A Bridge Not Quite Too Far
Topic: San Francisco

My friend Jim's visit from New York is coming to a close tomorrow, so we have one last major site to see: The Golden Gate Bridge. Yes, I know, we drove across it twice and looked down upon it from the Marin headlands last Wednesday, but that's not the same thing as what I have in mind.

We manage to get going early enough to get into the Ti Couz creperie before there's a line, and after a crepey breakfast Brittany style, we head for the Golden Gate. I park in a lot above Fort Point, which, albeit a bit farther away, doesn't have parking meters limiting our stay. It's a very San Francisco day, and the fog's a-rollin' in. We can't see much above the bridge roadway, and it's tough to see the far side of the bridge at all, but limited visibility's not going to stop us!

I've walked the bridge a number of times before, but never in fog quite like thus, so this is a treat. The towers appear and disappear from view and the wind shifts. It's a tad chilly, but not as bad as I expect. Before we reach the first of the two towers I notice a sea lion swimming into the bay almost directly below us. It's fun to see it surface and disappear from above. I don't get a pic, but Jim tries.

 

Atlas Shrugged

At the middle of the bridge we take silly pictures because it's the one spot you can reach out and touch on of the two main cables. It's these surprisingly skinny strands (less than three feet) that hold up the entire roadway. From this point we look noreth and sound and find we can't see either of the towers. The road and cables just vanish into the fog in either direction. It's like a road to nowhere.

As we cross we look down on various boats anf ships passing beneath. It sure doesn't look over 200 feet straight down!

Of the far side we take a break at sit outside the rest stop there. The trouble with walking the bridge is that you have to walk back! The fog starts to thin on the return, which allows us to better see the bay and the scenery. However, my attention quickly goes straight down when I notice that the old post holes in the sidewalk near the roadway go ALL THE WAY through the walk, and if you peek through, you can see straight down through the bridge. So, every 20 feet or so where these holes are, I'm bending to take a peek. I quickly figure out that I can stick the lens of my camera into the holes and take pictures. The hole itself makes a nicve little vignette effect, and I end up with a series of unusual images that I doubt most people who cross the bridge ever see.

 

 

Watch that first step! It's 24 stories straight down!
After reaching the car, we head to the Marina and the Palace of Fine Arts for the usual photo op. Afterwards, Jim wants a picture down the winding bit of Lobard, so I use my knowledge of S.F. streets to bypass the line of tourist cars and right to the target in a matter of minutes. From there, it's on to Coit Tower for some more photos, and my having to stop some old man who can't steer from banging into my car in the parking lot.

Dinner's at Nivana in the Castro. We got back home at a semi-reasonable hour, for probably the only time this trip!

E3 2006 -- Day 4: PAC-MAN the Love Bug
Topic: Work Stuff

 

Another car...this one not mine...dammit!

E3 2006 -- Day 3: No Wii for Mii
Topic: Work Stuff

This morning I’m driving Scott and some of the members of our Japanese sister company to the show. The Neverlost system goes bananas again. It can’t figure out where we are. Fortunately, having driven this route before, I’m able to do it by memory, and we get there with no issues.

Probably the only thing in the consumer videogame arena I’m really interested in seeing is the Nintendo Wii (pronounced “We”). Unfortunately, for mii to sii the Wii was not meant to bii this E-Thrii. I did try, though! Using the magic of mobile phone technology I tracked down by good friend Alyssa Finley, and after a brief look at the Playstation 3 (boring...look, we can render mud more realistically on HDTVii), we decided to try to sii the Wii. Unfortunatelii, the line to get in was thrii hours long! I visited with Alyssa until I had to run off to a meeting I had misentered on my calendar, leaving her to wait 2.5+ hours without mii.

So, what’s no interesting about the Wii? Well, the one thing I really respect Nintendo for is their focus on pure gameplay, and that they’re aiming to break some of the conventions of the industry with this new console. Instead of aiming to push the most polygons on the screen, they’re aiming for a low-cost machine with a simple controller with really fun games. The controller, which look not unlike a TV remote, is actually waved around. Swing it to bat a ball in baseball or serve in tennis. Point it at the TV like a gun then you shoot.

Today’s my second day hosting the PAC-MAN Tournament, but this time I go all out and don the big shouldered authentic 80s jacket I brought along with narrow leather zip-on tie. Now I really fit in with our 80s booth babes. At first I try to get the babes to co-host with me, but none give it quite the “oomph” it needs, even with the megaphone, so I take it over and play EmCee again...just louder than yesterday! PAC-MAN and Ms. PAC-MAN make another celebrity visit, and I compliment the Ms. on her sexy pink boots.

That tournament done, I’m asked to EmCee a spontaneous Time Crisis tournament, and spend the next 20 minutes walking around announcing, “Time Crisis tournament on now! Get the top score of the tournament and win this prize: Time Crisis 3 for Playstation 2 with Guncon!”

I end the day meeting a potential candidate for a job at our company, and walking through our comptetitors’ booths with him. In two words: we rock! Our booth and presentation shows we’re the company that takes this most seriously. The guy seems good. Seems to know his stuff. Will bring him to our office for a proper interview sometime after the show.

E3 2006 -- Day 2: It's time to raise the curtain...
COMING SOON

E3 2006 -- Day 1
COMING SOON

The Chairman Visits
Topic: Work Stuff

Important visitor at work today. Nakamura-san, the founder of Namco, visited our offices. This is the second time I got to meet him. He doesn't really speak English, but he did read a message to our whole group in English, which was a very nice gesture.

