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    • Free Parking! February 9, 2010
      You’ll just have to ask Sexpigeon where exactly this driveway of forgiveness is located. Filed under: News
      Allan Hough
    • What to do with the Alexandria Theater? | Richmond District Blog of San Francisco (richmondsfblog.com) February 8, 2010
      A recent New York Times article, Crumbling Movie Palace Finds An Angel, got me thinking about our sad, faded Alexandria Theater, which is quickly earning worst
      (author unknown)
    • Olympic Medals Made out of Recycled Electronics February 4, 2010
      Apparently this isn't breaking news, but was to me, and is very cool: A Canadian company has found a way to source gold, silver, and bronze out of motherboards and other electronics at the end of their lives, and turn them into Olympic medals. Pretty cool, and a nice way to draw attention to e-waste, irresponsible metals-sourcing, and recycling, while a […]
      Siobhan O'Connor
    • Inc. Magazine Will Operate Without an Office February 4, 2010
      In an attempt to determine how a virtual office affects a company's culture, efficiency, and output, Inc. Magazine has shut the doors of its physical office and will operate entirely remotely for the next month. The idea is that if new technologies and ever-higher levels of connectivity can allow start-ups to function without traditional offices, perhap […]
      Patrick James
    • Behold: A "Freeway System for Cyclists" in Los Angeles February 4, 2010
      Cycling activists from the LA Bike Working Group in Los Angeles are trying to get the city on board with their Backbone Bikeway Network, a "freeway system for cyclists." It would create long-distance bike routes along many of the city's main existing arteries. This is a great idea. The fact that this network is simple and runs along routes peo […]
      Andrew Price
    • Office Parks Are Worse Than Suburban Sprawl February 5, 2010
      The issues caused by rampant suburban sprawl are well known, but in this post on Planetizen, Michael Lewyn argues that living in the suburbs is fine, it's working in the suburbs that is the problem. Office parks and their ilk force people into extra driving and generally reenforce the idea of sprawl: I can think of no reason why an office building shoul […]
      GOOD
    • Shanghai Prohibits Public Displays of Pajamas February 7, 2010
      Shared by Laura i would be in such trouble. Here's a troubling piece of news for Far East fans of cozy flannel prints: Shanghai officials are aiming to crack down on the wearing of pajamas in public. From Boing Boing: The wearing of colorful, boldly-printed pajamas in public has been popular in the city for years, and well-documented on Flickr as well a […]
      (author unknown)
    • Mission Street Food: ‘Oh Okay, We’ll Take Donations’ February 7, 2010
      As you heard last week, Mission Street Food is working on moving out of their oh-so-classy classy Lung Shan digs and becoming a full-time non-profit restaurant. Their initial $500 investment option was a bit steep for most folks, so they moved over to the kickstarter.com model which allows you to donate arbitrary amounts of money anywhere from $1 and up. If […]
      Vic Wong
    • Etchemendy writes about last Friday's demonstration February 7, 2010
      There was a powerful feeling of goodwill and community among those who turned out Friday morning to meet the Westboro demonstrators. We all felt it, and who knows, perhaps the Westboro folks sensed it as well. In an odd way, it turned out to be a wonderful, reaffirming event – precisely the opposite of what our unwanted guests intended. Unity among Stanford […]
      (author unknown)
    • Newsom Entering Lt. Governor's Race? February 4, 2010
      (Altered image credit: AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) Although that governor's race thing didn't work out, Mayor Gavin Newsom is now "entertaining the possibility" of being your next lieutenant governor. According to Monday's Matier and Ross, his state-level career re-imagining came after a recent poll showed he could very well win. SF […]
      Brock Keeling
    • iPhone Users Love Democrats February 4, 2010
      Newsom models the iPhone (Photo via Echelon) While it's not that much of a shock that the elite and pricey iPhone is staunchly Democrat, here are the results of a recent poll conducted by CALinnovates.org (via Calitics) regarding smart phone users and their political identification: iPhone users are 53% Democratic, 25% Republican, and 22% Independent Bl […]
      Brock Keeling
    • The attack on district elections begins - SFBG Politics Blog February 7, 2010
      SFBG Politics Blog - The San Francisco Bay Guardian
      (author unknown)
    • Project is right up SoMa’s alleys | San Francisco Examiner February 6, 2010
      Vibrant alley life could soon replace the filth that overwhelms some narrow lanes in SoMa. Ambitious plans this year to overhaul alleys between Sixth, Folsom, Seventh and Howard streets by adding streetlights, trees, crosswalks, modern paving and traffic-calming devices advanced Tuesday w
      (author unknown)
    • Moving House: A Closer Look at the New Crissy Field Center Launching Tomorrow February 5, 2010
      Click the image above to view the full photogallery. The temporary Crissy Field Center, an enviro-friendly prefab deal, launches tomorrow after a construction period lasting all of around four months (we hear the cafe's already open). The center's making its temporary move because of the Doyle Drive Replacement Project — which actually gives the Pr […]
      Andy J. Wang
    • Dolores Park Works Puts The Smack-Down On Renovation Rumors « Mission Mission February 5, 2010
      (author unknown)
    • The first date, you’re sort of the stand-in for whomever... February 4, 2010
      The first date, you’re sort of the stand-in for whomever he loved last, before he fully realizes that you’re not her, and so you get all this nice residue emotion.” — Aimee Bender, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt
      (author unknown)
    • Dufty calls for hearing on mobile food vendors | San Francisco Examiner February 4, 2010
      Supervisor Bevan Dufty called for a hearing on mobile food vendors Tuesday, saying there are a number of issues surrounding them, including local businesses who are unhappy that these operations are not paying the taxes and other fees they have to pay. In particular, Dufty said “the
      (author unknown)
    • People who make $250,000 or more a year can afford a tax hike. - By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine February 4, 2010
      Here we go again. Whenever the subject of taxes comes up—and it's come up in the debate over the Obama administration's decision to let many of the Bush-era tax cuts expire this year—we're treated to a chorus of complaints that people who make $250,000 a y
      (author unknown)
    • Why YouTube’s dismal returns from Sundance movie rentals aren’t a complete failure | VentureBeat February 3, 2010
      Right before the Sundance Film Festival got into full swing a few weeks ago, YouTube announced that they would finally ...
      (author unknown)
    • ZAGGsparq Holds Multiple Recharges for Your USB Devices [Stuff We Like] February 3, 2010
      The ZAGGsparq is a portable power supply about the size of an Airport Express that can charge up to two USB devices at a time and hold enough juice for up to four full iPhone charges.To use the ZAGGsparq, you just plug it into the wall to store up a charge of its own. Then when you've got a USB device that needs charging (think your phone or MP3 player) […]
      Adam Pash

