That wasn't me. I didn't start the fire either

I think this video has been pulled from YouTube, but in case you're looking, "Here Comes Another Bubble" is amusing and features my fave Valleywagger.



Note that I would like to credit Lane Hartwell aka Flickr's "fetching" for his gorgeous pic of said Valleywagger. See his Flickr post on it here.

Our lil LOLcat

Ok, this isn't going to become a LOLcat blog, but SA made this to celebrate our own fusacat, Monkey. She does seem like she's a little embarrased about something doesn't she? :) And what's up with that leg sticking straight out?

Dune-cat!

LOL cat of the day. I just couldn't resist.

Pumpkin Party - Street Fair of the Week Part Deux

I love the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival. In case you need convincing...Giant pumpkins? (and by giant, I mean 1,524 lbs.) Pumpkin carving? A pie eating contest?? Plus my favorite giant turkey legs and the aforementioned fried things on sticks. And it marks the beginning of my favorite time of year. Fall in the Bay Area is crisp and sunny and well-dressed.

What's not to like? Oh yeah--except getting there. The traffic into Half Moon Bay is ridiculous. Two years ago we rode our bikes instead. Traffic signs said the drive from the 280 junction would take 3 HOURS. We made it in just under an hour. That's a reason to kick the car habit if I've ever heard one.

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival is this weekend, Oct 13-14, 9am-5pm on Main Street, USA :)

Happy pumpkin-ing.

Such Great (Bernal) Heights--Street Fair of the Week

As you know, I do love a street fair. And my new hood wins the Street Fair of the Week prize, since it's the most neighborhood-ey of all hoods. A place in SF where people actually introduce themselves and get to know their neighbors. Don't believe me? Fiesta on the Hill is a good example. It's held by the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center (pretty sure there isn't a Pacific Heights neighborhood center) which seems to be the core of the community.

I'm looking forward to the 3 F's: Food, Fun and Fried things. Plus the Bernal Fiesta promises 3 P's too: "Pony Rides, a Petting Zoo, and pumpkin patch"!

Bernal Heights Fiesta on the Hill is Sunday Oct 21 from 11am to 6pm. Cortland is closed to car traffic during the fair.

See you in the hood.

I Heart American Express

So I called the American Express number on the Gizmodo post thinking I would at least try to get a rebate on my iPhone due to the price drop. The rep was nice enough taking my info but when he realized that I had a 4G he said, "Sorry, we're not processing claims for the 4G because it's been discontinued." (Ouch.) Since he was apologetic about it I said thanks anyway and seethed at Apple some more.

That was almost a month ago. And I didn't think any more about it, especially since I was starting to feel okay about my $100 credit from Apple--more Apple shopping, how can I refuse? (Though could they finally ship that new thin bluetooth wireless keyboard?!? WTF?)

And then yesterday I get a letter in the mail from AmEx saying:

"Thank you for choosing to use your American Express Card for your purchases. Your recent claim with American Express does not fall within the normal terms and provisions of the Purchase Protection Plan. However, as we very much value and appreciate your Cardmembership with American Express, we have approved your claim as an exception to the program guidelines. Your payment of $100.00 has been processed as a credit to your American Express Account..."

And my account now reflects the following:


Holy crap! American Express is now my favorite company of all time. The letter makes it clear that this is not something they have to do. Just something they are doing because they are awesome. I have to agree. Goodwill indeed.

Thanks AmEx!

Tour for Woodside - B+

Probably should call this route Tour of 280 instead of Tour for Woodside. We crossed the highway 9 times in a kind of cloverleaf pattern. I did the 55 mile ride, but there is a century. I did make it up Kings Mountain Road for the first time. Woot. Four miles up and what felt like 20 switchbacks. According to this site, the max grade is 16%. My Garmin wigged out so I don't have max grade, but you can check out the rest of the ride profile data at Motion Based.

