• No idea what I want to do for the next 3 days. May go into SF today. Was toying with the idea of going down to San Jose anyway, regardless of the Jolie situation. Still not sure what to do about that. Sure, if she didn’t reply – that’s fine. Don’t know how much is her not wanting a visit, and how much may be just her ability to swing in and out of existence. Meh. It’s her deal.

• Stull feel like finding ’09 Poet’s Market before going home. Like it would give me some work to do.

• Back in the Mission. Daunting price of 3-day Muni pass sent me back on the BART. $18 for 3 days, I can’t justify. I may not even cross the bay again after today. The next 3 days are a mystery. Eric wants me to go with him to the Rites of Jupiter being performed at some strange bookstore, not sure whether I will go. But what instead? Tomorrow will probably see me on a train to San Jose anyway, out of boredom.

• Hooray! Word today (last night) from Jolie promises to perforate my boredom. At least with phone conversation, if not actual hanging out. I’m hoping for the latter, but whatever. Looks like I’m heading to SJ after all. Well, we’ll see. Waiting for word.

8/20

• Wrote a more non-traditional poem today, called Voicemail. It’s an adaptation of what I can remember of an email I received from a jealous husband – foundless of course. I imagine that it was, at least in part inspired by my reading of both House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski, and Raw Shark Texts by Stephen Hall in the past months. Both books take impressive liberties with form and style. The poem is obvious and simple, but I think that’s what I like about it. Hoping to draw more inspired poetry from mundane sources like emails, text messages and the like in the future.

• Made it to Dolores Park in the Mission. Now I’m curious why it took me so long to check it out. It’s huge and great. It’s plunked down in the middle of everything (with the Mission on one side, and Castro not too far on the other,) and has a commanding view of the downtown area. It was a great day to go there too, sunny, no clouds overhead. Some down by the bay, but certainly far from my concern.

• Didn’t seem to make it to any museums on the trip. Not for not trying of course, but I am loathe to pay to see priceless art. It should just be there for us, the world, to appreciate. The redeeming quality of my trip is that I have attended a respectable quantity of parks and beaches, and been sailing twice, which, according to my standards, puts me firmly in the category of rugged outdoorsman.

• After Dolores park, wandered over to the Castro. Had coffee at a quaint little place by 20th (I think) and Castro, then wandered to the streetcar at Market and Castro.

• Took Muni to Civic Center stop on Market, where I got off due to crowds on the car freaking me out. Hipsters I can take in large numbers, but tourists and welfare cases get to me. The reality of their lives is too heavy for me. Makes me emotional.

• Thick packs of tourists on Market caused me to escape down to Mission, where the sidewalks were more accommodating. Walked past a smiling man who was screaming about taking a shit. Tourists coming out of the mall stores. I was on the phone with Shayne when I stumbled on the Yerba Buena Gardens, where I sat for a while, watching people sell Street Sheet, or throw frisbees. Again, good weather to sit around outside.

• Back to Berkeley in the evening for some food and sitting in Tully’s on Shattuck. Had a big conversation on Facebook with Asha, whom I sadly only get to talk to every couple years. She’s married and living in Texas now, though she doesn’t seem like the Texas type.

8/21

• Made good headway in the Shorts Project story. Plot is now on solid ground.

• Got out early and headed across the bay. Got off at Embarcadero stop and had tacos. After that, had coffee at a Peet’s nearby. Killed a little time there, checking emails and stuff, and headed to the Caltrain to go to San Jose. Luck being with me, there was one scheduled to leave 10 minutes after I arrived, and so I got a day pass ($15 for unlimited rides). For all intents, it is the same as Chicago’s Metra. Pricing was ok, 1.5 hours one-way from SF to San Jose.

• San Jose was a pretty big let down. Not a peep from Jolie, and I walked around for a while, stopping at a Kinkos to check in for my flight and print my boarding pass. After that, I wandered around, looking for some cool places, but came up empty. It would have been nice to have someone with who knew the lay of the land, because it’s pretty easy to lose control when you’re in a giant mall with a population. I think that’s my main beef with SJ, everything was very clean and polished and corporate. San Jose will be our sadly homogenized future, if we fail in the revolution. I think people were looking at me strangely, with my tattoos and piercings, and wearing shorts. It was something out of Demolition Man, I was expecting Denis Leary to climb out of the sewer.

