Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Okay, I know the weather has been crappy back east...I don't mean to post this to make fun (well, not much anyway), but to give you something to look forward to when the weather DOES get better. Well, that, and I'm having way too much fun with my new camera. :)



View of Justin Herman Plaza at the foot of Market Street, as seen from the front of the Ferry Building. Taken 3/8/08.

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See those two colorful birds? Those are the famous (and LOUD) parrots of Telegraph Hill. The li'l guy perched on the corner was yelling at another one across the street. Not quite sure why. Taken same day, looking up against the facade of the Ferry Building.

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...and this is said Telegraph Hill, with Coit Tower. Yes, those are buildings on the side of the hill. Yes, they are actually only accessible via walkway and not drivable road. And yes, that tower, is supposed to look like a firehose nozzle (it's dedicated to local firemen). Taken same day, near the corner of Broadway and the Embarcadero. We live on the other side of said hill.

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Another shot of the hill, this time viewed from Pier 39 (as noticed by the top corner of the pier's parking garage). I kinda like how this one came out. Taken 3/2/08.

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Say it with me now..."Mmmm, coffee...." :)
This is a tiny coffeehouse in downtown Half Moon Bay that has some pretty damn tasty joe. Taken 3/1/08 on our HMB/Pescadero roadtrip.

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And lastly, Duarte's Tavern in downtown Pescadero (for those of you in MA, Pescadero = Shutesbury, for the most part. ;) ). They make some damn fine and very filling food, and some pretty tasty olallieberry pie. If any of you decide to visit us out here, I promise I will drive you to Duarte's so we can buy some. :)

Okay, so due to the fact that we've been checking out a few cons (Stitches and WonderCon) this weekend, and then watching multiple episodes from the Naruto Uncut dvds, I've been lax on the writing. Not that I'm frustrated or annoyed. I have to force myself to have days off now and again, actually...

Anyway, this weekend has been a wet one, since it's been raining sunny raining cloudy RAINING over the past few days, and I've been fighting off a cold that I probably caught from a coworker last week, so we're most likely going to be hanging in the apartment for most of the day. Emm has some work to do, as do I, so we'll keep ourselves busy. I have some chapters I want to attempt to finish off (I'm a little behind on LLB so that one may not be finished...but ADOS Chapter 2 is very close to done). Plus I want to play around with some ideas for the New Project. And perhaps look into a few freelance things I saw on craigslist a few days previous.

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Other than that, I have to say my MusicMatch has mysteriously disappeared. Or should I say that a particular component has disappeared, so I'm unable to run it. So, after much frustration (and a very long and strong love/hate relationship with it), I'm going to back away and try something else, just for now. I downloaded MediaMonkey to give it another try. I would need to tweak it a little bit to get it to work how I want, but for the most part it's not that bad. Still in the market for a MusicMatch-style player, though. Will see how it works out.

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I'll work on that promised RTS article about "classic hits" sometime today as well. Quite possibly after I finish off my coffee, take a shower, and finish up a few other things. :)

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I had a weird idea while showering the other day...I was thinking about how one would go about setting up a wiki online. More specifically, a discography wiki. Even more specifically, a discography wiki that's more streamlined and less multi-country than Discogs, and more along the lines of a rather good listing as on Wikipedia (I think Depeche Mode's listing on Wikipedia is a really good and thorough example). And, perhaps in an interesting twist, being able to look up release dates and seeing what came out on a certain day. That would of course entail some pretty serious research, especially when it predates the Tuesday Release Day setup...but still, it would be a fun thing to put together. Perhaps when I have WAY too much time on my hands, I'll start it...

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Okay, I have to ask--anyone watch the two Naruto episodes last night? If so, is it just me, or were the two large sumo-looking guys come straight out of either One Piece or Teen Titans, and have the voice of Chip and Skip from Camp Lazlo?? I know Part I of the series is essentially over and they're doing a number of filler episodes before Naruto: Shippuden starts, but this is a rather weird way of starting them...

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Okay, that's it for now...more with the RTS article later...

From today's SFGate article about last night's 5.6 earthquake:

Guitarist A.J. Flores was at his San Jose home playing with his band when the quake hit. A lamp and guitar fell over amid the shaking.

"Yeah, man, we thought we were really rocking out," Flores said, adding that the musicians quickly realized it was an earthquake and not their Metallica cover song that caused the ruckus.

Best. Quote. EVAR.

North Beach declared one of 10 best U.S. neighborhoods

(and here's the original Great Places site, if the SFGate link goes kerflooey)

the North Beach Great Places link (btw, the top right pic on in the blue section is NOT North Beach, btw...how do I know? Because it's actually Market Street, down near where I work. D'OH!)



Our neighborhood is the shiznit, yo!




Oh, and one for the Smithies and Pioneer Valley people:
Great Street: Main Street, Northampton, MA