The Hills are Alive

The hills rise like giant bubbles surfacing from an extraterrestrial pond: natural, yet somehow alien.

I was given the chance to go on top of the new California Academy of Sciences to shoot a promotional spot for an upcoming fundraiser. The museum does not open for another year but its roof it already turning heads. It is a living roof.

The green roof, planted with four native ground covers and five local wildflowers, will be a destination in itself. And in some ways, these hills of 1.7 million plants growing in 50,000 biodegradable coconut husk trays comprise the most inspiring element of the whole museum. The seven hills are supposed to represent the seven hills of San Francisco. Undernearth the hills are the museum's planetariums and the like.

Green/living roofs are nothing new but instead of just being a square on top of a building this has design and function (too many to get into).

Friendly Battle

The Tradition. A feebile attempt for aging friends to get together to try and prove they still have some life in them. This year's list of competitions included:

Row, Sham, Bow (Rock, Paper, Scissors)

Catch Tony (George's rodent of a dog)

Air Hockey

Miniature Golf

Basketball Free Throws

Football Toss

Obsticle Course

Frisbee Golf

Fresno State Football - Guess the Score

XBox Home Run Derby

Mini-Hoop

Despite somebody winning for the third straight year it is always great to get together with friends and have a good time. George was this year's host and pulled out all the stops to make it great. Not only is a great reminder of my outstanding athletic abilities it is an even better reminder that I am lucky to have such wonderful friends.

Maybe in 10 years I can afford a place

Good news! Home prices in my area of San Francisco dropped over the year.


District 3
Sep-06 Sep-07
Number of Sales
18 11
Median Selling Price
719,500 688,000
Average DOM
29 35


These are for condos but what the heck.

Magic Flying Paper

I am extremely jealous of people who have cool or unique side talents. Take my friend John Collins. Not only does he have a regular day job he is one of the best paper airplane designers in the country having written a few books on the subject. He recently held court with kids and adults at the Exploratorium.

He turned what he did in the 4th grade into a profitable and fun hobby. All I got out of the fourth grade was a binder filled with stickers.

His designs are amazing, even if some are too darn tough to fold.

Heating up

There is a big tah-do over swiching your old incandescent light bulbs to those new CFL ones. PG&E is giving them away, there are messages everywhere about how much energy they save, and Al Gore probably has one in his pocket at the ready. I too got caught up in the frenzy buying a three pak for only 99-cents a while back. Now though I am not so sure those CFL's are really a-okay.

Those new CFL's are toxic, containing mercury. You break one and you have a toxic clean-up situation on your hands. Sure it is a tiny amout of that nasty stuff but tiny amounts of the quicksilver can add up. You can not dispose of them in an easy way. You have to find a certified CFL disposal center. And dispose of these I will when LED lighting gets cheaper. LED is going to light up your world.

Here in San Francisco and elsewhere there was this big push to turn off your lights for an hour to save energy, showing all how much we can save. Forget turning off your lights for an hour, try stop driving your car less than a mile to do something. Or stop driving at all.

What will be next? A day without flushing the toilet? I am sure some Jimmy Carteresque ideas are already floating around to show us little ways to save energy when nobody addresses the big problem.

Craig Strikes Again

Craigslist has revolutionized the way people sell things to each other. Many believe Craigslist is one of the main reasons causing the downfall of newspapers because they used to make huge profits off of classified ads, not anymore.

http://www.donorschoose.org/homepage/main.html?zone=402

Here is Craig's newest venture, which I feel is brilliant. I am more than cautious giving to charity organizations because a large portion of your donation goes to operating costs and not really helping the cause you care so much about. Here, you can forget the middle person and donate directly to somebody who needs it.

For example, you can do a search for any state, and say find a teacher who is looking to purchase material for class. You can donate directly to that teacher. Now, with anything somebody might try to take advantage of this so you always have to be carefull. But this is darn cool.

Mountain High

There is nothing like a wet one after a race. Here I am with Omar, who finished right behind me, after the Tahoe Half-Marathon. One of these days I will feel confident enough to run the full at the Tahoe altitude.

Chill Out

Global Warming. Too often the debate over global warming and how to solve or control it turns into a nasty dustup, with one side arguing that we're headed for catastrophe and the other maintaining that it's all a hoax. I say that neither is right. It's wrong to deny the obvious: The Earth is warming, and we're causing it. But that's not the whole story, and predictions of impending disaster just don't stack up.

I came across this well writen article in the Washington Post out of Copenhagen. Finally, an argument about global warming I can relate to. Brilliant.

High Priced Neighborhood

What kind of house would you buy for 2.1M? Beach front? Maybe an acre or two of land? How about a nice front yard with a porch and swing? How about the house right next to my partment? I do enjoy living in my neighborhood. I especially enjoy it when a house goes up for sale. It reaffirms my neighborhood as being downright posh, expensive and I will never be able to afford to buy a place here. I could do a lot with 2.1M.

Labor Day

This is the way to spend Labor Day, doing nothing sitting in Golden Gate Park at all.

Jury Duty

I had jury duty this week. I was not picked or even questioned. But the process left me with a few questions.

During the question and answer perior, the voir dire, three potential jurors were dismissed because they could not understand English. They were so inept in their English skills that when the judge dismisse them they just stood there until somebody translated what was said.

Prospective jurors are selected at random from the list of registered voters. In order to be a registered voter you have to be a U.S. citizen. How did these prospective jurors make it? Were they faking their lack of English skill to get out of jury duty? Why did the judge not question them on it?

It all made me wonder.

