San Francisco - Continued.

Pictures.

So we went to Alcatraz today. There's an interesting story to go with that. We drove down the Embarcadero to Fishermans Wharf, and parked in a ridiculously expensive parking lot ($6/hr). We then proceed to the pier, only to find out that you need to book tickets through the phone, since all other tickets are sold out. It is then that we're approached by two men looking to sell two tickets (they say that they had a big family outing, and had two extras). We agree, and pay them. Then, while standing in line, I realize that they're child tickets. Panic ensues. I've never been ripped off by a scalper before. We go to the ticket booth trying to "upgrade". No dice, we need to find the original buyers so they can nullify the ticket on their credit card, and then we can buy them. Luckily, the boat hasn't started loading yet, and we actually find the sellers at the very beginning of the line. They weren't kidding, they had about 20 people at the beginning of the line (all their family). It turns out that they just gave us the wrong tickets, so we weren't ripped off after all.

Alcatraz is pretty cool, especially with all the broken down buildings and stuff. Famous inmates: Al Capone, Robert Stroud (the Birdman).

Today we drove back. The trip started off fine, but it began misting and raining hard in Oregon. By the time we got near Portland, the traffic all of a sudden grounded to a halt. After about 30 minutes of bumper to bumper traffic averaging 5-10 mph, we finally see the cause. An accident that completely closed down the southbound lane (we were northbound, so we were at least moving, they were redirecting all southbound traffic back north). I later found out that at least three people died in that accident.

But we made it back safely.

I may make a post about design failures with our rental Cavalier.

We arrived safely in San Francisco last night, after an 18 hour drive that started at 11:30 the previous night. Why did we take so long? Well, we took the scenic route. We cut across from Eugene, Oregon, to Hwy 101, and then split off onto Hwy 1 in California. The 101 was single lane for a little bit, and two wide split freeway for the rest, but the 1 was single lane winding cliffside and mountainside all the way. I figure that we spent about 6 hours driving that stretch alone, even though it would have take about 2-3 normally.

Scary parts of the trip:

1.) Driving through dense fog at midnight, being able to see only about 3 stripes ahead of you.

2.) Driving along the cliffs with a narrow lane, thinking if your brakes failed, you're going to die.

3.) Seeing the truck directly in front of us hit an elk. It COULD HAVE BEEN US! The front of the truck was pretty banged up. Luckily, the passengers were okay, unfortunately, the elk was dead. You could see the blood pouring from the truck's front end. The elk just jumped out into the middle of the road, and everyone slammed on their brakes, but the truck was just too close, and pieces of the headlight and front fender went flying, along with the elk, which did a 360 in midair, and landed on the side of the road. Surprising part of the story - I was the only car that stopped to see if they were okay, everyone else just went along (I guess it's not that surprising, given we're in the states).

Today, we drove to Stanford, and then to Berkeley. There's a night and day difference between the two campuses. Stanford is gorgeous (if I get accepted into both, I may be tempted to go to Stanford on the basis of their campus alone, yes I am that superficial), there were large green spaces between the buildings, and they were all tan coloured (which brings about a sense of unity and coherence to the campus), and the place looked very clean. Berkeley is in the middle of Oakland, and their campus looks like the California version of Waterloo. It's a hodgepodge of different architectural styles, and some of them reeks of the 1970's, just like UW.

That's it so far (last night was a bust, since most clubs weren't open due to Thanksgiving). We might check out Alcatraz tomorrow.

This just seems a little too much.

The County of Los Angeles has requested that equipment vendors avoid using the industry term "Master/Slave" in product descriptions and labelling.

In case they didn't know, computers didn't exist back in the days of slavery (in North America), and this term probably didn't come into use until the late 50's or 60's at the earliest. There is no discriminatory notion associated with the term, and it wasn't carried forward from some archaic period of human history.

It seems clear to me that this is a case of political correctness gone too far.

Get off my desk.