Blue french horn follow up

I know, I know, I am full of updates to previous posts today. Long ago, I wrote about the blue french horn I “found” stenciled on the sidewalk by Blue Bottle Coffee right around my six month anniversary with Dan. People still click through to this post every once in a while (there isn’t much in the way of results for “blue french horn”), so since I finally bothered to take some decent photos of my subsequent work, I thought I would share. This was my original idea for our six month anniversary but it fell through because the ebay seller whose french horn I won by auction took over a month to ship it, supposedly on account of a death in the family (I had planned way in advance but not enough for that kind of delay after already waiting for the auction to end). So, I still had this bulky french horn in my possession come Christmas, and at the risk of overdoing the How I Met Your Mother reference, I decided to make it blue.


Paperless Post

Back in December, I lamented that I could not find tasteful, contemporary, and inexpensive electronic Christmas correspondence. Enter Paperless Post, currently in beta, to help fill this void. Per the New York Times article “Your Invitation Is Not in the Mail” (which is actually halfa year old):

It enables users to design, send and track e-vites and other social summonses on the Web while maintaining easy correctness and a life’s-a-party air reminiscent of old-fashioned mailings.

“The Internet has been a kind of vacuum in terms of aesthetics,” Ms. Hirschfeld said. “We wanted to leverage functionality with design.” [...] The recession-related closing of Madison Avenue stationer Mrs. John L. Strong last month further suggests to the Hirschfelds that their customer base will expand.

