• Twitter

    • real quora question: given our current technology and with the proper training, would it be possible for someone to become batman? 11 months ago
    • glad the new macbook pros didn't get too much better than the last generation so i am not tempted to upgrade. 11 months ago
    • first pair of rain boots ever is on the way. thx zappos. 11 months ago
    • HOLY CRAP, pretty sure a free Cr48 Chrome Notebook just showed up at my house!!! 12 months ago
    • quite literally watching paint dry... while two fisting my iphone and ipad. very thankful for 3g at the moment! 12 months ago
    • my 35 lb kettlebell arrived, and i tried tim ferriss's recommended quick workout -- holy shit, that was intense enough that it could work. 1 year ago
    • had my first bad day in quite a while, so i guess it was about time. life goes on. 1 year ago

  • RSS Google Reader

    • Clap Trap October 25, 2011
      When I worked in a clinic in Baltimore in the late 1990s, I saw plenty of patients with gonorrhea. The men knew they had a sexually transmitted infection: The classic yellow drip from the penis couldn’t be much else. But the women, more often than not, had no symptoms. They were flabbergasted when I’d tell them that a routine screening test had been positive […]
      Anna Reisman
    • Jobs the Jerk October 25, 2011
      In the aftermath of his resignation and then his death, the Web erupted with stories about Steve Jobs—anecdotes from friends, employees, and rivals that were meant to burnish our image of the Apple co-founder as an otherworldly genius, a guy whose quirks and bruising personality could be excused by his admirably fanatical devotion to making world-changing pr […]
      Farhad Manjoo
    • When Groupons are bad for small businesses October 13, 2011
      “Sorry we ripped you off. Your best bet is to go to Groupon and get your money back. We’re too chicken shit to answer the phone, so you got this message anyway. Sorry for your problems. Better luck next time.” That’s the actual voicemail that greets potential customers looking to make an appointment at Viper Auto Detailing in Eugene, Ore., which ran Groupon […]
      Rocky Agrawal
    • Hulu owners terminate sale, decide to grow the service instead October 14, 2011
      Owners of streaming video service Hulu have terminated their plans to sell the company, Hulu announced today. The company issued the following joint statement on its website from News Corporation, Providence Equity Partners, The Walt Disney Company and Hulu’s senior management team: “Since Hulu holds a unique and compelling strategic value to each of its own […]
      Tom Cheredar
    • Skype and Rdio founder to challenge Netflix with Vdio (updated) October 17, 2011
      One of the founders of Skype and Rdio has decided to make a run at Netflix and Hulu with a mysterious new video service called Vdio, according to a GigaOM report. Janus Friis, the co-creator of Skype, Kazaa, Joost and Rdio, has kept Vdio a secret for as long as two years and received $5.6 million in funding in Oct. 2010 while the company was listed under the […]
      Sean Ludwig
    • Why can’t we be friends? Facebook and Google+ relationship remains complicated October 20, 2011
      Facebook has no plans to integrate with Google+, Facebook’s chief technical officer Bret Taylor said today at the Web 2.o Summit in San Francisco. “Every service is better when it’s social,”  he said. Apparently that dictum doesn’t apply, however, when it comes to services like Facebook and Google+ socializing with each other. The sitdown with Taylor followe […]
      Chikodi Chima
    • The Marriage Decision Matrix: Is Staying Single Better for Your Finances? October 20, 2011
      You know you’re in love and you know you want to spend your life with your partner — but does getting married help your finances, or leave them worse off? Before you walk down the aisle and commit to each other “for richer or for poorer,” make sure you understand the financial ramifications of your nuptials. That knowledge will help you set out on a “for ric […]
      CreditSesame.com
    • Talk Dirty to Me, Siri October 18, 2011
      The quick and the curious received the new iPhone 4S on Friday. The new iPhones are a lot like the old iPhones—except for Siri. She's the new voice-aware "personal assistant" designed to do your bidding. I've seen people speaking to their Android phones while holding them in horizontal fashion, as if smoking a peace pipe, and I vowed neve […]
      Michael Agger
    • Harmony Link Makes Any iOS or Android Device a Universal Remote [Stuff We Like] October 19, 2011
      I've checked out many make-your-iPhone-into-a-universal-remote devices before, and there would always be one factor that made the whole setup hard to use. Whether it's unrefined, crashy software, limited range for IR blasting, or the fact that you need to shove (and keep track of) an IR device into the headphone jack for it to work, none of these p […]