Rate-a-Ride #1
Decided I'm going to start rating these rides for posterity and Tour for Woodside gets to be my first victim. Definitely one we'll do again. 800 riders and this is their 2nd year. Good food, great support--cheering high school kids and rest stops were themed with big races (Tour of California, Vuelta a Espana, Giro di Italia) and they even wrote chalk names on the pavement :) Route was well-marked (though there are so many charity rides down there they are going to run out of colors--we saw old arrows from Bike4Breath, Stop, Drop & Roll and Tour de Peninsula). Route sheet was good, with accurate mileage, though there were a few spots where streets changed names that weren't indicated on the sheet, which made the descent on Skyline a little scary cuz I was afraid we took a wrong turn.) BBQ highlights included spicy and not spicy chicken, Nutter Butters, two kinds of salad. No ice cream :(. Points taken off because at registration in the morning, there was free espresso but no jugs of water or Gatorade to fill up bottles. huh? Well, I guess that's Woodside.

Check out me and Ed celebrating (?) at the top of Kings Mountain Road.

Street Festival of the Week

Another street festival in one of my fave neighborhoods.

Heart of Cole festival is this Sunday, 10am to 6pm and includes a celebration of local women authors, hosted by the aforementioned local bookstore, Booksmith.

If you go, public transportation or bikes are key. Because riding is good and parking in Cole Valley is not.

Bikes+Movies

SF's Bicycle Film Fest starts tomorrow. Must restrain impulse to tattoo my calves...

i-Pwnd

SA accurately characterized the effed up iPhone price drop today, saying I'd been "ipwnd". True. True.

Clearly I am one of the sad suckers just a little (maybe a lot) miffed that Apple dropped the price on 8G iPhones by $200. It has also not escaped my attention that not only is the 8G now $100 less than my 4G, but the phone I waited in line for (a mere 30 minutes but it's the principle, dammit) is now obsolete just 2 months after I bought it AND is on CLEARANCE for $299 at the Apple Store. So now I have an obsolete phone, am out $200 and am the object of ridicule by my "I told you so" friends who think early adoption is stupid. Thanks Apple.

Also - Am I the only one that thinks the open letter from Steve Jobs sounds like it was written by Fake Steve (only just the part where it's obsequious and arrogant and not the part where it's entertaining and hysterical)?

Oh yeah, and $100 credit from the Apple Store? That would make me feel better if it weren't clearly a backpeddle and it didn't mean that it would just be feeding what's clearly become an Apple addiction I need to break. Not that I won't take it. I mean, I acknowledge I'm hooked, folks. I can't believe I didn't see their drug dealer tactics before now. Only the first hit wasn't free. It was $499.
< /rant>

But dammit, that phone is still so pretty. Sigh.

Ch-Check it Out

Rediscovering the Beastie Boys (for like the 4th time) after an amazing concert at the Greek Theater in Berkeley last night. One of the best groups in concert of all time--still relevant and fun after 20 years. And check out Mixmaster Mike on the big screen, still mixing it up (taken with my iPhone).

Chillin wit the Father of Cyberpunk

Tonight I had the dubious honor of being the first to show William Gibson an iPhone. Just after the photo above was taken (with said phone) he asked if he could see the screen because he'd never seen one before. eh? Seems like a lost opportunity Apple PR...

Anyhow, Gibson was in the Haight at a bookreading for his new book Spook Country hosted by Booksmith (a great bookstore that has hosted many enjoyable author-fete's I have attended in the past, including the Bruce Campbell nerdfest extraordinaire, Robert Jordan, J. otto Seibold, and a rousing no-limit hold-em tournament with James McManus in which I eliminated the author with 3 queens :)

The father of cyberpunk discussed his views on time travel (he doesn't believe in it), canada (apparently he's often mortified at the reaction people who look like americans have to america), technology (he thinks of it more as how to grow and store grain to sustain a city than shiny silver objects you bring home from Future Shop).

He also name-dropped, mentioning Cory Doctorow, Bruce Sterling and Douglas Coupland as friends. I guess I assumed they were all friends, but it's weird to actually hear it acknowledged.

The most interesting quote of the evening? When asked if he found inspiration for his books in current events he said no. That his inspiration wasn't that linear. That he "sits down and invites the zeitgeist in for tea" and then sees what happens.

I think I'll try inviting in the zeitgeist myself. You never know what might happen.