Why do you lean on my desk, and make it shake, and make my monitor shake, when I'm sitting in front of it, trying to procrastinate, and you're not even conversing with me?

This one man always (and by always I mean at least on two separate occasions, and maybe others I have forced myself to forget) come into the big room that I work in, lean on my desk, while talking to someone else sitting in a chair.

There are other chairs around, go use one!

Eventually I'm going to put some thumb tacks face up on the edge of my desk.

I hurt all over.

I tried snowboarding for the first time yesterday. It was the opening weekend for a couple of the ski hills around. We got ready at 6:30, and headed out at 7am for Mt. Baker. It started snowing pretty hard when we got there, and at the top of the chair lift was a stiff breeze with snow blowing in your face.

This being my first time on a snowboard, I fell a lot. Both my face and on my butt. So as a result of the falling, and pushing myself up, my knees, thighs, upper back, triceps, wrists, and forearms are all extremely sore today, and I still don't know how to turn.

Toward the end of the day, the snow turned into a full blown blizzard. Riding the chair lift was a challenge, especially at the top of the hill, where the wind coming over the crest blasted any exposed skin with what felt like a thousand needle pricks, and covered my jacket with an inch of powdery snow as I came off the lift (and promptly fell on my ass).

When the lifts stopped, and we returned to the car, it was buried under six inches of freshly fallen snow, and needless to say, the drive down the mountain was slow and tedious.

Once I can walk, I'm sure I'll do it all over again.

We splurged big time last night.

In the traditional once a term money throwing fashion, we went to the Metropolitan Grill last night for dinner. Voted one of the top 10 in the US, and probably the best in the northwest, we couldn't resist the temptation.

Of course, one peek at the prices gives some indication that it's not in the top 10 because of its frugality. After much debating, I settled on a 16 oz. Prime New York Peppercorn Steak. The restaurant's resident wine connoisseur also tried to get us to order a $200 bottle of wine, but we settled for the $30 equivalent.

The steak was pretty amazing. Although afterwards I think I regret not ordering the Filet Mignon (amazing in a melt-in-your-mouth kind of way). After all was said and done, we dropped a lot of money. This is probably the single most expensive meal that I have personally paid for. Let's just say that it won't be happening again for a while (or at least until I get paid again).

Next up: San Francisco for the American Thanksgiving weekend. Who's coming?

The BBC lists 50 places to go before you die. So far, I'm 1 for 5 (3, 7, 9, 11, 15, 20, 22, 27, 35, 37).

Of course, they also have a list of 50 things to do before you die (although #3 is no longer possible) for which I'm also 1 for 5 (4 - but didn't see anything, 8, 10, 15, 16, 27 - what kind of experience?, 30 - the Hoh rainforest, 47, 48, 50 - at a zoo).

My favourite girl from the OC.

Of course, she's pretty too.

And did you know that Mischa Barton (Marissa) is the poisoned little girl in the Sixth Sense?

My life is a monotonous bore.

The party on Saturday went well (well enough considering the 16:2 male:female ratio). It was the first time we entertained people at our apartment this term. It seemed a little late, since we had people over all the time last term. People continually seem to be amazed at the size of our place, even though it's eclectically furnished in a hodgepodge of styles.

Cooking included a medley of dishes, ranging from masterfully presented, made-from-scratch hors d'oeuvre to store bought roasted chicken. Conversation ensued well into the night, with the last stragglers finally leaving before dawn.

Note to self: next time, make friends with someone who knows how to play the piano, so our baby grand doesn't go to waste.

Talk about bugs.

This one has to take the cake (scroll to the bottom of the page).

We're having a party at my swank Queen Anne apartment this Saturday. You're all invited.

I saw The Matrix: Revolutions last night.

So, the attack on Zion was a cool scene. And that was about it. I thought I wouldn't be a critic, since I normally like action movies for their mindless action sequences. But this one was mostly talk, and the talk didn't explain anything for me (like was Neo one of the 6 "the one's" chosen by the matrix? Where did his magical powers come from? The oracle's role ... etc.). All the other fight scenes didn't even fascinate me. Especially the last one between Neo and Smith. It just seemed like a couple of jets flying around in the rain (no where near the fight scenes in the first matrix, and the chase scene of the second).