      Jason Chen
    • DIY "Book" Shelf October 17, 2011
      This week I am going to go over a bunch of small projects we completed in our upstairs room and end with a big reveal of the entire space. I think it turned out great, but I'll let you be the judge of that! :) Bookshelves are a staple in most homes, but very rarely do you see the idea taken literally. Today I am going to show you how to make a "boo […]
      Kara Paslay
    • Why Does God Love Beards? October 18, 2011
      An Amish splinter group has gone on a crime spree, forcibly cutting the beards off of their rivals. Many religions, including Sikhism, Islam, and sects of Judaism, encourage or require their men to keep beards. Jesus Christ is often depicted with a beard. Why does God like facial hair so much?
      Brian Palmer
    • The Mother Majority October 17, 2011
      A few months ago, I was late. You know what I mean: My usual period day came and went without a spot, and suddenly every wave of exhaustion, every twinge of anxious nausea, became a harbinger of a very unintended pregnancy, a sign that my NuvaRing had failed me. I’m married, happily at that. And I’m a mother, happily as well. But our family feels “complete,” […]
      Lauren Sandler
    • AeroShot Pure Energy: Ready, Aim, Caffeinate October 18, 2011
      Far safer than sticking an actual shotgun shell in your mouth, these AeroShot cartridges provide as much caffeine in one shot as a large cup of strong coffee. Minus the stained teeth and bad breath. Each cartridge contains six to eight puffs of a fine powder composed of vitamin B and 100 milligrams of caffeine. Enough to wake you up in the morning, or keep y […]
      (author unknown)
    • Famous Gadget Wars of the Past & Present October 14, 2011
      Today’s gadget wars may be bloody and well-publicized, but the battles between gadgets are nothing new. Long before the Kindle and the Nook started throwing punches, there was Sega Genesis vs. Nintendo and BetaMax vs. VHS. Click on the image above to expand the infographic and check out some of the gadget wars of the past and present.
      Ross Crooks
    • The Future Is Machine-Readable October 11, 2011
      This article arises from Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, the New America Foundation, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, visit the Future Tense blog and the Future Tense homepage. You can also follow us on Twitter.
      Frank Swain
    • Canon projector makes 80-inch screen from an inch away October 11, 2011
      Shared by Laura Cool! Canon's new projector can produce 80-inch images when positioned an inch away from a screen or wall, it announced on Tuesday.
      (author unknown)
    • Buy Out of Ads on Subsidized Amazon Kindle for $30 [Kindle] October 6, 2011
      Shared by Laura That's cool. Amazon is now allowing users who purchase the cheap, ad-supported version of the Kindle to buy out of the ads at a later date for $30, the same price it would cost to purchase a non ad-supported version. More »
      (author unknown)
    • A Nutrition Label For Building Products October 4, 2011
      We know what ingredients are in many of the products we buy, but often have no idea what the buildings we spend our lives in are made of. The Building Product Transparency Project is trying to change that. Transparency is becoming increasingly important for a number of industries; you probably have some idea about the ingredients in your food, and thanks to […]
      Ariel Schwartz
    • An Alarm Clock App That Sends an Embarrassing Tweet Every Time You Hit Snooze [IPhone Downloads] September 30, 2011
      iOS: You could make the argument that, on the whole, the Japanese are more disciplined than we are. Part of that might be because they impose harsh consequences on failure. For example, who else would come up with an alarm clock app that sends out embarrassing tweets whenever you hit the snooze button? More » […]
      Jason Chen
    • Cutting Corners September 8, 2011
      I recently returned from a trip to Argentina, where I spent the majority of my time in Buenos Aires. Of the many times I have been to Buenos Aires, this was by far the most interesting intellectually. My mom is Argentine, so I grew up traveling south every couple of years to visit her family. Because of this, I hadn’t seen many of the “touristy”--but of cour […]
      (author unknown)

Maui & Lana’i: ziplining, some treasure, and a wedding hula

Posted on July 20, 2010 by sfurbanist

We spent last week and the adjoining weekends in fabulous Hawaii! I got sick for the last few days, but it was a wonderfully warm break from good ol’ San Francisco.