• Back on Caltrain, I made my way eventually to Berkeley where, while waiting to meet up with Sean for dinner, I witnessed two completely independent groups of people passing joints around in the little commons next to the Downtown Berkeley Bart stop. Now, I know you can get medicinal marijuana in California and everything, but a bunch of youthfully healthy hippie kids sharing a thick blunt is probably not exactly what the medical community is trying to facilitate. Eventually Sean showed up, and we hit some Italian/American place for dinner. It was tasty, and Sean got to watch the second half of the Bears game.

• After dinner, went home and packed, made it an early night.

8/22

• The final short leg of my trip. Woke up around 9am and showered (trust me, I had been showering on a regular basis, just didn’t think it was significant enough to put in print.) Made sure that my bags were packed properly and headed downstairs with my camera. I wanted to document for everyone where in Oakland I had been staying, to prevent anyone from adapting a suspicious tone about my lodging.

• After pictures, I was free to read and relax until it was time to head to the airport. I took down a couple chapters in my Alatriste book (which, now on the plane, I have finished,) and bummed around until we went to Berkeley to collect Sean for the ride to the airport.

• Now on the plane, I am excited to make it back to Chicago. These past 18 days have been incredible in many ways. Not many people who weren’t with me on this trip could claim to have sailed (and I mean, participated in the operation of the boat) on the San Francisco Bay. I saw – which was one of the chief ambitions of my trip – City Lights Bookstore. Birth of a new literary era in the fifties, a good source of my inspiration decades later as I prepare myself to become a bookseller and publisher. I made it to the Haight/Ashbury and Berkeley scenes 40 years after my mother did (during the height of the free love movement) - a legacy I didn’t know I was carrying on until I had come and seen. I witnessed Gnostic ceremonies and was exposed to more of the Occult than I could have anticipated, while staying in Oakland with Sean’s friend (and now mine) Eric. I saw darkness and feared for my safety in stories I have yet to determine whether they’re mine to tell.

• Now I return home to heat and humidity. Determined to make my ambitions into successes, and in short time at that. California has been good to me in many ways.

The city's first Sunday Streets event has gained support from community groups and athletic organizations that are planning activities along the 4.5-mile route, but merchants at Fisherman's Wharf are still wary of the impact on their businesses.

The street closures will start at 9 a.m. and last until 1 p.m. During that time, the groups and organizations will host an array of activities, including cultural events and athletic and aerobic exercises. AT&T Park also will open for people to run the bases for part of the day.  More at apnews.com

Embarcadero and Ferry Building, San Francisco, August 2008

Condos across from the pier on Embarcadero looked very tempting and I kept thinking how great it would be to own a second home here

San Francisco Financial District from Hyatt Regency, August 2008

Pier by the Ferry Building across from where I was staying. It was very relaxing to chill here very late into the night; total serenity and bliss

Globe in front of the Ferry Building; Eggheads sculpture and Villancourt Fountain by Embarcadero Market Area & Hyatt Regency

Central to the enforcement of this exclusivity malarky is the toilets, more correctly, the manipulation of said toilets. First off, they are damn near impossible to find without a compass and/or an intricate understanding of the labrynthine structure of the building. Secondly, as a secondary defence against members of the general public, they have installed an intercom system-with camera-to keep an eye on the type of people using their jaxx.

I went in to take a shit there the other day, not out of malice but out of neccessity, and had a bit of a big brother experience. Before the prunes say 'ah Rua, is that detail neccessary' let me say that A) yes it is and B) I live in a crowded house, its rare that I get to take a nice long dump without someone knocking on the door and I want you all to understand how urgeant the situation was.

Anyways back to the story. I went into the first jaxx, pushed the intercom button and went in without a hitch. But the place was filthy so I decide to go to the next building over. I went accross the bridge(yes, its so big it needs bridges) and started looking around for evidence of a toilet. After a few minutes I was at the door about to press the intercom button when a voice barks out of the wall beside me 'its open, just push the door'. I jumped a little and did what he said.