Come for the food, music--Beware naked hipsters

Intrigued by the Bicycle Music Fest this weekend. Should give me a good reason to (finally) check out the Alemany Farmers Market that everyone can't stop saying is the best in the City (and claims it is the most successful operated market in the United States.)

Although this scares me:
4:00 pm
@ Dolores Park
It's the summer, it's Dolores, you have nice cycling legs. You and I know that means naked time.

Naked time is scary. Naked hipsters are even scarier. MW says, "Naked hipster must mean only ironic shirts, white belts, manpri's and stylish shoes. no fanci jackets." (heh)

Not sure if I'm hipster enough, but maybe I'll check it out. With clothes. (I knew you were worried.)

Twitter-spiracy

Starting to think that Twitter is sabotaging fixing Twitter IM because they're getting kick-backs from the carriers.

Moons over Marin

Every month during the full moon, the Point Bonita lighthouse is open to the public until 10pm, much later than the usual 3:30 pm, so you can experience both the sunset over the water and the moonrise over the City. It's hard to take a bad picture. Flickr set available here.

MW's photo of the moon over the bridge is gorgeous.

Wherefore art thou RSS? Sidekick 3 vs iPhone

RSS (along with IM) has to be the killer app for mobile. And yet neither of my fancy tech phones has an RSS reader. WTF??

I may be one of those rare birds that currently owns both a Sidekick 3 and an iPhone. The circumstances around this are convoluted, but it gives me a unique perspective on how the two phones are different and how they are the same.

I have lots to say about this in later posts, but only a minute now. So here's my rant on the list of high priority features that I sorely need on the iPhone in order to keep it.

- Better email management. More specifically, a way to delete multiple emails at once or purge the whole mailbox. I get hundreds of emails a day and deleting every spam one by one is tedious. Having to do it with two clicks or more is downright mindnumbing. Makes me want to throw that gorgeous screen into the street.
- RSS (see above). Snippets of news? Quick reading that's easy to consume and carry around? Nah. I wouldn't want that on a mobile device. < / sarcasm >
- IM (see above.) I think this is the best app on the Sidekick--which supports YIM, IM and MSN by the way and has the best keyboard in the business--and the lack of even an iChat client is surprising. I have to think it will be remedied asap.

Not a requirement, but a duh: More ringtones on the iPhone! My music as ringtones! It's a music player people.

Finally, my iPhone crashes. A lot. It fails gracefully, just going back to the main screen, so that I almost didn't notice until it started happening within 30 seconds of starting any application besides phone. I've done a hard restart but it still happens, if a little less often. Seems to be particularly unhappy with resizing browser and email. (FYI folks--hard restart is hold the home button and the sleep button until the apple screen comes up.)

It's a good thing this thing is so effing beautiful.

Oh and T-Mobile? Are you listening? Let me repeat again--RSS! Say it back with me--RSS.

More later.

UPDATE: It was just pointed out to me that my post might be biased and that besides saying how pretty it is (have I said how pretty it is?? :) I didn't say anything else good about the iPhone. Believe me, there are things great about it. But I was just checking out Gavin's post on the activation process and wanted to say this. It truly was the best cell phone buying experience EVER. Including the 30+ minute wait in line. Activation over the Web was simple, clean and (for me) instantaneous. I put in my AT&T number + password and my iTunes password and boom. It just worked.

If I have my way I am never going to buy a phone from a cell phone store again. Never.

Blogging the iLine from my Sidekick 3

Day 4 of iPhone mania. The iPhone store San Francisco opens at 9am for the faithful. I decide to try my luck even though the line is nearly a block long and I have a conference call at 10am…