But really, I thought it would explain more. It didn't really seem like a resolution for me.

The Embrio, Bombardier's answer to the Segway.

Yet another fine example of how the automotive industry abuses the spelling of normal English words.

BMG music, $6.99 cd's, no shipping, no handling.

Update: This was the message beside the checkbox for them spamming you (which was default checked, by the way)

Yes, send me email concerning my order plus any other BMG special promotions, sales and messages.

Very deceptive. If I uncheck it, does that mean they won't email me my order information either? It almost made me cancel my order.

There is also no order number given after checkout. Very sketchy.

Reading this slashdot thread made me realize how many Apple apologists there are out there.

Comments like use the hold because the touch butten is way to sensitive, or that the remote is NOT a complete waste of time is just beyond me. This is the third generation of iPods we're talking about. When you revamp something so many times, you'd figure at least they'd take some customer advice.

Things like short battery life, lack of directory browsing, that stupid remote, no built-in recording or FM, and that ugly shiny stainless steel makes the ipod look rushed, and not well thought out. It's kinda like forking over the dough for a BMW but finding out there's no leather, no stereo, and only comes in pink.

I bought an iPod because I thought it was the best one at the time. Now, I'm not so sure. Frankly, I think most people are buying the iPod for the "cool" factor (myself included), and not doing a complete cost/benefit analysis.

CBS dumps Reagan TV miniseries.

NBC planning on airing Saving Jessica Lynch.

I wonder which is going to be more based on facts.

Brilliant, a website where people point out broken designs.

Even the blackberry is there.

Maybe I should incluce my ipod comments.

Christine is an underwearaholic.

I've never really gotten the idea why one woud have so many different colours/varieties for underwear. Most of the time, they're hidden, so you can't see them (although some underwear may lead to panty-lines -- which as far as I understand is a huge problem for girls -- but you still can't see the colour). And when someone else gets to appreciate them, they're usually not going to be on you for very long.

There's really only two cases I can see for underwear variety: fashion shows, and strippers (Christine, is there something you're not telling us?). But then again, I may be more functional than most, and less aesthetic than some.

Got $540 (USD) burning a hole in your pocket?

Well, for only $45 a month, you can send the finest, "signature gourmet chocolate creations from world class chocolatiers" to your loved one.

You might also want to give them an exercise video or two to fight off the pounds.

Excerpt from Rich Girls, the new MTV reality show that follows around a couple of rich girls. Background - girls talking about how much Karma they must have gained in their previous lives to have their current life.

Jaime - You know, I have the same birthdate as Benjamin Franklin and Muhammad Ali, I could have been one of them.
Ally - Who?
Jaime - Benjamin Franklin, the one who invented the lightbulb.

Couple of things wrong here. First of all, Muhammad Ali is not dead, and definitely wasn't dead 18 years ago when the girls were born, so there's no way you can be him. Secondly, Benjamin Franklin did not invent the lightbulb (see history of lightbulbs here).

I guess they are lucky that they're rich.

Cancun, or Cuba?

Robin would be proud of me. We were sitting at a Irish pub Friday night, having dinner, and I identified one of the bands playing as Suede. I guess the Brit-pop influence is rubbing off on me.

Matt and I also went and saw 21 Dog Years, Doing Time @ Amazon.com. A one-man play by a former employee. He had a lot of bitter things to say about customer service (a dark labyrinthe with discordant sounds of human automatons answering the telephone, where everyone is tracked by metrics calculating how many customer issues they have resolved). But then again, I don't think that situation is particular to Amazon. It's also a play about him not selling out, not "waiting it out" until his stocks vest, not sitting in front of the monitor everyday with the stock ticker in the background.

I'm wondering if I should sell out.