 It took me a while to process exactly what happened but the security people had obviously followed me on the cameras going from one building to the next and anticipated my next move. I thought it was kinda scary to be honest, especially because I didn't see any cameras

Photo by Colin Day

Woke up early to take the BART to Embarcadero station and meet some new friends for a journey to Angel Island.

Arrived at Embarcadero and walked around the artists booths and the Farmer's Market before meeting Emily and Steve under the clock tower at the Ferry Building.

We had never met them before, but they were friends of friend (of Elli's) and they were nice people whom we got along with very well. They brought their 14 month old baby Eden with them, and she was quiet and cute and entertained people on the boat to the island.

Bought ferry tickets for a round trip (there is camping on the island, but we weren't prepared for that), and boarded a big ship that took us first to Fisherman's Wharf to get more passengers and then to Angel Island.

Walked 4.0 + miles around the island and ate lunch on a hill near the top. We enjoyed fantastic views of the water and the sailboats (I have to get one of those!), and we could even see a fogged in San Francisco, with occasional views of the very tops of certain landmarks. I used my camera all day, limiting myself to my 90mm tilt/shift lens, and was happy to behind the lens again.

We finished the day barely awake on the ferry ride back to Embarcadero.

We said our good byes, and Elli and I walked back to the BART, but not straight away. We first went to the park across the street from the Ferry Building, and as we walked onto the grass we looked up and saw an explosion of green as four parrots flew out of a nearby tree and flew away into the sunset, going wherever wild parrots go at night.

We took the BART back to Powell station and then walked to Sanraku Restaurant for a late dinner of tempura rolls, spicy tuna rolls, california rolls, miso soup and hot tea. We made it home with just enough energy to wash the days dirt off ourselves and then sleep between cool sheets.

It's a typically crappy summer day in San Francisco.  It's a little windy, overcast, chilly and *bleh*.  The bright spot, though, was on the way back I saw this art piece that seemed to say a lot...

Sometimes you don't need a full-fledged database-management environment. Maybe you just need to go in and add a field, change a table or write an ad hoc query.

Certainly you can do all those things in the SQL Server administration tools, writing your own SQL at the command line. Unless you're a SQL expert, though, that process can be lengthy and error-prone.

Having a graphical tool that's easy to learn and use -- and one that you don't have to use every day to remember how to perform simple actions -- is much more productive. Simply point it at the database, click the mouse to tell the tool what to do and your database maintenance is done.

For 90 percent of the time, you don't need a heavy-duty DBA product -- you just need to make a quick modification. With more and more system and network administration tools using SQL Server or other relational databases as their repository, having access to a simple database tool is almost a necessity. While database system tools are designed to run mostly without intervention, you still need access to the data for analysis or compliance purposes. A few of these admin tools offer a good way of doing that. Altova Database Spy, Quest Toad and Embarcadero DBArtisan are easy for non-DBAs to install and use, and they have surprising power when doing work on databases.

Read more: Tooling Around in Your Database

Embarcadero Performance Center is a 24/7 database performance monitoring tool used by database professionals to maximize performance and availability. Performance Center is an important tool for organizations to ensure the health of all monitored databases across the enterprise.

“This recognition from SQL Server Magazine underscores the rich functionality and proven value that Performance Center offers,” said Greg Jorgensen, vice president of marketing, Embarcadero Technologies. “By decreasing downtime and improving overall database performance, companies can reduce inefficiencies, lower maintenance and hardware costs, and improve service levels.”

Read more: Embarcadero Technologies’ Performance Center Receives 2008 Editor’s Best Award from SQL Server Magazine

If you're planning to visit Louise Bourgeois' Crouching Spider sculpture near the Bay Bridge, don't forget your case of Vienna Sausage. Or your inhaler. Oh, and your 40 oz. WTF?

Photo by Colin Day

Sure enough, when we get downstairs, and closer to the action, we can see this long haired, long bearded character, in what looked to be nude colored underpants, running back and forth among some people who seemed to be posing for a photo.  We were asked to keep clear of the pathway right next to the water as they were filming a commercial.  A commercial?  For what?  SanDisk.  

