates.
Hmmm. It appears that I love all carnival games. I can’t really think of one that I don’t like. Man, I’m a sucker. Or maybe just a huge aficionado of ginormous stuffed animals.
So, last night we were watching a recorded program (So You Think You Can Dance FTW!) on my Tivo when suddenly, an emergency broadcast message comes on… I go to fast forward through it, but the Tivo gives me the “BONG” noise..
WTF? Why can’t I fast forward through this emergency broadcast message… I mean, this isn’t even timely anymore, since this was recorded like an hour before…
Or.. wait.. Could it be? The Tivo is actually playing a *realtime* emergency broadcast message whilst I’m watching a time-shifted program?
My computer is really pissing me off this week. Maybe it’s because I’ve been burning the midnight oil on a super awesome new project for work, but I feel like all things computer-y are annoying me. My brand new laptop is being bitch, even after “upgrading” from Vista to XP (which, by the way, is NOT a trivial operation). And, to top it off, my wifi card is dying and ThinkPad support is NOT being my friend on that. Dammit, I should have just gotten the MacBook when I had the chance, I’m being punished for being PC guy. Not that I want to be Justin Long… I mean seriously? Those are the choices we have? PC Guy or Justin Long? Hmm. I digress.
Firefox is on my poo-list for today. Why? Well, first, for some reason, today it was being an poohole and crashing all the time, and had to be fixed with the Flashblock extension. The web kind of is the suck without flash, imho. I like all of the little distracting little things that decorate the web all over the place. Although, it’s scary to see how many people use Flash for simple things like, um, a header.
But no, that’s not why I’m pissed off. It’s because of this:
Yes, it’s the Firefox password rememberer. It’s a fantastic feature, and I really like to not have to remember my passwords, but I think that the UI flow is all wrong. (And, thanks to my Windows XP upgrade, I’ve had to re-train Firefox to re-remember all of my passwords)..
Anyway, here’s what usually happens when I go to a site now:
I enter my username/password.
Firefox asks if I want to remember that
I say.. Yes! (Thanks Firefox! You’re so nice.)
It’s the wrong password. Crap.
I mean… shouldn’t it ask if I want to remember the password AFTER I am successfully logged in? C’mon.. that would make a lot more sense. Sheeza.
Yes, I could just turn it off, but that’s the easy way out.
oh.. recovering from so much eating and general goodtimery this weekend… here’s what went down..
bbq’d turkey, honey baked ham, and all of the fixin’s (well, except for mashed potatoes for some reason, but that was ok. oh, and no GBC either.. harumph)
steph, amit, marcy and me joined 20,000 screaming teenage girls for ‘so you think you can dance’ at the oakland coliseum…
and.. we got a christmas tree. and decorated it. wooo.
and then, marcy and i went to the devil makes three show at the independent… awesome.
and then finished up the weekend at bi rite creamery… yum.
So, Saturday night, a bunch of us went out to Berkeley for dinner — we hopped on the BART and went to Great China, which is quite possibly my favorite Chinese restaurant in the entire Bay Area. Yah, it’s THAT good. If you do go, I recommend the double skin salad and the crab & egg dish — the peking duck is also awesome, but those two dishes are really quite unique to Great China..
It was a great dinner (afterall, it’s not called *Good* China), but one scene keeps replaying in my head, and I keep laughing to myself about it all morning…
A little back story.. since we were kids, Andy has always had a thing about sharing food. He thinks is super gross or something. It’s not that he’s selfish, I think it’s a germy thing. Like, if you ask for a sip of his Coke, he’ll be like, “Yah.. um, ok..” (takes a huge gulp of coke, and then hands it to you.) “here you go, you can have the rest.” Hehe.. It’s one of those quirks that makes Andy, Andy. Anyway…
So, we’re about midway through the dinner, and there’s a big plate of food that is just about finished.. They come to clear some dishes away to make room… Seeing that there was still some food left on the big plate, someone suggested that they transfer it to a smaller plate.
The server nods, and then looks around for a second, searching for a utensil of some sort. She looks down, and seeing that Andy’s fork was sitting idly on his plate, grabs it.
Andy looks up at the server with like a concerned look, and I can just imagine what is going on in his head:
(Ed: This is what I imagined Andy to be thinking, and by his expression, I really think that he was thinking it… that said, I haven’t really asked Andy if he, in deed, *was* thinking this. I guess I could, but this version of the story has been running through my head all morning, and providing me with a lot of amusement.)
“Hmm.. um.. she’s really using MY fork to push the communal food? Eeeew. That’s gross. Wait.. It’s MY fork, so I guess I don’t have a problem with that, do I?”
I could totally see the internal debate going on inside Andy’s head. He kind of looked over at me, and I tried to give him a knowing nod to let him know that I knew what he was thinking, but who knows if he was actually thinking that or not.
Haha. Ok.. see, just writing up this post, I’m sitting here smiling. So if you’re not finding the amusement in my story, then here’s something that you better find funny… STAR WARS TRUMPET!!!
If you are not laughing now, then yah.. um. I can’t help you..
A few months ago, a fantastic project, the Panhandle Bandshell, was installed in the Panhandle here.. It’s made of recycled water bottles, car hoods, and computer parts, and it makes me smile every time I run, bike or drive by it.. The idea of it is to be a kind of community performance space — something to bring the neighborhood together with music.. That’s kind of nice. I’ve stopped by a few times now, and seen a few small performances here and there. Nothing too huge and spectacular, usually just a few people playing to a crowd of about a dozen or so people. It was funded by a generous grant by the SF Department of the Environment and the Black Rock Arts Foundation, of which I’m a happy sponsor.
I love community art — here in Hayes Valley, we were blessed with the temple for a few months in 2005.. I was sad when that went away, but now we have a funny little mini golf course… It’s little things like these that me smile. I really want to upholster a tree stump one of these days.
Anyway — so, the panhandle bandshell failed to get an extension on its permit, so on September 15th, it’s coming down. Neighbors complain that it’s never really used that much, except as a homeless sleep shelter. Um.. grrrr. This kind of thinking infuriates me — I mean, the bandshell did not create our homeless problem here in SF — that’s a completely different issue. But yah — it’s not used THAT much, so the noise complaint is kind of moot, but that said, let’s give it a chance at least during the REAL SF Summer (which everyone knows is September-October)..
WTF is up with these people and their assault on fun? Halloween is canceled in the Castro this year (ok, in all fairness the fun was killed by lame people, and not by the administrators).. At least they haven’t messed with Bay2Breakers (yet). But the Panhandle Bandshell seems like the exact kind of good, clean, community, musical fun that we should be promoting, no?
Anyway… as for what to do about this, I’m not quite sure. The extension was already denied on Thursday, so I guess I’ll be going this weekend to check out a few shows before it’s gone. Chicken John is running for mayor, and if his fundraiser is any sign, I think he understands the promotion of fun and art in this city. I think Gavin has done a pretty good job, but I’ll have to look into things more before I make a decision.
Argh. Stop making my fun city less fun you not fun people.