The economic climate “definitely put the wind in our sails,” Mr. Hirschfeld said. “People say they would rather save $2,000 by not getting printed invitations, and invite four more friends to their wedding.”

I sent myself a sample Valentine (screen shots below). It seems that the product is suitable–if a little traditional–in terms of design, and with each message costing $0. 13 or less (as low as $0.05 for the largest quantity) the price is right even before accounting for postage. So far, however, there aren’t all that many different templates (no birthday cards, for example).

Modernizing Valentine’s Day

Via Flora Grubb’s newsletter:

So you’re a traditionalist, eh? Just can’t convince yourself to part with the traditional dozen roses for Valentine’s day? Here’s a fresh take: a dozen succulent rosettes of Echeveria Perle von Nurnberg, gathered up with white peacock feathers. These will last for weeks or even months in a vase, and when they begin to wither, can be happily transplanted into the garden.

Are you prepared? The all-important emergency water supply

More than a year ago, a friend of Dan’s got him very concerned about emergency preparedness. Dan assembled a pack consisting of all kinds of practical items (lighter, first aid kit, dust masks, etc.) and a few dorky ones too (LED headlamp …). An emergency supply of water was of course on his list but for some reason (maybe because it isn’t gadgety?) he never quite got it together. When we merged households, I added the emergency water to my to do list since it seemed like probably the most important emergency item to have and I’d probably be pretty bummed if a disaster were to occur and we were swimming in all kinds of pocket knives and tools but no water to sustain us for even a few days. I think we had it in our minds that we’d just pick up some big jugs of water from Safeway but whenever we browsed that aisle nothing really seemed sufficient, so water just stayed in the to do category. Finally, however, we were at REI post-Haiti earthquake and I told Dan it was now or never, so we took the leap and invested in three of these babies, the Aqua-Tainer.

Part of why the emergency supply had been put off in the past had to be worry about how plasticy the water would get over time if we just bought gallon jugs that with luck would sit around for many years. So, this seems like a good compromise. We didn’t pay for water which seems pretty stupid but paid for some good refreshable containers that stack well and include a spout that would help control waste in the event of actual use.

I’m sharing this not because it’s particularly sexy but in the hopes that maybe this will inspire you, my generally young and fearless readers, get the very basic emergency supplies off your to do list. It’s so easy if you just get started.

Holy theme update, Batman!

Myurbanrevolution.com has looked pretty much the same ever since it was born back in June 2007. A change has been long overdue, and it finally happened today when I stumbled upon a template that doesn’t downplay the blog component so much but also displays all of the other content I want included. Hopefully pictures will look better. Please overlook the roughness of the changes for now as there’s definitely some finessing to do.

Out with the old:

And in with the new:

2010 resolutions

Here we are, almost a month into the new year, and it seems as good a time as any to make some resolutions. Truth be told, I’m always keeping lists (current tool, rememberthemilk.com, is highly recommended for organization of all things). However, as silly as traditions can be, there is something very satisfying about setting somewhat lofty but realistic and tangible life improvement goals at the beginning of the year so that I can look back at them at the pre-ordained time next year and feel good about achieving them.