So, if you happen to see a commercial with a wild haired, naked looking guy trying to impose himself on a group of tourists who only want to take vacation pictures, remember you heard about it here first, and I was there.

Después de poco mas de dos semanas de haber cerrado con éxito dicha transacción, la gente desde dentro comenzó a hablar de Tiburon. Y no de manera aislada... hay muchos que están hablando de la siguiente versión de Delphi, la 2009. (¿no era 2008?)

Esto es un signo inconfundible de que el lanzamiento está en puerta. Aún cuando el nombre será seguramente Embarcadero Delphi 2009 -2009 por razones de mercadeo- quiero pensar que ocurrirá a entre septiembre y noviembre de este año.

Por ahora, aunque me gustaría, no hablaré de ningún tema en particular, pero lo haré una vez esté de regreso en Guatemala. Les debo algunas crónicas del viaje, que aún no termina, ya me daré el tiempo de escribir sobre eso. Por ahora, si te interesa el tema, Jhonny ha hecho una pequeña lista de las cosas que se hablan en su también rápida revisión de la semana.

I snapped this photo the other evening by the Embarcadero - it felt very Miami-ish - maybe it's the palm trees?

VENDREDI
---------
J'en ai profite pour faire quelques emplettes, puis un petit tour dans la ville, avant de rejoindre Cedric. La, j'ai pu decouvrir son appartement : Il est bien amenage, bien situe. Bon choix, Cedric. ;-)
Une fois la visite faite, nous nous sommes rendus a l'AMC Theatre sur Fourth Street, genre de Pathe Chavant pour ceux qui sont a Grenoble. Partis pour voir Wall-e avec un autre French Yahoo, Gilles, nous avons finalement atterri sur The Incredible Hulk, Cedric nous ayant enduit avec de l'erreur. :D
Une fois sortis, le temps d'aller faire un tour en haut de l'hotel Marriott - histoire de ne rien voir, car c'etait bien brumeux sur SF ce jour-la :/ -nous nous sommes diriges vers Fisherman's Wharf et The Embarcadero, lieu d'ou fut tire le feu d'artifice. La encore, brouillard oblige, nous n'avons distingue que quelques jolies fusees, sans plus. Dommage.

SAMEDI
---------
Cedric ayant loue une voiture pour la journee, j'ai profite de l'occasion pour aller voir quelques magasins alentours- et notamment l'inevitable Ikea- ainsi que Target, sorte d'Hypermarche Carrefour sur 2 etages. Nous avons d'ailleurs fait une drole de rencontre sur le parking...

Chacun ayant fait ses propres emplettes, nous avons ensuite rejoint Gilles et sa femme, pour une ballade du cote de Tennessee Valley Trail, double occasion pour traverser le Golden Gate et s'arreter sur une proche plage. L'occasion egalement d'engloutir un fallafel sandwich d'excellente facture, definitivement une adresse a garder.

  

Meme si le climat etait bon, le vent reste present et l'eau reste froide, Pacifique oblige. Nous sommes donc rentres sur la City, et avons termine la soiree chez Gilles et sa femme, profitant des talents culinaires de celui-ci.

DIMANCHE
-----------
Rentre un peu tard la veille, je me suis arrogé une matinee clemente. Je me suis par contre mis en quete de visiter les parties "habitables" de San Francisco l'apres-midi.
Me voici donc battant le pave de 14h a presque 19h, passant en revue les quartiers SoMa, Financial District, North Beach, Russian Hill, Nob Hill, Chinatown et Downtown, faisant halte au Washington et Union Square. Sur ce dernier j'ai pu apprecier un de ces hot-dogs que l'on voit tout le temps dans les films americains...Miam! :d

Une bonne marche qui n'a pas ete vaine, puisqu'outre avoir pu m'impregner de ces quartiers, j'ai pu noter quelques adresses interessantes, voir ce que les gens mangeaient dans certains restaurants, quelles boutiques etaient a quel endroit etc. Il en ressort une appreciation proche de l'avis general, a savoir une forte tendance a preferer Russian Hill, Nob Hill et North Beach, a forte connotation italienne.
Ce dernier etant loin de tous les transports pratiques pour aller au boulot, je ne pense pas m'y installer, mais j'y retournerai surement pour tester quelques adresses ou simplement me ballader.

