Have a look on the right

Started my tech blog back up. This time I am only going to be nice and complementary of companies…..yeah right.

Ugh….sick

I think you know….when kid gets sick there is at least a 50/50 chance you will as well.

I have been able to hold it off most of the year….until this past week. It has been awful. I had to fly out to Atlanta for work on Monday with a really bad cold. It was a really miserable experience.

I was feeling better by the time I got back on Wednesday but Mer is still recovering. We actually got out to the park this morning and she really had fun. Little bit of coughing right now as she is napping but the “big yellow” has pretty much stopped.

We had a great weekend last weekend. I think she is starting to get a real sense of humor. Seeing as we are going throught the potty training stage there is a lot of talk about bodily functions around the house. We are constantly talking about telling daddy when the potty is needed and about cleaning up accidents when we dont have the training pants up.

So we went to the Zoo last weekend as I knew the weather was going to be great and it was. We were hanging out watching the elephants when one needed to relieve himself. “Daddy the elephant went pee pee. We need to clean it up. We need a lot of towels.” Followed by some really big laughs on both of our parts.

I love my girl so much.

Normally a tech post…but I need to vent

Chargers. Ugh. I have too many of them.

Are we ever going to fix this?

If you are a techie gadget geek like me you know what I am talking about. I am really glad that they came up with the “octopus” charger but I wish they could be combined somehow.

Is your desk like mine? I wired in an extra electrical circuit for the odd occasion where everything is running….but other than that….think about it.

I keep all of the gadgets on my desk.

I know there are too many but what do we do?

Lets start here:

Cell Phones – I have 3 of them. 1 for personal, 1 for work, and 1 for data only. Guess how many chargers? Yup 3 of them. How about we base everything on the USB power standard? Wouldnt that make sense? 2 of the phones already can plug into my laptop to charge…but they are slightly different…

Laptops – Everyone should just have a power connector like my Mac Laptop. If you dont know what they are like, they are the coolest. Power attaches by a magnetic connection. No more tripping over the cord and having the laptop come crashing to the floor. I have 3 laptops and 6 different chargers (2 per laptop so I dont always have to unplug when I need to go to clients.) Different power settings…but you can change wattage….

Cams – 1 Camcorder, 1 little point and shoot, and 1 dSLR. All of the batteries are about the same. Chargers? Yup….3 again. Hmmmm…..all of these also can plug into a computer. How? USB again.

IPOD – Actually plugged into a dock in the kitchen. But again….USB.

Bluetooth thingys – Headphones have one and again…USB….but it is not a standard USB connection. Special cable. My headset and speaker are both Motorola and use the same charger as one of the phones.

Yup….3 + 3 + 3 + 1 = way too many.

Some people know this and others dont….most of these chargers use power even if they are not charging a device. I turn the power strips they are connected to when I am not using them.

Cant we do something? They wont. Why? Think about how much money is made by selling the extras.

If all of these mobile devices were 5v you could hook them all up to one universal station and then have a setting to control the amperage. One box with multiple connections.

Same for laptops…different box that could power multiple laptops

Wouldnt that be cool? I would sure love to have that one box….

What a week it has been!!!

After 4 straight nights of partying life is going back to normal today…..Ahhhhhhh….I guess

My liver is really glad it has some time off.

It was a great week though. I met some really cool people from all over the world.

How different would life be without Mer? Very.

I had offers for some serious travel this week. Week in Scotland, couple of weeks in Norway, and a couple of months in Australia.

I would not change my having Mer for all the money or travel in the world….but it does get hard at times. One thing I really miss is travelling AND getting paid to do it.

That being said….I am going to take an advisory role with the company in Australia. If things go well Mer and I may go down and spend some time there. I think it may be fun for a couple of months. Just not right now.

I am sitting at the cafe right now and watching something I see every summer/tourist season….domino effect of mimosas. I am at my usual table looking at the other 5 on the patio. 4 were filled and the fifth just filled and they arrived with Mimosas. Domino effect…..now 4 out of the 5 tables are drinking mimosas.

Part of me wants one as well….but coffee is bad enough right now

I think I am going to restart my tech blog. I miss it. Stay tuned.