The first half of the trip was spent on Maui. When I’ve visited in the past (with my family), we have always stayed in clustered resorts on the water. This time around, I had the unique experience of staying in downtown Lahaina where we could walk to shops and restaurants. Our condo hotel had fewer amenities than the large resorts, but there was plenty to explore nearby.

I’ve wanted to go ziplining since I first heard about it during a visit a few years ago. There were no openings before the end of our trip, so this time around, we booked three months in advance to be sure we wouldn’t miss it. We coasted down eight different ziplines but did not look nearly as cool in photos as we did in person (I swear), so this is the guide showing everyone how it’s done.

The Olivine Pools were my favorite new discovery of the trip. They are hidden (really — you have to know where they are and then hike a little) tidepools that are deep enough for swimming and snorkeling. It pays to have Hawaiian friends who have thoroughly explored the islands.

This is the dessert sampler from the Lahaina Grill, which was my favorite meal of the trip. We shared crab ravioli, Maui onion soup, and then this beauty. We sat at the bar, and the bartender was extraordinarily nice and sociable. The sampler was only supposed to include four desserts, but she was kind enough to give us half of a key lime tart as well (which I had been eyeing on the menu but had not mentioned).

The second half of the trip was on Lana’i which was completely new to me. There are only 3,500 residents on the island in addition to two Four Seasons Resorts and a small downtown hotel. We stayed at the Koele Lodge about twenty minutes up the mountain but had full access to the Manele Bay amenities down below. Both hotels had immense lobbies. Unfortunately I don’t have any good photos of the Koele Lodge which was like being transported to another time (an upscale 19th century hunting lodge?). It was kind of awesomely artificial.

Interestingly, people were making fun of the eclecticism of the architecture of both hotels. I am usually the first to find design flaws, but I thought everything was pretty tasteful.

This is the path down to the beach which was the future location of the wedding ceremony.

Photo credit: Four Seasons Resorts

When we told our roommate where we were staying, she found this photo of the signature Four Seasons “Evian spritz” which we all agreed was pretty much the most ridiculous thing we had ever seen. Dan tried it but I declined. That being said, the Four Seasons was insanely on top of service — making up our room twice a day, arranging our toiletries, prepping beach chairs with fitted towels, and passing out fruit spears by the beach.

The rehearsal dinner was as perfect as a Google party circa 2006. The theme was Tampa, FL which is apparently famous for pirates. Will’s (the groom) parents gave the couple real pieces of eight as a wedding gift. Best of all, the pieces of eight were not even purchased but were proceeds from a legal defense.

Will and Lauren’s vows were the best I’ve heard yet. There was no “until death do us part” mumbo jumbo; just a realistic and therefore more meaningful commitment to fulfilling each others’ lives. Actions speak louder than words, people. Will is transferring from a very comfortable life at Google Mountain View to a new position at Google Chicago while Lauren pursues her J.D./M.B.A. There’s nothing like getting married and moving almost immediately to a completely new place.

Lauren sabotaging my beach glamour photo session.

Photo credit: John Hawkins

This was one of the most beautiful, intimate weddings that I have attended. The entire wedding party (aptly dubbed “bridespeople” and “groomspeople”) learned a hula that Lauren’s cousin had choreographed and taught to them via YouTube. Ahh, technology.

Photo credit: John Hawkins

Lauren, the beautiful bride, was a member of the very selective Stanford Dollies (which I didn’t know before!), so she’s quite the performer.

Photo credit: John Hawkins

Bride and groom doing the hula. Just because he’s 6’8″ doesn’t mean Will can’t dance. He used that as an excuse to make me dance on multiple occasions as well.

Photo credit: John Hawkins

After 10:00 p.m., the party retired to the library (say with fancy inflection). Will, our groom, is also very talented and gave an impromptu A capella performance with several friends who were all former members of the Stanford Fleet Street Singers. I was transported back to my dining hall days but with an upgraded backdrop. What a treat!

