Computer, Rain, New Favorite Book, Missile Shield

I bought a Sony Vaio. It had an issue with the screen's connection to the motherboard, so I got a new one yesterday. I just went in, found the most nervous person working there and demanded a new one. They gave it to me with no problems.

It's great.

It rained here this morning, a welcome change for me.

I'm reading a book right now that is just amazing. After 15 pages, I can see that I'm absolutely going to love it. "The Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac. What better setting than San Francisco, Berkeley and the Sierra Nevadas?

For people who think Angela Merkel and her CDU are a good thing, the party has decided to support the crackpot scheme of the US to build a missile shield in Poland/Czech Republic as a deterrant against Iran. They figure that will be the best way to build trust and show the West's unending and unblemished support of the Muslim people. Welcome to Cold War part 2, only this part is not quite so cold....

Current music: Great Society - Love You Girl

Shootings and Computers

So, apparently the shootings in the Western Addition are being caused by two rival gangs. When I walk to work, I walk between the two gangs' areas. I think it's fine, as long as I'm not out late. Apparently all the victims other than one 13 yr. old girl have been multiple felons with an average of 11 arrests between them. That seriously makes me feel a lot safer.

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=VGNFE880E/H

This is the laptop I want to buy from Sony.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wo/StoreReentry.wo?family=MacBook

This is the laptop I want to buy from Apple. The middle white one with an extra 40 GB of disk space added.

A shotgun?!

So, my co-workers and I leisurely walked over to Mason and Eddy, about 6 blocks east of my work building to enjoy some Indian food. We had discussed eating at "the vegetarian place" or at "gyro king", one of which is at Market and Larkin, 4 blocks south of my work. The other is 1 block from there, also 4 blocks from my work.

After finishing our food and walking the 6 blocks back past people openly smoking their crackpipes, we entered the building past security. A policeman came running up and told the security guard, "Watch out. Someone was just shot by a man with a shotgun at Market and Larkin. The shooter, a 6-foot black male, is running up Larkin in this direction, shotgun in hand."

We would have been on that corner, or walking back along that street, had we chosen differently.

Holy shit. A shotgun?!

Los Angeles

Well, everything in Los Angeles was fine. Downtown looks like a large version of Oakland's downtown. Poor and empty, but interesting. Also, here is the second largest city in the United States, one of the biggest urban areas in the world, and the businesses downtown are all in spanish. I found that to be kind of cool. Their Little Tokyo and Chinatown look like San Francisco's little brother.

When we were in Santa Monica, we saw this awful black cloud, and we were worried that our weekend was going to be ruined. It turned out that it was a cloud of smoke from a fire that two teenagers lit in the Hollywood Hills.

Hollywood was a lot of fun. We rode the subway from Hollywood and Highland to Hollywood and Vine. The cars looked just like the New York Subway that I've seen from movies. Our hotel in Hollywood was fine. The shopping area of Beverly Hills (Rodeo Dr., etc.) looked a little more like Disneyland than I thought it would.

Santa Monica was a lot dumpier than I thought it would be. Only the beach seemed nice. I liked Hermosa Beach a lot better. Santa Monica was a huge tourist trap.

West LA (around Westwood) was beautiful. Rich, but beautiful. The Sunset Strip was cool. I could live there. Actually, I could never afford it....

The drive home was horrible, because everyone was so impatient and dangerous and it was busy almost the whole way back to San Francisco.

Pat and Suzanne were a lot of fun. We went to Hermosa Beach for dinner. With Talia, we went to a really good Indian restaurant. Actually amazingly good. I think I'll have Indian for lunch actually. Yum.

All in all, Los Angeles was a lot of fun. It's hard to tell about a city just by visiting, but I think I could see myself living there. But, I'm only thinking in terms of transportation. I'd have to live and work on or near subway lines (which is getting better and better), but that would probably never happen.... San Francisco seems like a little village compared to LA. When we got back it was 10 o'clock and the city seemed empty.

Saturday, I'm going to a passover seder in San Jose. Exciting!

Politics of Neighborhood Naming and Plastic Bags

I found a couple of interesting articles. The first is about my neighborhood and the politics of neighborhood naming. Actually, it's about three neighborhoods. One is where the art museum is, on the other side of Market from downtown (South of Market, or SoMa). Another is the nightlife area near Agnieszka (Polk Village/Polk Gulch/Lower Nob Hill). The third is about my neighborhood (North Panhandle/NoPa/Anza Vista/Western Addition) and how it has related to its neighbor district, which starts accross the street from me (Western Addition/The Fillmore/Lower Pacific Heights). It's interesting, but less so if you are not interested in city planning or looking at maps, which I would recommend if you are not very familiar with the city.

It is from the San Francisco Apartment Association, and you'll have to copy it to the address bar in your browser, cuz I don't know how to make links work.

http://www.sfaa.org/magazine/archives/06/nov/0611.landes.html

The second is about how San Francisco is the first American city to ban plastic bags in supermarkets and drugstores. While I agree with the sentiment expressed by Ed Jew, I also think it's a good thing that should happen. Apparently, Ireland has already done this?! Well, anyway, enjoy!

This one is from today's Chronicle.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/28/MNGDROT5QN1.DTL

Current music: Big Brother and the Holding Company - Down on Me (Live at Winterland '68)