----------------------- 9:04 am -----------------------
colornoun: Guy at the end of iphone line has hanso foundation shirt on
mw: Sweet!
mw: Dork
colornoun: Totally
colornoun: In the line, but only waiting until 930
mw: Heheh
colornoun: :)
colornoun: Already 10 more peeps behind me
colornoun: Don't these peeps have jobs?
mw: I knew it!
mw: Good luck
mw: Is line around block?
mw: Yow!
mw: Yeh! Wtf!
colornoun: Nah. They let about 40 in already so I in front of Benetton
mw: Good good
----------------------- 9:14 am -----------------------
colornoun: Nice! Hanso guy just got out of line. One less between me and iphone
mw: Coo
mw: He couldn't afford it anyway
mw: How far now?
colornoun: Still in front of benetton. About 2 feet farther
colornoun: Ohh moving!
colornoun: Now in front of aix
mw: Ooh so close
colornoun: Some guy just walked by and recognized someone in the line and said he already had one. Everyone in the line was prolly thinking "dick!"
mw: Heh you blogging that?
colornoun: duh
colornoun: Some guy just walked by and handed me a sticker for some iphone app
colornoun: Mens warehouse!
mw: Oh excellent
mw: 10am call probably isn't actually that important anyhow
colornoun: Ha
colornoun: Just outside door!
colornoun: Sounds like 8G gone :(
----------------------- 9:24 am -----------------------
colornoun: Should I hold out?
mw: oooh. dilemma!
mw: Tough call, get it now or hold out
colornoun: I know
mw: $100 cheaper, but same capacity as your nano
mw: Who knows when 8gb avail. I'm guessing you'll get it
mw: But remember, according to guy at at&t 3g comes out today :-p
colornoun: Ha
colornoun: What should I do???
colornoun: Almost inside!
mw: See what return policy is like
mw: You could always get it now.
mw: If you need more space sell it and get 8gb when plentiful
colornoun: Hmm...true
mw: You'll probably be out 50 bucks
colornoun: Argh! Might have 2 bail anyway soon
mw: Oh no!
colornoun: Ack! They're "running low!"
mw: You can cab to office
mw: Or bart
colornoun: Yeah
colornoun: U r enabler!
mw: Thpt
mw: I find solutions!
colornoun: Hee hee
mw: How far!?
colornoun: 3 people outside door!
colornoun: This is killing me!
----------------------- 9:34 am -----------------------
mw: Heh you could get last one!
colornoun: Inside!
mw: Ooh!
mw: Sweet rarified jobsian air!
colornoun: Thpt!
----------------------- 9:39 am -----------------------
colornoun: @ register!
mw: Ooh, so many fanboys want to be you now
----------------------- 9:43 am -----------------------
colornoun: Got it!
colornoun: 17 min to conference call!
mw: Ooh
mw: I touch your blessed multi touch capable fingers
----------------------- 9:52 am -----------------------
colornoun: Ha
colornoun: Ack! Got on wrong muni!
colornoun: All turned around from iphone!
---------------------- 10:02 am ----------------------
colornoun: Made it! iLine to work in less than 62 minutes
colornoun: Client not even on conf call yet
colornoun: phew. :)

Blogged from my trusty Sidekick 3. ☺

UPDATE: Wow. That was an easy setup. I may never buy a phone from a carrier again. Then again, everyone else seems to be thinking the same thing. It's loverly even though EDGE is down and widgets are sad :( SA says that it's like the luke in his x-wing taking out the deathstar of AT&T

Party in tha Hood

Fillmore St. Jazz Festival is this weekend (6/30 and 7/1). It's the largest free Jazz festival on the West Coast and it's in my hood. I'm a sucker for a street fair and this one is one of the swankiest, with good music, art and street food, which usually includes fried things on sticks and giant turkey legs. Yum. All that within 2 blocks of my place means I'll be there. And if I lived any farther away I'd ride, cuz SFBC will be there to babysit bikes with valet bike parking. Love that bike coalition.

Festivities are 10am-6pm both Saturday and Sunday.

The new new thing in social networking - toilets

Mizpee is the best web 2.0/mobile idea I've ever heard. It's either brilliant or an SNL sketch (if SNL was funny or tech-savvy at all). As a woman who's run around Manhattan desperately looking for a clean bathroom I can understand the draw.

SA says they should start a social toilet network, eventually it would turn into a dating service and then porn and then profit.

I think they should do some kind of deal with Web 1.0 co Spinner.com founder Dave Samuel's company Brondell. MizPee could point to all the Brondell toilets as a VIP service. As Samuel told USA Today, "Once you experience sitting on a warm toilet and having a warm water wash, there's no going back."