Since we were flying in and out of Kahului, Maui, we took the ferry back to Lahaina early on our last day so that we could drive to Hana’s sacred pools. The drive is 2-3 hours depending on where you start, and there are numerous places where the road narrows to a single lane. This did not help my head cold, but I manned up anyway. We waited to eat lunch until we found the Hana-Maui Hotel, which I remembered from a visit with my parents. The reef shoes that we had purchased on the cheap for the Olivine Pools were a total win and made it easy to wade in the rocky pools. Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of time to stay because we had a plane to catch. Next time.

Filed under: Gender & Sexuality, Other Cities | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

NYT: Graduation Is the Goal, Staying Alive the Prize

Posted on July 2, 2010 by sfurbanist

Last school year, 258 public school students were shot in Chicago, 32 fatally, on their way to or from school, traveling through gang-infested territory and narcotics wars on the South and West Sides.

via The New York Times

Filed under: Other Cities | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

When it rains, it pours. Sometimes it pours art.

Posted on July 1, 2010 by sfurbanist

As you may know, I’ve been following street artist Eddie Colla for a while and had been determined to acquire a piece of his work for quite some time, but the stars weren’t really aligning. I had pretty much given up on the idea when I found a small representative (not to mention affordable) piece he had hung at Amsterdam Cafe (see girl on bike above). I checked out the photos on Facebook, inquired about pricing and size before even arranging to see it (so I wouldn’t fall in love with it), and then swung by the cafe to check it out. I liked it and sent Dan by on a Saturday morning to tell me if he agreed. We decided we should buy it because we needed something to tie our guest room (also depository of miscellaneous stuff that does not fit in our shared room) decor together. Then, I noticed that Eddie had another show going at Secession Art & Design at the same time. I figured we should take a look before committing to the Amsterdam Cafe piece.

Somehow, we fell in love with a massive piece there and got the crazy idea in our heads that we should buy not one but both pieces. Then we could hang them in the living room and shift existing living room art to the lower priority guest room. The colors of the large piece were unique matched to our living room, so I’m going to pretend that that’s why the splurge made perfect sense. Although the piece is a bit over-scaled for the room, we only rent the space, and I always say (at least starting now): buy for the home you envision, not the one you have. Just like dressing for the job you want. I can envision this piece on a brick or concrete wall in my future loft. So that was that. As much as it was nerve-racking to make such a commitment to art, I feel really good about it. Like all the personal finance bloggers are saying these days, frugality is about honing in on what really makes you happy. We did manage to save a few extra bucks by hanging it ourselves.

Everyone always asks about the masks, so: gallery owner Eden Stein explained that, in the wake of SARS, Hong Kong residents started to reclaim the streets transforming disease protection into elements of urban style.

In case you missed it, Eddie was doing his thing in San Francisco last weekend for Pride. Excellent video below.

One more thing — this is not the only art I have had in the works. There is more (smaller) art to come.

Filed under: Art & Design, Hayes Valley, Home | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

A collection of things that have caught my attention

Posted on June 28, 2010 by sfurbanist

Residential parking permits in San Francisco are pretty illogical

In San Francisco, individual blocks can opt in or out of restricting parking with permits (reference interesting exploration of this issue in Noe Valley SF). Regardless of how you feel about whether residential parking permits make sense or not, the existing system is flawed because it encourages everyone to act selfishly instead of considering the greater good. Parking in my neighborhood can be some work but it’s one of the better areas for parking in the city, especially given that it’s near the geographical center. Thanks in part to the blocks bisected by alleys which create a larger curb to square foot of building ratio than usual, I often park right in front of my house.

My block has not opted into the parking permit requirement. This means that when visitors from outside the city and lovers from outside the neighborhood come, they can leave their cars on my block for more than two hours just the same as I do. It’s very convenient, and I know that neighbors who live on other blocks take advantage of this when people come to see them or stay overnight. However, many of the surrounding blocks have opted into the restrictions. Sometimes, I can’t park on my block. If I can’t find a spot on the dwindling number of remaining blocks which are not restricted, I have to play a musical car game every few hours until it gets late enough.

