Surf Roots, Software Thoughts

My roommate and I don’t have a TV in our apartment here in San Francisco, so I ran down to The Page to catch the VP debate last night.  It was awesome!  The bar was packed with mostly Obama-Biden supporters, and I felt right at home.  Everyone was friendly, funny, and having a good old time.

Laughter would errupt when Palin would talk about soccer moms or THE MAVERICK.  Yells filled the bar when each candidate said they do not support gay marriage.  I felt like I was watching the superbowl, where all of my coviewers were rooting for the same team as me.

Oh San Francisco how I love thee; it feels good to be back in a liberal city.

I’ve started riding everywhere on my bike again.  Finally.  After not riding for over three months, I’m out of shape and ready to start crankin’.  I also purchased a fancy little u-lock that fits in my back pocket (the Evolution Mini).

San Francisco has way, WAY gnarlier hills than Seattle.  Holy shit.

I finally signed up at Yelp.  Here’s my profile.  The plan is to write reviews for as many places in Seattle and Los Angeles as I can think of, time permitting of course, then to write a review for each place I visit in San Francisco.

Also notice my little sidebar widget for my recent reviews; pretty shnazzy I would say.

I’ve been meaning to write a post about the comedic potential of listening to non-technical marketers talk about technology.  I’m only referring to the marketers who speak with such conviction that innocent bystandards might actually believe they know what they’re talking about.  I’ve witnessed this many a time when speaking with MBA-types about various web startups.  I would normally cite specific examples, but Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, has done better than I could ever do.  Read this short article about cloud computing and silly marketers who want so badly to be technical but fail miserably.  It’s like a new Revenge of the Nerds, even though Ellison probably isn’t a nerd given how much cash he’s rolling around in.

What’s curious is that the title of this post is “Larry Ellison’s Brilliant Anti-Cloud Computing Rant.”  That’s completely misguiding.  This isn’t an anti-cloud computing rant; it’s an anti-marketer-who-speaks-with-conviction rant.

I just spent about an hour Googling for the Python datetime format.  I thought I would share the link and give the guide some link juice.

I’m settled in San Francisco!  I arrived Saturday evening after a six-hour drive from Los Angeles.  The drive wasn’t bad at all; I had the stereo blasting, singing along like there was no tomorrow.

Eric, Eric’s friend, Nick, and I took it easy Saturday evening in preparation for a long Sunday.  In summary, Sunday consisted of a trip to IKEA, the assembling of furniture, a visit to Matt, and dinner with Sierra.  It was a rather eventful day.

Eric and I are living in the Castro Haight, which seems to be an awesome neighborhood, though I haven’t had much time to explore yet.  My first impression of San Francisco is that it’s an awesome town, with plenty to see and do.  What’s exciting me the most now, though, is my settlement in one place for an extended period of time.  I’ve mentioned before how drained I have been from hopping around Europe, Los Angeles, Cape Cod, and China; I am so, so happy to be staying in one place for a long time — to not have to pack and unpack my life.

Hello, San Francisco, you have much exploring to be host to.

Holy shit this thing is awesome.

Time does a really good job explaining the current financial crisis.  My favorite quote:

When greed exceeds fear, trouble follows.

Thank you, greedy bankers, for making tax payers pay for your bull shit.  As if the war wasn’t enough reason to pay taxes.  We all really appreciate it.

My dad sent along this interesting video, so I thought I would share it.  A fellow POW of John McCain shares his political opinions.

I know a lot of you know Jim, so I thought I would announce his new blog:  Jim George.  His other blog, INTelegance is purely technical and artistic; his new blog will be focused on personal experiences.  He’ll continue the Shanghai stories once I’ve left.