I guess after that whole Bubble thing we all feel a bit unwashed.

Why is the MizPee favicon a feather??

UPDATE: Apparently the feather is an Apache default. I like to think there's some kind of karma working there.

Riding in Paradise sans GPS

Great day riding Paradise Loop today. Unfortunately, for the second time my Garmin locked up and I couldn't record the ride. For posterity, here's the solution:

Garmin has identified a bug in some new Forerunner and Edge units (205 and 305) that cause them to lock up after a full charge. Here’s a temporary fix until the next software update:

“To power the unit back on, press the “Mode” and “Reset” buttons at the same time. Let go of those two buttons, press the power button, and the unit will turn back on.”

Meyer Lemon Napoleon Dynamite

Dinner in the Fremont district in Seattle. 35th Street Bistro mmmmm. The meyer lemon napoleon is to die for, plus the cheese collage was probably the best and most beautifully presented cheese plate ever. Delicious.

Why piracy wins

No matter what we TV fans do, we still get shafted. I'm not an American Idol fan, but I can so relate to the frustration anyone watching a DVR-recorded version must have had last night when they missed the climax of the season due to the show running just a bit too long. Add to this the crappy software on the Comcast DVR and 10% of the time I don't get the recordings I've paid for (every month to Comcast and the cost of the Tivo box and lifetime service--yes we have both).

And even with all this recording paraphernalia, I've still had to look elsewhere from missing as little as the last crucial 30 seconds of the Gilmore Girls (2005 season finale! and not available anywhere for legal download), Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Heroes, ER (NBC is the worst culprit!).

Folks please...we WANT the content. You suck us in with your serialized dramas and then kill us with mis-timed programming (or cancelling brilliance, but that's another post). Only a subset of those shows are available for download. I would gladly pay for them (and have). ABC's online streaming is all well and good but a pain in the ass if I only missed the last 2 minutes of the show.

Give me the choice.

Rant over. Bleh.

Twitter is the new finger

Two thoughts for the day.

1. If all the Bubble 1.0 companies were ColorNoun, all the Web 2.0 companies are sillyverb or even suggestiveverb. Twitter, Flickr...people even conjugate MySpace. They all want to be google. I've just registered suggestiveverb.com to go with colornoun.com. It's a matched set.

2. Twitter sucks if you have no friends.

I didn't say they would be profound thoughts.

Witty banter dies another death

Why can't my shows get a break? "Cult" show status seems to mean "on the brink of death." Today the CW killed Veronica Mars. Another quality show with strong female characters bites the dust. What's left for a girl to watch?

One of the best things you can do outdoors in the City

Film in the Park Night starts this Saturday. Here's the lineup:

Saturday, 5/19,THE GRADUATE @ Washington Sq. Park, 8:00 PM, Presented with Telegraph Hill Dwellers
Saturday, 6/2, HAIRSPRAY @ Dolores Park, 8:00 PM
Saturday, 6/30, CASABLANCA @ Union Square, 8:00 PM
Saturday, 7/21,SIXTEEN CANDLES @ Dolores Park, 8:00 PM
Saturday, 8/4, ANNIE HALL @ Union Square, 8:00 PM
Saturday, 8/25,8 1/2 @ Washington Sq. Park, 8:00 PM, Presented with Telegraph Hill Dwellers (In Italian w/subtitles)
Saturday, 9/15, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE @ Union Square, 8:00 PM
Saturday, 10/06, SUNSET BOULEVARD @ Dolores Park, 8:00 PM

Wine Country Shoulder Injury

Made it 68 miles.

2 miles before the rest stop my helmet did its job. I got to keep my brain and walked away with a sprained shoulder and minor road rash.

I can say that I got up and powered the 2 miles to lunch before I sagged in. Next time I'll hit that 100 miles. At least it was a beautiful ride.

A Sad Sad Day

The snarky wit will be no more. Gilmore Girls is done.

Think I might plan a biking trip to the series of tubes

SA says XKCD is the funniest comic on the Web. Today's is a map of online communities.

Hello world