I looked into buying a parking permit for the occasional time when I can’t park on my lbock, but as I had heard was the case, I am not allowed to buy one because my block is not restricted. So, if everyone acts rationally in this case, why would any block inhabited by local residents decide not to opt into the restrictions? Why even bother to give a choice? My block most definitely does not need to be restricted in order to protect it from non-residents, but I would still marginally benefit from acting in my own interest and petitioning for permit requirements. This would result in under-utilizing parking resources because in most cases more extra spots than are needed would sit empty. It seems that the good people who bother to think about that get punished. Wouldn’t it make more sense to allow residents who live within a certain radius of a certain number of restricted spots to purchase permits as well? They would only use them when absolutely necessary because it’s always preferable to park as close to home as possible.

Sutro Baths video

I stumbled upon this extended video clip from the 1958 film The Line Up which was filmed at the Sutro Baths. Via Curbed SF.

Physical address emails

I know the census was a while ago, but it’s been on my mind again (*ahem,* upstairs neighbors whose neglect causes me to continue to get buzzed by census workers). Back in April, the census got me wondering why there isn’t a way to tie an email address with your physical address such that 1) government outlays for massive efforts like the census could be reduced and 2) to make life easier for those who prefer to receive electronic correspondence. Obviously, you can’t force people to use this program, but if it were strongly protected such that Pottery Barn etc. could not exploit this new avenue of communication, I think a lot of people would opt to receive official correspondence (voting information, utilities announcements) in this way. I whispered this idea to Dan but that did not effectively get Google to steal it, so I am writing it down here so that someone will.

Etsy finds

Set of six wooden modular stacking planters

Lath coffee table

Rear Gear butt covers for your cat and dog – too funny

Filed under: Art & Design, Hayes Valley, History, Technology, Transportation | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Useful stuff that I know

Posted on June 24, 2010 by sfurbanist

A while back, I was talking to a law student friend at a party and she made a remark that I often hear in various forms: “I’m going to stand over by you. You know, like, useful stuff.” She said that because she knows a great deal of things — complicated things — but many of them don’t apply to daily life. Living near Silicon Valley, it’s likely that most of your friends could design a web site a lot faster than they could negotiate a lease or attempt a home improvement or maintenance project. My passion — urban living — much more directly applies itself to daily life in San Francisco than many of my friends’ passions (unless you only want to live online which doesn’t sound so bad).

Lifehacker recently advised writing a personal FAQ instead of delivering similar, lower quality information multiple times to different people. Lifehacker of course assumes that you are a computer engineer of some sort who is tired of being every extended family member’s on-call IT guy. I actually love giving advice and imparting useful knowledge based upon my research and experience but agree that it would be more effective to do so in an organized manner.

Knowing my passion for well designed interiors, a friend who moved to San Francisco with a bulky couch that she had to Craigslist because it would not fit into her new midrise apartment asked me for advice on where she could shop for a new couch suited to long-term apartment life. I grew my Facebook response into this new FAQ page so that I can refer friends there in the future and so that strangers of the interwebs in the same predicament might also benefit from my experience. Check it out! As the FAQ page expands, I will post periodic updates notifying my readers (all two of them — hi, mom) of new topics.

If you read my blog from a feed aggregator like Google Reader, you may not have noticed other new tabs up at the top of myurbanrevolution.com. Here’s a little rundown:

  • Best Of – If you’re new to my blog, this is how you can find my favorite posts and skip all the stuff that’s mundane or no longer newsworthy.
  • Further Reading – This contains a few of my favorite books related to the topic of my blog. No big changes recently, but you may not have seen it.
  • Header – In the works as I have some upcoming (exciting!) header changes.
  • Recommends – Inspired by McSweeney’s Recommends. Not a lot of content yet, but someday…
  • Video – Favorite videos from my posts (only ones made by yours truly).