Korea Day

Everyday in my life is Korea Day but this past Saturday was Korea National Day in San Francisco. The day started at Civic Center Plaza with a parade and ended at Union Square with festivities, food and plenty of fun.

As you can see Korean traditional outfits are very colorful. All Koreans take great pride in these outfits and many are still worn today for special events. It got me thinking what, if any, would be a traditional outfit from the United States? What do Americans wear for ceremnonies or special events. I came up empty. A wedding dress? Cowboy or western attire? Suit and tie?

Historic Hit

Wow! Unbelievable. What are the chances of me attending the game where Barry Bonds hits the record breaking home run? It was pure pandemonium. What luck.

Who cares if the commissioner was not there. That says as much about who Bud Selig is as it does Barry Bonds. Who cares about the steroid cloud over it. Whatever Barry did was completly legal at the time. Do I believe he took some medicinal incentives? Yes. This was a great moment for baseball. Barry is the most dangerous hitter ever in baseball. He changed the game like no other. This is great moment in San Francisco sports history. It will not live up to the 49ers three Super Bowls, but still great.

What makes Barry stand out in my mind is he perserverance. He kept going surrounded by all of this. He just kept going doing what he does best.

The Home Run King.

Chasing History

I thought I might be a part of history last night. A lot of people seem to be thinking that Barry is going to hit the big dinger this home stand. I sure do, others think it is going to take a while. I went to the Giants game hoping Barry Bonds would crush a few home runs. He didn't and is still two away from tying Hank Aaron for the all-time record, three away from breaking that record. I have another chance to possibly see history on Friday (if he doesn't do it by then).

So all the press is here and the demand for tickets is skyrocketing. Barry is slumping despite hitting two dingers in Chicago. Anyone who's been following all things Barry knows that whenever he gets close to some record, he gets all slump-y, probably due to all the hype and pressure surrounding him and so it takes him awhile to get to the big number. All of which has many guessing when and where he breaks the record and the speculation that Barry and the Giants so want this record broken at home that they'll rig it so that he does. So what they’re saying is that the Giants will intentionally sit Barry on the road just enough to make sure that there's no way he'll be break the record in the team's grays. This despite the evidence out there that it's possibly the stupidest thing anyone has ever thought up due to it's complete disregard to reality.

Mmmmmovieeeee

San Franciscans are a hearty bunch when it comes to movies. San Francisco, like a lot of cities, has organizations that throw outdoor movie gatherings. While other cities have warm, pleasent weather, San Francisco in the summertime means wind and fog. Saturday night was the showing of Sixteen Candles in Dolores Park and a crowd pushing 5-thousand showed up. By nightfall the wind had picked up, the fog was rolling in and it got darn chilly. But the tough San Franciscans held tough and refused to let a little cold get in the way of their free movie. Maybe all the food and wine people bring has something to do with it.

New Look

For the past few months I have been working hard trying to get a 'new look' for KRON 4 on the air. Well today it finally happened, sort of. With the help of some great designers the new red look was completley done in house. I think it is a big improvement over the old graphic look. While a majority of the graphics go live today, the remaining will go live next week.

Korean Cuisine

I must say that during my visit to S. Korea I ate extremely well. Koreans are known for their kimchi and for sometimes cooking an animal that others might find offensive. That later is becoming less and less common and is frownd upon by the majority now. The strangest thing I saw was a kimchi and rice hamburger. I doesn't look too bad but the idea of rice bun kind of defeats the purpose of having a bun in the first place. You can hold a bun, you can't hold a rice patty.

Passing of the Porn Legend

One of San Francisco's true characters has passed.

Famous for creating the Mitchell Brother(s) O’Farrell Theatre and then committing fratricide with a 22-caliber rifle, Jim Mitchell helped give San Francisco the wonderful and sick reputation it still (sort of) maintains. Today he died at 63 in Sonoma County. Starting out by selling nudie pics with his brother, Artie, the two built a porn empire with the help of such luminaries as local horny SF politicians, Marilyn Chambers, and lots and lots of boobies. Even batshit crazy journalist Hunter S. Thompson worked as a night manager at the (in)famous theater. Years later -- after all of the sex, coke, and more boobies -- took their toll, things moved too downhill fast. In an apparent “intervention” to help his brother; Jim shot Artie to death, and then kicked in the VIP lounge at San Quentin State Prison up until his release in 1997.
You had a fascinatingly torrid life that seemed to end in peace, and we promise to rub one out in your honor tonight, Jim. Or better yet, take a loved one to your flagship theater to see a peepshow.
Also, I am sorry that Emilio Estevez had to play you in your biopic. Alas.

Good Chopsticks, American

I just returned from Korea and I must say, I do believe I made us fellow Americans proud. I had plenty of meals with various Koreans and during each one somebody commented on my excellent chopstick skills. If they came away with one thing from my visit it may very well be the thought that us Yanks can handle the 'sticks. I am proud of this small yet important accomplishment.

Also, Koreans like to think their food is spicy. Well, after seeing more than one native turn away and cower from the heat, once again this Yank took it with an open mouth. Their so-called spicy food is nothing compared to hot wings at the Old Pro in Palo Alto or a tongue scorching bowl of chili at a chili cookoff.

I did get tired of sitting on the floor.

All-Star Events

San Francisco is hosting this year's MLB All-Star Game. While I will not be attending the game or the pre-game Home Run Derby I did go to the All-Star Fan Fest. The celebration took up three floors of the Moscone Convention Center and was filled with goodies, collectables and tons of displays. Not only can you take plenty of fake photos (Wheaties, for example), there were batting cages, pitching cages and tons of things to do for young kids.