Seeing through Big Brother's eyes

The Internet is constantly opening our horizons bringing entertainment, fact, and fiction. Google now not only has a Google Earth feature where one can learn a bit of geography, but they have a camera feature. The funny ... terrible part? The cities you can view are: San Francisco, Denver, Miami, and New York - must be the happening places to be. I wonder if I can find the person who stole my wallet or kids who broke into my car on here ...

Here's a screenshot of my dream home.

Wine-o no no

Making full use of the 3-day weekend, I joined Lisa and a group of her friends and we made our way up to Napa. We enjoyed a handful of wineries and Campaign caves limo style and Dean & DeLucas for lunch. Our tasting ended at the feistiest winery of them all. Why the feist? The pourer stormed out in the middle of a pouring for two girls saying "I'm going to lunch - I can't take these two girls anymore." Oh so posh!

Bowl-o-rama

Bowling is one of those pass-times that we rarely think of but always have a good time doing. On Saturday we decided to branch out and make our way to the Presidio bowling center. The ally was filled with isms of all shapes and sizes - a couple on a date (I'm guessing first), a girl wearing a wedding dress with her bride's maids, and a group of 20-somethings who seemed to be in their own world completely.

I get my thrills on Lombard hill...

In the summer months, Matt and I skip TV and music and opt for the entertainment of Lombard. Daily, cars line up to drive up and over Lombard to take pictures and ruin their engines down the windy part of the hill. Living on the corner of Polk and Lombard, we're right at the bottom of the hill and enjoy the sites and sounds of tourists trying to make their way up and over - the screeching, honking, and smell of petrol that accompanies tourists looking exhausted and bewildered as they try to make their way up and over the hill. Tonight is an especially funny night as there are two Hummers trying to make their way up and over - the drivers of both look frightened while the passengers look "radder than rad." The funniest part? The drivers seem too scared to start and stop so instead are opting to drive up the hill at less than a mile per hour.

Welcome to crazy-town

We all know San Francisco is filled with isms - odd, quirky, extreme, and indifferent people of all sorts. Yesterday I was driving to the Marriot for a site visit (big mistake by the way - I've really got to get over my fear of public transportation here - a 2-mile drive took 45-minutes to make it through China Town and the Financial District). On my way through Union Square while stopped at a red light I witnessed a working-ism loosing it. A woman in an orange vest, clearly working for the city in construction, was watering the street. Why? I do not know...maybe prepping it for cementing or maybe she thought because it was warmish the street needed to cool down. All of the sudden it seemed like something flipped for the woman and she started pointing the hose at tourists and passing cars. Most of the passers by were too startled to do anything, probably to frightened as well. Crazy San Franciscans.

Mind the road

As the weather gets better drivers seem to get worse. Outside of hearing the typical rants and slurs on San Francisco streets, I'm noticing more aggressive drivers. The not-so-alarming thing is that most of the agro drivers are in the South Bay - not my city by the Bay. Why is this not-so-alarming you might ask? Because where there's tech industry, there's stress. With so many people on their way to their very important days and back-to-back meetings making our world survive one server and software enabled application at a time, it's no wonder the industry is wrought with a dire need for vitamin B and a long meditation.

Ah, after that rant I feel much better - now when I get cut off on the freeway on my way home I can go ahead and cut off right back and feel no angst.

AAA (Acronyms All Around)

No, this one is not about my friendly insurance company. It seems like as life continues to move faster and faster with the Internet booming and attention spans decreasing. As the speed increases it seems the letter-count in our writing decreases. Instead of words, we read our way through acronyms.

I work in the technology industry where acronyms seem to be the only known language well known to the lucky few who live tech. Our vernacular is made up of:

• GI (General Interface) our AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) solution


• BO (Business Optimization)


• My boss always says this acronym stinks and it always makes me laugh. Child humor will never die.


• SOA (Service Oriented Architecture)


• BPM (Business Process Management)


• MDM (Master Data Management)

The short attention span we’re all getting used to at work with the acronyms filling our vocabulary, sound bytes instead of full articles or stories filling our email, and quick IM conversations instead of phone meetings carries into the city. On my way home from running this evening I looked at a few for rent signs.

There’s a whole-sublanguage I’m learning in renters land.

• 1-BD (one bedroom)


• 1-BA (one bathroom)


• JBA (don’t get tricked by this one – it means teeny tiny bedroom)

The apartment down the street from me has a whopper: “1-BD, 1-BA, FDR, pkg ava. And view - $2,750.” I’m still trying to decipher this one. I’ve got that it’s a one-bedroom, one-bathroom, with parking available and a nice view, but what’s FDR? Fedora? Front Door? I have to admit, I’m stuck.

Well, for now, TTYLAB.