Filed under: Art & Design, Daily Life | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Gay relationships the Galapagos Islands of relationships

Posted on June 19, 2010 by sfurbanist

In honor of pride month, I thought I would share a great insight I read on my friend-of-friend Meg’s blog, A Practical Wedding (from “Sex & Marriage: A Bisexual Perspective”):

[I]t’s fashionable at the moment to say that gay relationships and straight relationships are exactly alike. And, well, love and love are exactly alike, but as Desaray [guest bisexual blogger] points out, gay relationships are sort of the Galapagos Islands of relationships. EG, if you deny a community access to publicly sanctioned relationships, the one up-side is that gives them all the room in the world to be creative, and to come up with what works for them.

Also, in case you forgot about the NOH8 Campaign, here’s Chely Wright‘s recent contribution.

Filed under: Gender & Sexuality | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Delivering happiness with TaskRabbit – out of Beta today*

Posted on June 19, 2010 by sfurbanist

“WHHHAAAATTT???!??!?!???!??!? Magical package???????!???!?????!!”

That’s a text from Dan’s sister, Jen, that I received this morning. You see, through RSS feeds that I track, I spotted this ad on Craigslist in late May:

Framed and Matted, Signed Wicked Poster from Broadway.
Signed by Idina Menzel! 23″W x 31″H
Beautifully framed in black wood, silver matte and anti-glare glass. Well worth over the asking price!
Asking $[it's a secret]. Cash only. All serious offers will be considered.

Knowing that Jen loves Wicked (she’s seen it four times) and would be moving into her first apartment next fall, I forwarded the ad to Dan saying that it would probably make a good gift. The poster was in our possession pretty quickly, but getting it into the mail was another story. Since packing and shipping such an awkwardly shaped item was going to be energy intensive, we procrastinated.

After a few weeks passed, I realized that if we didn’t send the poster soon, it would not arrive before Jen’s departure for a month in Italy. Still, trekking all over the city in search of the appropriate packing materials did not sound like the most exciting use of our Saturday, so I had an idea: post it on TaskRabbit! We did so in our pajamas (at a rate of $20 + expenses), a Runner arrived to pick up the poster from Dan while I was in the shower, and we proceeded to enjoy the weekend. After the completion notice, all we had to do was wait to hear Jen’s reaction when our surprise arrived. It was so simple and great way to ensure that this happiness-inducing task would not linger on our to-do list.

Jen was ecstatic.

Doing nice things for our loved ones should always be this easy and convenient. I’ve been participating in the private Beta of TaskRabbit and am very excited to share that, as of today, it is open to all of San Francisco.

So what is TaskRabbit? An E-bay style hyper-local marketplace where you can outsource pretty much anything to your neighbors and vice-versa. I’ll get into the details of all the practical applications of TaskRabbit and why it is so revolutionary in a future post but for now will stick with anecdotes. Here are some of the things that I have accomplished as a Runner for our excellent Senders in the past two weeks:

  1. Face wash delivery – I was notified of this task while Dan and I were on a Target run in the East Bay. A sender needed a special soy face wash from Sephora delivered to her home in Noe Valley. Conveniently, we were planning on stopping by the mall and I needed to visit an open house for work in Noe Valley afterward, so for a few extra minutes of effort at places I already planned to be I made $10 and saved Mother Earth an extra vehicle trip.
  2. Kitchen organization – A Sender who had to move from Boston to San Francisco in a rush was going to receive an apartment load of boxes (packed somewhat randomly by a moving company after she had left) all at once and needed to get things in order right away so that she could work effectively. I focused on the kitchen in my spare time on Friday evening while she tackled the bedrooms. $50 cash money for doing something I enjoy and helping out a very gracious new San Francisco resident.
  3. Emergency pick ups – I did this one because I knew that the task was for a famous business author who wrote a book that rhymes with The Core Power Jerk Leak and it was an insane challenge. I started in Mission Bay at 6:30 and needed to make it (in traffic) to a sport shop in the Marina by 7:00 when it closed, find a GNC or similar that was still open to buy a few supplements (accomplished in two tries), and then drop all items off at a location in the Mission. When the Sender noted in my reviews that he “honestly didn’t think my task could be done before the stores closed,” I was pretty satisfied that, paired with my iPhone, my intimate knowledge of San Francisco had uniquely delivered.