  1. Inbox 0. Nothing causes me more anxiety or cramps my productivity like the weight of the collection of old emails I keep in my inbox. Seriously, looking at all these dangling conversations makes me feel like a bad person. We don’t have time to respond to all the emails that might merit a response, and that’s just the way it is, so I choose efficiency. About halfway through last year, I declared email bankruptcy on most of the old items in my inbox except those that truly required responses, learned how to write quick if imperfect responses, and started immediately archiving new emails I received with reckless abandon, recognizing that letting them sit in my inbox was not tantamount to ever getting around to composing a response. I responded to many of the remaining old items and came very close to victory at one point with a mere 11 emails in my inbox. This number somewhat counter-intuitively exploded over the various holidays, however, so even with my best efforts I continue to hover around 30 emails. This must change. I will conquer. The beauty is that once I have achieved this seemingly impossible feat, maintaining it will be so much easier. I have achieved mastery over my Google Reader feeds which gives me confidence that this, too, is possible.
  2. Maintain cooking momentum. No, really. Starting right around October of 2008, I realized that some things in my life were going to have to change in light of the new economy. Using mint.com, one of the first most obvious ways to cut spending and stock pile my savings was to learn how to acquire nutrition from sources other than restaurants. Either that or I could eat only cheap restaurant food which, if rarely tempered with a delicious feast, would pretty much take the fun out eating out anyway. (To be fair, cooking for one can be pretty inefficient and/or boring in order to consume fresh ingredients in the large quantities they are sold, so there’s a reason why cooking was suddenly more accessible.) The milestone event was when our traditional urban family Christmas dinner was moved to my apartment for cost savings (normally we spent around $70 each for steak, wine, dessert, etc.). Dan and I prepared Emeril’s creole chicken marsala with sweet potatoes and some other sides that are escaping memory, and you know what–it turned out fantastic and we had a very memorable night! This discovery you can cook food competitive with moderately priced restaurants if you can read was empowering. We’ve been pretty obsessed with cooking ever since. For example, we make such a mean burger at this point that I rarely even want to eat one at a restaurant except maybe The Counter in Palo Alto. We have a few other go-to recipes, but I’d like to try enough new recipes this year that I have ten new meals that I can cook which are truly delicious. We’re off to a good start with the pizza crisper and ebelskiver pan I gifted to Dan for Christmas.
  3. Channel my inner biker. I’m cheating because I already accomplished this one! I had not touched my bike since leaving Stanford except to move it around in storage. Even worse, when Anjali (our roommate) moved in about six months ago, I temporarily put my bike out on the back patio and kind of forgot to move it back inside. I think I left it out because I had this idea that I would pump its tires and give it a spin so soon it didn’t matter. Well, it did, because when in early January I decided that bicycle might be the most efficient way to get from point A (home) to a particular point B, not only were the tires in terrible shape (the seat had already been weather damaged from being outside at Stanford), but one of the brakes had rusted into the open position. This was the all important right hand brake, much needed to liberate the left hand for giving turn signals. Not entirely defeated I purchased a helmet a few days later because I already knew I needed one, and with my bike in such condition I really needed one. I continued to add air to the tires until they finally decided they were full (I think the tube had gotten all twisted from deflation) and ultimately forced the right hand brake into submission. Now, lo and behold, I am a San Francisco biker. It’s terrifying (where are the bike lanes!?!) but very useful for transportation to busy but relatively nearby areas opening up new parts of the city on a more regular basis. Meanwhile, I’m starting a one woman protest on the bike lane situation by riding on the sidewalk where it is unsafe to ride in the street.
  4. Read like an intellectual and clear out unfinished inventory of books. I ramped up my reading significantly last year, but not nearly enough. When I happen to be reading something good, much of my time gets devoted to it, but then several weeks easily fly by without reading a single page (other than on the computer). Recently Goodreads.com has helped me track my reading in a way that is both realistic (so I don’t give myself the false impression that I’ve been reading plenty when I haven’t) and motivating.  In the course of reading about happiness last year (Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar, for example), I determined that one of the things I value most in life is knowledge. Reading and continuing to learn aggressively is one of the things I miss about school. I don’t like to set oppressive goals, so I will continue to track my reading not with the goal of reading 24, 36, or 52 books specifically but just to read as much as I find pleasant and goodreads.com will show me where that takes me. I do have a more concrete second goal, however. I listed the number of unread and partially read books in my collection which amounted to about 65. I am trying to be more discerning going forward by only buying new books as I am able to read them and I acknowledge that I probably don’t really want to read all 65 of these books on my shelves. I would, however, like to work on 15 of them this year, either finishing them or giving them consideration but determining that they are not worth completion.
  5. Graduate education. I have many ideas about what I might want to do in terms of graduate school, but I plan on spending the next year honing them into a plan of what I’d really like to do. There are many potential outcomes which would probably be fulfilling, but it seems worth my time to clearly determine my priorities.