Any thoughts on best blogging software? I dont think I am going to actually use wordpress or anything. I am actually thinking about using drupal.

Thoughts anyone?

Probably will write more later.

Dog people and SF weirdos

Those of you who dont live in SF might not know this but there are more dogs than there are children in SF. And the amount of “different” people we have in this city is pretty high as well. I wonder if we are the “medication” capital of the US?

So here I am enjoying a cup of coffee and playing away on my laptop on the patio at the cafe. 3 dogs tied up while their owners are having bfast or whatever and down sits a woman. In her housecoat. With her own cup of coffee from her house. Out of her pocket comes a piece of toast all neatly wrapped in a paper towel. She grabs one of those prepackaged jams from the little caddy on the table. Produces a plastic knife from the housecoat and spreads jam on her toast and proceeds to enjoy it. A little odd? Perhaps….but living in SF I have seen worse.

What is really odder? Couple of things…..1. I have not seen her before and I have been coming to this cafe 4-6 days a week for over 5 years (what can I say….couple of hundred feet from my house and they have free wifi) and 2. The conversation.

After finishing the toast she proceeded to talk to the 2 dogs that were remaining…..not “Hi pooch” but more like they were people. Not for a minute either…..for about 10. Whats your name, where do you live, what is your favorite food, how old are you, and on and on and on.

I love living here sometimes.

Ah….the weekend. Too bad it is over :(

What a great weekend. Just wish the temps were like last weekend (Mid 80s instead of mid 60s.)

Mer is a really good sleeper and this weekend it was off the hook. Sat she didnt wake up until about 8:45am. Afterwards we went over to Chow for some “Pakes” (pancakes.) She still calls them that….it is so darn cute. There is nothing like walking into her room and she asks “Dah-tee can we go and have some blueberry pakes?” Could you say no? I also really love there pancakes….covered with blueberries and mascarpone. So good!!

Then we had about 2 hours of park time before heading to J&Ks for lunch. They did a BBQ with a whole bunch of kids running around. And then a 3 hour nap. I think she must be going through a growth spurt at the moment. Last 2 weekends before this one she didnt nap at all.

Then after a quiet dinner at home off to bed around 8:45pm. I figured she would be up around 8am. Nope. Try I had to wake her up at 9am. And she was not at all happy about that. “Daddy I want to stay sleeping.”

We went sailing yesterday. It was an amazing….bummer. I think. Could be one of the last times out on Trevs boat. He got transferred back east and is selling it. I am so going to miss that boat. It is about 47 feet long with every bell and whistle so you can go out on pretty much any day you want. Like yesterday. Not too many people out as it was really sunny but not really hot. But it was windy Kids didnt last too long topside and went off to the master with a dvd in hand. Then Katie and Ash went down leaving the 3 guys alone. Time to chat about everything from Chevron (massive quarter over quarter earnings growth while claiming they are gouging consumers) to who is going to come out of the west in the NBA (absolutely no consensus on that one) to new tech companies to the upcoming primary. Nothing like being out on the water with good friends shooting the poop. Had lunch at Sams in Tiburon and then headed back the long way.

I love weekends!!

Parking….or should I say inconsiderate people and parking

So we all know how it is in San Francisco with parking. It is awful. Really really really (repeat ad-infinitum) awful on a Friday night. So….when does my buddy have a cool party down on the penin? This afternoon / early evening. Kiddlio had an amazing time. I had a blast as well. Even had a great time driving back up to the city singing new variations on “Old McDonald” Did you know he had an Elephant? Llama? Dolphin? Kinkajou? Kangaroo? It went on and on….and I still dont really know what noise a kinkajou makes. Mer just said kinkajou here and a kinkajou there….
(Best one was Old McDonald had an ambulance…)

Then I get back into the ‘hood.

Then I knew it would get really really ugly when there was a spot that came open almost right across the street from my house and someone grabbed it right before I did.

Then I was circling. And circling. Followed by….you guessed it….more…..

I do not get people and parking in SF. So I have some questions for you….not really questions….just one main one. Do you think you are the only person who matters?

We have areas where we cannot park. We all know this. We really shouldnt park in other peoples driveways. I think this would make them mad and, most likely, get your car towed. Then there are the other areas you shouldnt park most of which are marked by red paint with a nice cute little stecil on it.