I’m already a big fan of TaskRabbit, but the community is only as good as its network of Senders and Runners, which is why I want to recruit you. I haven’t been this excited about an urban internet company since Laundry Locker and Groupon. Take it out for a spin — deliver some happiness to your own loved ones, get something knocked off your to do list, or just compete with others for the most outlandish task to date. If you sign up with promo code RUNNER55, you’ll receive a $15 credit toward your first task. And don’t forget to let me know what you think in the comments!

* Yes, I understand that “delivering happiness” sounds like a ripoff of Tony Hsieh’s new book, but I think those are the most appropriate words and that I wouldn’t have even been self-conscious about it if I hadn’t attended his recent talk at the Commonwealth Club.

Filed under: Technology | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Weekend highlights: cool books, street art, Ocean Beach, homemade pasta, and more

Posted on June 15, 2010 by sfurbanist

Last weekend was one of those quintessential San Francisco summer weekends. On Saturday, we headed to the Mission after dorking out at home in the morning over smoothies from Stacks. Lunch of panang curry and coconut rice at Osha thai, where we played around with some location-based social networks, reminded me that I should dine there more often. It was marvelously warm out — around 85 degrees — which welcomed walking so we browsed some nearby stores. I spotted this very amusing birdhouse at the Curiosity Shoppe.

Both Dan and I ended up buying books at 826 Valencia, the pirate bookstore where, oddly enough, I have never before actually made a purchase. His choice: Clock without a Face. Mine: We the Dreamers. Both are aesthetically and tactilely pleasing; in fact, this was my first physical book purchase since acquiring an iPad. It was hard to pull Dan away from his book because he wanted to solve the mystery, but we had things to do! I haven’t really had the chance to get into mine yet.

Next we headed further south to Secession Art and Design. If you haven’t heard of Eddie Colla, you probably will. He’s a street artist and designer for fiftyseven-thirtythree whose work I first spotted on Linden Alley near Blue Bottle Coffee about a year ago. June 2009 also is the date of his earliest blog post, so perhaps that’s when he really got started seriously? Locals such as Uptown Almanac are all over his work (“Eddie Colla and Friends Continue to Kill It”), but he also got a mention in the New York Times last month:

For a short while a few months ago, a mural by Eddie Colla enlivened an otherwise grubby stretch of wall in an alleyway in the upscale Hayes Valley neighborhood. The image, depicting two nearly naked and tattooed young women entwined in a sensual kiss, was a witty political message. The words “Just Married,” spray-painted in crimson above the couple, suggested the artist’s stance on gay marriage, while the six crushed beer cans dangling from strings attached to the women’s thighs like postmodern wedding garters conveyed his offbeat sense of humor. But like many street works — broadly defined as the stencils, murals, posters, tags and stickers that appear, often illegally, in public spaces — Mr. Colla’s mural didn’t last long.

I had contacted Eddie a year ago to ask about acquiring some of his work but it didn’t sound like he did much commercially. A year later, he’s had quite a few shows, so I’m obviously not the only one who has kept my eye on him. His work was up at Secession, and we wanted to see it before pulling the trigger on purchasing a small piece he had on display at Amsterdam Cafe in the Tenderloin. This visit changed our plans. I’ll save the details for another post and leave you with an image that may look familiar (if you’ve seen my header) but will not make it into our home.

The early evening had us on our way to Fremont for birthday dinner with my family. We stopped along the way to catch up with a few friends on the Peninsula. At my parents’ house, we munched on Mission Pizza which I literally have not had since I left for college. It was fun to give Dan a taste of some of my old memories (our soccer teams used to have lots of parties at Mission Pizza) while my family shared stories from their recent trip to Italy and the Czech Republic.

Deanna (my sister) is home from Cornell, so she rode back with us to the city so that she could give our brand new guest room a try. On Sunday morning, we made use of a Groupon to eat brunch at Cafe Flore. I had been to Cafe Flore once before but never for brunch, and I will definitely be returning for their Hawaiian french toast with caramelized bananas which was amazing.

I have long planned to visit Ocean Beach on an abnormally warm San Francisco day, so we made our way out there with Deanna. It was clear as we were driving over that the day was getting later and it was not going to be as hot as Saturday had been (when I saw friends posting pictures of blue sky out there on Facebook). So of course, typical San Francisco, everything was fogged in once we were within about six blocks of the water. We might have turned back, but we had not come that far to let Buster miss out on the opportunity to have his first encounter with sand. He found that it’s a quite a bit of work to run around in it.

