Concepts in the Paradox

Even with three of my friends helping, moving into my new place took for ever, plus it was 2 trips in the uHaul to get everything. I ended up with a couple of losses in the process, the first being my pink sofa (anyone want a pink sofa?) and my box spring (uh, need a box spring?). I need to make a shopping list, because I’m throwing out so much old stuff and I want new stuff. For example, a sofa would be nice. Perhaps some sort of move-able wall to partition the front room for the rack. The front room is turning out to be much larger than I expected, same with the bedroom. More shelves would be nice, who ever made this place made tiny closets without shelves! I need a dish drying rack: no dishwasher! I’m thinking about getting an Areon chair for the office too.

I have Comcast cable for the moment, 6mb by 286k/b, for those in the know. The computers aren’t setup yet, just the laptop. I’m still debating on where everything should go. At the moment I’m putting them in the bedroom, but I have so much space in the front room I could put it there and just leave the backdrop of Market & Mason for what is behind my computer.

The car needs to go somewhere. I’m 2 miles away from where I can park my car, and there is a Cityshare spot (a Civic Hybrid! with a bike rack!) not 20 feet outside my door, and a Budget up the street. The no-car idea is as strong as ever.

Speaking of getting rid of stuff, I have oh so much more to throw out. As I unpack, I think to myself, “Why did I bring this?”

And then I think, “Why not just get new stuff, something nice, since you have the money to do so now?”

House warming soon. Maybe when I have places for people to sit other than the floor or my two wooden dining room chairs?

You Belong in San Francisco

You crave an eclectic, urban environment. You’re half California, half NYC. You’re open minded, tolerant, and secretly think you’re the best. People may dismiss you as a hippie, but you’re also progressive, interesting, and rich!

In movings news, I’ve topped 40 boxes, and my pile o’ crap takes up a quarter of my bedroom now. Going off line for a few days, since it is time to pack up the ‘ol iMac and Linux box, so see ya kids around!

The stack of boxes keeps growing!

Pile ‘o crap:

After some phone calls and emails with sales and support, I managed to get my site at work enrolled in the Xen Enterprise closed beta. This means I’ll get support for free during the beta, and I’ll be a leg up come release time. They ask 10 hours a week, my work-allocated time to VT research, plus a 45 minute phone call at the end of the week. My boss was pretty happy about it, and I’m pretty happy about it, because I really think this Xen stuff will take off. Open source + Hypervisor = past and future for computing.

Target:

SLES9 x86-64 on Sun Fire x4200. This is their officially supported version, so this works for me. Later I plan to move to Pacifica when it becomes available from Sun.

Hi Muni. I see you are 20 minutes late to our outing, as usual.

38L, GEARY LIMITED, TO TRANSBAY TERMINAL.

Listen, I know we’ve been having some fights, and well…

NEXT STOP: FILLMORE

You do a pretty poor job at keeping yourself clean…

NEXT STOP: LAGUNA

…and I don’t know about all these strangers you pick up.

NEXT STOP: O’FARRELL AND VAN NESS

I guess what I’m trying to say is… sigh.

EATING, DRINKING, AND SMOKING ARE PROHIBITED ON ALL TRANSIT VEHICLES

Then there are your issues with food and a good smoke. I just don’t think we are on the same page.

NEXT STOP: JONES — TAYLOR

I’ve been seeing someone else. I thought this was the best time to tell you.

A MUNI SECURITY REMINDER: ON CROWDED BUSES, ALWAYS PROTECT PURSES AND WALLETS.

I think I’m just going to see BART exclusively for a while. We can still be friends, okay?

*DONG DONG* PLEASE EXIT THROUGH THE REAR DOORS

Don’t be mad. I know we see each other every day now, but maybe we need some distance.

LAST STOP: POWELL

Goodbye Muni. I have your FastPass if I need you get ahold of you.

THANK YOU FOR RIDING MUNI.

I’m moving. Not away from San Francisco, of course, but closer to downtown. I’m moving to the east edge of the Tenderloin, near Union Square. I found a nice penthouse apartment for just a little more than what I’m paying now for my Pac. Heights place. I ink the deal Saturday.

Features:

• Ninth floor private entrance

• Hardwood floors in main room
• New kitchen (no d/w though)
• New bathroom
• View of SoMA and the Mission
• I won’t have to take Muni to work any more. That’s right, F* YOU Muni.

Oh, and it has a shared deck on the opposite side of my unit.

Photos coming soon!

Just a heads-up to all my readers, I’m moving this blog over to Wordpress in the coming days, mainly because Wordpress is much better at comment spam than Newbruiser. Also, while I like keeping my entries in plaintext, using a database scales better. The site is getting pretty darn slow these days.

I like how I can take a girl on the bus during a date, and it is considered superior to picking her up in my car or calling a cab. Also, 38-Geary is like paying for a $1.50 movie, but more interactive.

I like how I can say “meet me at 24th street Bart” and that is also considered normal. Meeting at train stations is my idea romantic.

Anyway, meet me at Powell station near the cable car turn-around.

When I walked into my polling place at 1845 Ellis St, I thought there would be a line at the door to vote in this year’s primary election. There were issues to vote on, important ones, like eviction notification, the transbay terminal, and a reduction in city violence.

When I voted at 5:50pm tonight, there had only been 125 people before me. In the great city of San Francisco, in Western Addition / Lower Pacific Heights, there were only 125 people interested in city politics? I can only hope there are tons of absentee ballots out there, or the voter rush was between 6pm and 8pm.

The door opened, and everyone in the elevator was laughing. I stepped in, and listened in to find out what was so amusing.

“14 you say?!” one woman said.

“Yes, just 14, can you believe it?” another man responded.

“Wow, 14!”, another man said, and then another round of laughing.

“I just can’t imagine, you know, 14.” the woman reiterated.

The door opened to my floor, and as I exited I tried to make one more attempt to figure out what this mysterious “14″ related to.

Alas, as the door closed all I heard was “Man… 14. Geez”.

I had a sleeping buddy on the bus ride home. Shortly after getting on at Market, an early-30’s professional woman took a seat next to me. Short hair, too much makeup, Kaki pants, a business coat, white blouse, and a leather purse, she looked like she did some sort of middle management, or some other mind-numbing career in the financial district. I was too engrossed in my book, Rats, hoping to finish the last chapter during my 14 minute ride home to notice this woman had completely fallen asleep.

I didn’t take notice until her head was resting gently on my shoulder, the slightest dab of sleepy drool oozing from her lip. The bus would hit a bump, take a turn, or make a classic Muni “Gas+brake” maneuver, and she’d nod awake for a second, try to rest her face in her palm in a manner that looked like she was deep in thought, then fall right back over onto my shoulder. I thought about waking her, but the ring on her finger looked like more than a year of my pay, so I just elected to enjoy a sleepy traveler using me as a pillow.

Late last night at the Cat Club, I saw this guy dancing about wearing a “38 / Geary” tshirt. For the uninitiated, the “38 Geary to Transbay Terminal” is the bus line I take almost every single day. Yes, I broke up with Muni, but damnit if I didn’t like that Tshirt, and yeah, I’m still using Muni. I’m ashamed: Ask me to show you my Fastpass.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Rumor has it that there is a shop on Irving and 19th that sells similar tshirts, so I don’t have to get the awful white shirts that Cafepress only offers.