Wine tasting extravaganza

As his Christmas gift to me, Dan planned a Napa Valley wine tour focused on wineries known for their Sauvignon Blanc. It was such an epic weekend that it deserves a little summary. We stayed at the Arbor Guest House, a bed and breakfast which, to my surprise, served a truly memorable breakfast of multiple courses including the best sticky buns I have ever tasted. There was a jacuzzi tub in our room which we unfortunately never ended up trying, but we did take advantage of the fireplace to get cozy since it rained (hard) for most of the weekend. Perhaps the most interesting part of the experience was reading the room’s guest log in which people noted their experiences, most of which were very sweet (a 35th anniversary for example) and some of which were a little childish (to the tune of a guy writing “This room is so romantic I can’t tell you what we did first… hehehe!”).

Day 1

Duckhorn Vineyards, St. Helena – Hooray for half bottles!

Lunch at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher, St. Helena – Who cares if we can get the same stuff in San Francisco? Taylor’s is amazing (if you haven’t tried their speciality chicken sandwiches you must), and we got free pint glasses.

St. Supery, Rutherford – A favorite from a previous trip. Decided on a $28 bottle of wine which turned out to be on special — half a dozen for $69.

Frog’s Leap, Rutherford – Served an amazing aged Prima Donna Gouda, which we promptly purchased at Oxbow Market (a cousin to the Ferry Building Marketplace) along with a Kara’s Cupcake.

Dinner at Fume Bistro & Bar, Napa – The flatbread was amazing but I barely ate anything because I was so full from snacking all day so that I could keep drinking.

Day 2

Trefethen Family Vineyards, Napa – Quick stop just to get a bottle of the Dry Riesling. So quick that we forgot how much we love the Late Harvest Riesling.

Jessup Cellars, Yountville – One of Dan’s all time favorites.

Silverado Vineyards, Napa – I threw this one in because the Millers (Walt Disney’s daughter and family who were responsible for the Walt Disney Family Museum) own it. I already knew I liked their white wines but Dan actually purchased his most expensive bottle of red here. Since it was early and storming there weren’t many people around so the woman at the counter was very friendly, and when I told her about my involvement with the museum she was enthusiastic and comped our tasting fees in addition to giving us a discount on our purchase. It made my day.

Lunch at Oakville Grocery, Oakville – Also a classic. Our smoked turkey and brie sandwich took forever but was worth every second of the wait.

Cakebread, Rutherford – Overhyped.

Honig, Rutherford – I enjoyed sitting at a large table with another couple and conversing during our tasting. Another good selection of half bottles, which we prefer so that opening a bottle with dinner feels like less of a commitment.

Dinner at Hurley’s Restaurant, Yountville – I looked kind of goofy with wet hair after our couple’s massage, but since we pushed back the reservation, I had room to eat and devoured some sweet potato ravioli in a rich creamy sauce.

Buster stayed with my sister and parents for the weekend. The parents were really concerned about their white carpets (by the way, hard floors are totally the way to go in general), but by the end of the weekend they had purchased him a little jacket because “he was shivering” on their walk around Carmel.

The Thing About Life is that One Day You’ll Be Dead

“On average, infants sleep 20 hours a day, 1-year-olds sleep 13 hours a day, teenagers sleep 9 hours, 40-year-olds sleep 7 hours, 50 year-olds sleep 6 hours, and people 65 and older sleep 5 hours. As you get older, you spend more time lying awake at night and, once asleep, you’re much more easily aroused. The production of melatonin, which regulates the sleep cycle, reduces with age — one of the reasons why older people experience more insomnia. By age 65, an unbroken night of sleep is rare; 20 percent of the night consists of lying awake. As I constantly have to remind my now light-sleeping father, people ages 73 to 92 awake, on average, 21 times a night owing to disordered breathing.”

– David Shields, The Thing About Life is that One Day You’ll Be Dead

Not so mellow yellow

Spotted yesterday in the Mission. I appreciate its distinctiveness — no one would have a hard time finding your place.

Free rams heads?

Near Hayes & Laguna.