On the way home from Ocean Beach, we stopped by one of the houses I’ve been working on, and it was fun to show Dan and Deanna how I’ve reinvented the old Pacific Heights Victorian. After a return trip to Secession, we went to Bloomingdales where I got some bling. Well, technically I was blinged out on Thursday, but Dan let me exchange the David Yurman bracelet he chose for my birthday for a ring since I’ve wanted one to replace my impostor for a while (which he did not know).

Finally, we picked up some groceries from Bristol Farms so that we could try out my new Kitchen Aid pasta attachments which Dan’s mother got me for my birthday. We repeated Dan’s cousins’ Italian grandmother’s (that’s a mouthful) recipe for homemade meatballs, prepared our own pink sauce, and made our own pasta. It was truly wonderful. Before trying this meatball recipe in South Lake Tahoe with Dan’s mom and some of her family, I never even really liked meatballs. They are that good. Photos below.

Buster brought all of his toys into the kitchen to try to get us to play with him instead of our food.

Filed under: Daily Life | Tagged: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Faith [temporarily] restored in humanity

Posted on June 12, 2010 by sfurbanist

I found this note on my beloved Mini Cooper last week after I returned to the parking garage where I had left it for a few hours while I enjoyed the annual SPUR member party downtown. I had walked right by the damage because my car is silver (selected for this blemish-hiding quality) and was pretty surprised to sit down and see the note. I walked around to the back of the car and, lo and behold, there was what turned out to be more than $2,500 of damage to the driver’s side corner. Someone had tried to swing into the space next to me and missed. I guess cars aren’t any safer when parked in garages than in the street after all. I was immediately grateful that the person who had done this left a note instead of simply driving off but very nervous by the words “if you decide to repair” and the lack of information other than a phone number. Of course I would want to repair the damage on my otherwise mostly pristine vehicle!

I followed up over the course of the next few days. Initially, the woman who was responsible for the accident was interested in paying out of pocket for the damage, but of course when she found out what it would cost she changed her mind. Fortunately, she never tried to shirk her responsibility, and her insurance company is paying for the repair in its entirety. As you know, I had to pay out of pocket to replace a broken window just two months ago which had soured my outlook considerably. It’s still inconvenient to have to waste time on the whole ordeal (I haven’t brought the car in for the actual repair yet), but this woman was so nice and apologetic that it definitely gave me a surge of faith in humanity. City people can be good neighbors. Thank you, random stranger, for not sucking.

Filed under: Daily Life, Transportation, Urban Encounters | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Buddy-sitting

Posted on June 12, 2010 by sfurbanist

As you may remember from my Roth IRA post back in December, I read Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich and took his advice to heart. I continue to follow his blog and became interested in the idea of freelancing as a secondary source of income. I don’t have a lot of extra time so didn’t really want to do anything too challenging but understand the marginal value of money that was not already anticipated in the monthly budget. This inspired me to start importing RSS feeds from the local Craigslist gigs section, which is how I found the opportunity to puppy sit an adorable 11-month old Maltipoo named Buddy. This was the ideal gig to try out for a number of reasons: 1) I already knew how to deal with a puppy, 2) Buster would be stimulated by the company, and 3) it would be a good test for Buster to make sure he could handle having another dog in his territory should we ever decide to get one. I figured at the very least, if having two dogs turned out to be a huge pain, I would benefit from it shutting Dan up about getting another pup as he browses stewspoos.com (albeit only half seriously).

As evidenced by the video above, Buster and Buddy had a blast. As opposite colored poodle mixes of similar size, they were a perfect pair. We call Buster “bear” because he looked a lot like a tiny bear when he was a puppy. Buddy is a bit chubbier, white, and likes to lay down all flat, which earned him the nickname “polar bear.” Unlike Buster, Buddy comes out as more than a blob in photos, so I thought I would share some. In just a few days, they both forgot what it was like to be without each other so they were pretty sulky when the extended bear slumber party was over.

Filed under: Daily Life, Money, Video | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.