Barcelona Red
Mood:  happy
Topic: Day to Day

 

Me & my new baby. Three weeks old.

Why I love this city
Topic: San Francisco

While it's surprisingly easy to take for granted the place you live, it's not so in San Francisco.

Skip came over from Berkeley to see my new place and join me for bruch. I didn't want to hit any of the known spots, so I suggested Pachi's, a Peruvian restautant Terry and Carol told me about. After an excellent meal for a surprisingly reasonable price, the glory of the day refused to let us waste time indoors.

So, heeding mother nature's siren call, we headed north, across the Golden Gate Bridge and then up the hill along the Marin headlands. After a few weeks of gray and rainy weather, it was sunny and cool and absolutely gorgeous.

We stopped and amired the vista of the whole of San Fransciso, the bridges, the sialboats, and then hiked through the abandoned tunnels and remains of the old coastal defenses.

I commented to Skip, as I have before, on the irony that so many people I know say they couldn't live where I do because they want to be able to easily get out in the middle of nowhere, as here I stand, 15 minutes from my front door, on a hilltop overlooking one of the most amazing vistas, and from which I could start walking north and be just as in the middle of nowhere...and yet be within whim distance of museums and 2000+ restaurants.

After Skip and I parted company, Matt Levine called and invited me onto an evening dinner & music jaunt. He picked me up in his convertible and we drove along the coast, through the Marina to North Beach, where——after the usual seeking-a-parking-space-adventure, we made it to our destination, a Bolivian restaurant called Pei??a Pacha Mama, where we joiend Matt's wife Diana and another friend of theirs for a scrumptous organic meal of Papas y Yuca la Huancaina (Potato, yuca & Bolivian ground-nut sauce), Albondigas (Bolivian meatballs), Plantains (Fried bananas with black bean reduction), Yuca Frita (Yuca fries with zesty vegan cream sauce), Fresh King Salmon with sweet potato mash and organic spinach, and Vegetarian Papas Relleno (a lightly fried stuffed puri??e of potato, queso fresco gami).

And on top of this sumptuous feast there was music, sweet music, by the exquisite Pickpocket EnsemblePickpocket Ensemble, whom Matt had turned me onto a few months ago. Their music, which borrows from all kinds of musical traditions (hence the name), is played so tightly and precisely that three different instruments playing the same melody line can sound as one. Wonderful stuff! This was my second exposure to the group, and I will make a point to seek them out in future. Click here for a brief sample!

Top down on the Matt's convertible, we zipped through the crisp night air and home.

I love this town!

Concerning last night's affair...
Topic: Day to Day

As recounted in an entry from last weekend, last Sunday I met a guy named Robert at Harvey's in the Castro, and got a kiss (okay, a lot of them) and a phone number. Last night. I got a proper date, and it was really good. We met at the Cliff House, had drinks and dinner, then took a drive around the city (I was playing tour guide), and ended up in the Castro for a nightcap before swinging back by my place.

It's always hard to judge how a first date will pan out, but we didn't part company until 2:30 am, so that was a good 7 hours! Promising? Maybe!

Today, as Becky and I sat down to brunch at Q on Clement St., Robert called me, which was a good sign.

After an afternoon or home furnishing shopping and pizza for dinner, I came home with an art deco floor lamp, and, after assembling it (with Becky's help), I called Robert back and we chatted for a while. Seems like a second date is in the works. Woo hoo!

The Naughty Bits of a Dame
Mood:  flirty
Now Playing: Mrs. Henderson Presents
Topic: Cinema

Why do my weekends so rarely go as I plan? Today my intention was to work on the graphics and script tweaks I've been asked to make on the Starship Exeter project, and slip in lunch with John-O Sugden-meister. As it happened, only the latter occurred, because my friend Patrick called me early in the morning and said he'd had a fight with his boyfriend and needed a place to stay for a few nights. Soooo, I had to get ready for a houseguest and then be moral support for him. So much for Exeter!

Patrick arrived, then John arrived, and after a nice brunch at the Clement Street Bar & Grill we decided to see a movie. I was confident it would work, because John -- who's notorious for falling asleep during film -- had just been fortified with coffee. There was hope!

Since John's fiance wants to see "Brokeback Mountain", we couldn't go see that. There was much speculation about the inevitable porn knockoff "Bareback Mountain". Maybe this put us in a bawdy mood, but whilst purusing the film listings we hit on "Mrs. Henderson Presents", a film based on true events about a wealthy British widow who opened a theater before World War II and ultimately put naked girls in the performances. This may not sound promising, but it's actually a quite delightful little film about an eccentric who loves making waves. The titular (no pun intended) Mrs. Henderson is played delightfully by Dame Judy Dench, and the man she hires to run the shows is one Vivian Van Dam, played by Bob Hoskins. The film's R rating is based entirely on seeing naked women posing in ridiculous tableau (the local official deems it can be compared to "art" if the girls don't move), and one funny bit where the girls will only disrobe for the first time if all the men in the theater do likewise. The way it's done is not at all exploitive, as it's part and parcel of the story events. The film is really about Mrs. Henderson and her love-hate relationship with Van Dam. I enjoyed it a lot.

After the flickeroo, John dropped Patrick and I in the Castro, where we went for a few beers and then dinner. In the first place we went -- Harveys -- I saw a handsome guy and smiled at him as I was walking to the bathroom. As I stood in line, suddenly, there he was. We chatted briefly, then he looked me directly in the eye and said, "Can I kiss you?" Well, I thought he was pretty damned cute, so I said, "Sure." Good kisser. And I have a phone number to call tomorrow.

Not bad for a Sunday.