I have been scuba diving with sharks, they are really beautiful creatures. I'm sure if I was threatened or attacked by one I might feel a little different, but I know that is fairly unlikely. What is more important is that sharks are an important part of an eco-system, and wiping them out is bad for every living thing.

Steve Kustra was well remembered by many at Zeitgeist yesterday. While I never had the pleasure of knowing Steve, I know a number of people who mourn his loss and remember him fondly. His memorial was beautiful, his life well celebrated. My deepest regards to his friends and family.

I visited San Francisco's Stern Grove for the first time yesterday. I arrived with Mila around 11:15pm, met up with her friend Vernon, and walked down into the park. The concert area is in one corner of the park with steep slopes rising in front of and behind the stage. All the good places to sit had already been staked out with blankets and people everywhere. Mila knew some folks sitting with the sound crew in the middle of everything, and we managed to to carve out a corner there for our little group(Vernon, Raz, Polyanna, George, Erin, Mila and me).

It was a beautiful sunny day, we baked in the sun and warmed up even more to Davell Crawford. Then came Roberta Flack who was pretty amazing. I heard the original Killing Me Softly. She seemed to really enjoy herself with the crowd, joking a lot and getting us to sing along with her.

The grove was really packed and we were up against people on all sides. A very nice lady gave me a slice of the best key-lime pie I have ever tasted. There were little kids dancing to the music, another kid running around with a net trying to catch the dragonflies as they danced above the heads of the crowd. We were well cooked by the time Roberta finished her encore.

Brunch at Top of the Mark for Will and Keffie's birthday. Beautiful view in all directions.

Waiting in the jury assembly room for people to get processed. Lots of people claiming hardship because it is a 6-7 week trial.

I tried my first jiu-jitsu class at Fight and Fitness which seems to focus mostly on ground fighting. I have no prior experience with ground fighting but I know some of the terminology and the basic positions, but Alex the instructor explained it all to me.

We started with some stretches and some strengthening exercises. Then we went into working techniques, me and two other students taking turns with a partner. We worked a triangle choke from the bottom and then a Kimura arm lock, both took a little while to learn but the arm lock was somewhat familiar territory. Mostly I had trouble learning to use my hips and legs, and the effort was starting to give me some muscle cramps. I'm fairly sure I'm going to be sore tomorrow.

It's always a little tough to try something new and unfamiliar, but I'm sure that after a few more classes I will feel less awkward. I'm looking forward to learning more.

LiveJournal has a new office on Bryant St., between 3rd and 4th streets.

Chris Cariaso of Fight and Fitness fighting MMA at Kezar Pavilion

I have been quite happy using MS Windows operating systems for most of the last 13 years, starting with Windows 95. But as of last year I have become more and more frustrated with their products. My home system, using Windows 2000, was becoming slow and I had to regularly fight adware and viruses to keep it functioning. My work system came with Windows Vista(because it was cheaper than XP?) and at first it seemed fairly usable, with some annoyances. But for several months now Vista can take several seconds to open an "Open file" dialog using any program including Explore. Accessing your files is one of the most basic functions of an OS, and it is incredibly bad for that to be so slow. Back to my home system, which I recently upgraded to Win XP Pro, last night I spent 3 hours trying to get it to use my hosts file with no luck. I use the hosts file along with Apache to run a web server locally, which is handy for developing websites. The hosts file used to work just fine on Win 2000, and is a common file found across many operating systems. Because it will likely be cumbersome to work around this problem, I think I am finally ready to switch to a Mac for my home system. I already purchased an Asus eee pc laptop last year and installed Ubuntu Linux on it. It is time to be rid of Microsoft and their crappy expensive operating systems and software.

Last Saturday I woke up tired but still dragged myself to Cha Cha Chas for June's graduation party. Her husband Zach was there and I got to meet June's 'mummy' and some of her friends. Lunch was followed by a party at Trax, so the day was full of celebration and drinking. June's mother is quite the dancer and her friend Mila is quite the cutie.
( What happened in Vegas... )

Mark and Janine are married!

Am on a plane flying to Las Vegas. Passing over the Sierra Nevada mountains that are still covered in snow. I'm looking forward to Mark and Janine's wedding.

I enjoyed a delicious goat curry for dinner last night at Metro Kathmandu restaurant. Goat meat is similar to mutton, but has a distinctive gamier taste. I highly recommend this restaurant; it has good vegetarian options, only a $5 corkage fee on most nights and very good service. I met one of the owners last night, she said she recognized me from the neighborhood(I do ride by the restaurant quite frequently, and it is just three blocks from where I live).

Live Simply

Bay to breakers was quite the party yesterday. I watched it go by from my friend Gearoid's house on Fell street. There seemed to be a lot less floats than in previous years, plenty of people in costumes, some naked people and towards the end more than enough drunk people. But for the most part things didn't seem too crazy. I left before the end of the party went by and noticed that potty lines were really long and people were using the Panhandle Park as a bathroom, so there is still room for improvement. It seems like the party still went on as before but with just a little bit of law enforcement.

Poll #1399935 Bicylce Helmet
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

If you rode a bicycle today, did you wear a helmet?

This article An Animal's Place presents the arguments for and against vegetarianism and animal rights. I am quite happily a carnivore, but I think I should not eat a lot of meat, especially red meat. And I would prefer to pay more money to get meat from a "free farmed" animal, because I imagine it is better for everyone and I can afford it.

The article is long, but really presents a lot of good information from different angles. It quotes christian values for the humane treatment of animals, and chastises city-dwellers for their naivete regarding humans and farming, to give a couple of examples. In the end the writer seems to justify his own preference, which is close to my own, but he doesn't defend the American meat industry and how they currently treat animals.

Last week I emailed the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and my district Supervisor, Ross Mirkarimi about long red lights at the junction of Page and Divisadero for people traveling on Page. Mr. Mirkarimi forwarded my email on to SFMTA and I eventually got the following reply:

Hi Henry,

This is in regard to your complaint of the long red cycle at Page and Divisadero. We found everything working per timing card but we also found that bicycles were not always being detected. If the bicycle was slightly past the stop bar then the bicycle was not detected and therefore did not get a green light. We have increased the sensitivity of the detector so that the zone of detection is increased. Every bicycle we watched after increasing the sensitivity received its green light.

I am hoping this helps with what you have observed. If not, or if you would like to speak with me directly concerning this intersection or any other please call on my direct line. We appreciate citizen’s input and observations. You will probably be the first to notice a problem on a corridor you travel.

Thanks again for the information. I look forward to hearing from you.

Lauren Green
Manager
MTA/DPT Traffic Signal Shop

( Even more info about traffic detectors... )

I am very happy with the response from Supervisor Mirkarimi and the SFMTA. I don't think I could ask for anything more.