What makes me peeved when I am trying to park and there is a serious lack of parking:

People who see one of the above parking impediments and then dont notice where they are in relation to it. I mean….there are not many 7 foot long cars in San Francisco. Why not get out of your car and look around it? Hmmm….there is about 7 feet behind my car…..ok…..lets go and have dinner now!!! Great. Happy for you. Meanwhile the car in front of you leaves and if you had backed your car up there might be room for two cars in front of you. If I still had my old crap city motorcycle I would love to park it about a foot from your bumper.

Dont put your own red paint on the curb. It fu-s with everyone except for you. I am glad that you need that extra 3 feet and we all know it is so you can park a car across your driveway when you need to.

Use your garage. Guy who lives near me has a really nice, large garage….only to be used in an emergency though. Has 3 cars and parks them all on the street when he can. He could fit at least 2 of them in there…..but I guess those oil stains on the floor really suck. Or is it that he just is too lazy to shuffle cars when he want to use a different one?

Get rid of the “art cars.” There are a number in my neighborhood that are only moved for street cleaning….and of course the annual pilgrimage to Black Rock City. Why? Almost all fo them are total guzzlers. You never use them. Think if you miss one street cleaning a month you could pay for a storage space somewhere in suburbia.

Ahhhhh…..feel better now. I just wish people in SF would think more about everyone and not just themselves. Or is it the bridge and freeway folks?

I guess I can ruminate with a Fat Tire in my no longer clammy paw.

First Post!! Aka Cyclists and the doods who wear the flourescent vests who sweep the sidewalksˇ

I finally decided to setup a blog about living in San Francisco. 

I have been blogging for eons but only about “tech stuph” but there is so much you see in this city that I guess I will have to take some time out to write about it. (That and work got cancelled today and my best-friend is in daycare today until 5pm.)

Like the cyclist I met (almost ran into) this morning. 

Now…I have absolutely nothing against cyclists. I have 2 bikes and love to ride. Wish I could ride to work but when work is either in my home office or San Bruno, Mtn View, San Jose, etc it just does not make travelling by bike feasible. (Yes I could ride to Caltrain, bart, etc. but road bike + cycling gear isnt professional and bike + work clothes doesnt work so well either.) So I bike on the weekends when I have a chance.

But we all know the some of the cyclists in this city. CRAZY!! Like the guy this morning.

Here I am driving along this morning all happy and carefree after dropping my daughter off at daycare/preschool. Not on the phone, not drinking coffee, just paying attention to driving. Driving along, pass a cyclist, come to stop sign. Stop (novel in SF I know.) Have to add that I have my right turn signal on. Did I mention that I was stopped? I slowly start to turn right around the corner and what happens? I have to slam on the break as the previously mentioned cyclist passes my car on the right hand side and then cuts straight in front of my f-ing car while he was turning LEFT!!!

People are this stupid?

Then…he proceeds to stop his bike and yell at me. He yells at me. Mister I am so dumb that I am itching to be bumper fodder yells at me for almost hitting him. All I said to him was “Well….with you turning left you could have passed me on the left side of my car.”

Gotta love these people. (This being SF though if I did hit the guy I probably would be going to jail…gotta love this city sometimes.)

Then I park my car and after getting some more coffee (was out which is probably the only reason I wasnt drinking it earlier) I arrive back at my house. Sitting on my front stairs is one of those guys on GA who has to sweep sidewalks so they can get their check. Uh ok. Shouldnt he be sweeping or something? If we all didnt litter he could be doing something better but that is another post. He was really nice about getting out of my way as I was walking up to my house. And then he sat back down. With his paper clad can…..probably Steel Reserve, Colt, whatever.

Should I be pissed off at this? Enh…life is too short.

So I walk out a half hour or so later (forgot something in the car) and there he still is. Talking on the phone this time. So….what do I do? Well….It is a Friday I didnt plan to have off….Grabbed a six pack at the corner store and sat on my front steps and had a beer with him. Turns out it is his last day working with GA as he is starting a job on Monday.

Good for him. And having a beer before noon on a Friday when one is not in either Vegas or some vacation destination is just so decadent. It was great.

Have a great weekend.