(Traducción: 'es menester que trinque... ' y poco más)

En fin, a lo que iba, hoy teníamos previsto ir a La Manga, a la fiesta que había prevista pero se torció ese plan así que compuestos y sin novias pues Juanfran y yo hemos cogido y nos hemos ido a rapelar por ahí. Destino: Castillitos, pero se nos ha ocurrido avanzar un poquito más y hemos llegado a Jorel, la batería militar contigua a Castillitos.

(El enlace es el mismo para las tres, hacia la presentación del álbum. Aquí a la galería directamente)

El caso es que allí hemos dado un garbeo viendo aquello, preparado nuestros amarres en uno de los cañones y después de comer ya hemos saltado. Unos 40 metros, yo creo que no habrá llegado, y está bien. Entre otras cosas porque estás ahí y las vistas que tienes son incomparables, de una belleza que cuesta creer que haya lugares así tan cerca de Cartagena, de donde yo vivo; además, el mar tenía un azul... profundo y seductor.

La cosa está en que cuando hemos bajado, creyendo que un pequeño sendero que veíamos nos traería de regreso al cañón, nos hemos pegado una paliza a andar... ese sendero se acababa ahí y a donde llevaba era casi al faro, así que hemos aprovechado para ver unas garitas y tomado la carretera del faro para regresar a la batería... una media hora andando así que imaginaros si hemos vuelto a bajar... después de descansar un ratillo lo que hemos hecho ha sido recoger nuestras cuerdas, liándolas con calma, tranquilillos y muy bien y pensando en la cervecita que nos íbamos a tomar en el Antípodas... uff! Y así pues, con el coche, nos hemos acercado al faro de Cabo Tiñoso porque yo no lo había visto nunca; vale, todos sabemos dónde está pero no todos lo hemos visto, así que he acabado con otra cosa pendiente y de ahí al Antípodas Tavern a tomarnos una cerveza que no sabéis cómo de bien han sentado.

Así no se puede, ¿no?. Yo creo que mejor buscamos otra pared porque esto ha sido una fundida. Y ni ascenders ni nada, hemos bajado así, ocho en mano y andando... en fin.

James Kelch is part of the TURF skateboard team and was considered the KING of the famous EMB skate crew in San Francisco back in the days.  Check out some of his sick skateboarding videos! EMB 4 Life!

El perro estaba cerca de una dárse y cayó al agua. Un joven se quitó la ropa y, en bañador, le pidió a la dueña la correa del perro; se la enrolló en la muñeca y se tiró a por él.

Totalmente empapado, pero sano y salvo, devolvió el can a brazos de su dueña. «Estaba tan nerviosa, le di las gracias, claro que sí, varias veces, pero ni siquiera le pregunté cómo se llamaba, ni nada», lamenta la dueña ahora con el propósito de ampliar el agradecimiento.

Bruce , bautizado en honor al Boss Springsteen «porque mi hijo -explica Carmen, su dueña- es muy forofo del artista», es un cocker negro de 11 años, salud frágil, medio ciego y sordo a medias. «Suelen vivir hasta los dieciséis o más, pero el nuestro tiene una vejez prematura», describe la mujer. Víctima de su propia falta de visión, el sábado pasado el animal dio un mal paso y acabó a remojo, no en el river del inspirador de su nombre, sino en pleno mar.

Pasaba de las doce y media de la mañana cuando su dueña lo paseaba -ella o su marido lo sacan tres veces al día de su casa de la cuesta de San Agustín- por la zona del Parrote. Y en un momento dado, muy cerca del embarcadero y de los yates que adornan el centro, «lo solté y, pobre, salió corriendo y cayó al agua».

En plena y céntrica Marina, a Carmen casi se le sale el corazón por la boca. «Lleva mucho tiempo con nosotros, y claro, lo queremos», casi se justifica cuando habla de su mascota. El caso es que «empecé a llamarlo, ' Bruce , Bruce ', pero no oye», relata aún con cierta angustia. Un hombre que estaba cerca del embarcadero, en su lancha, intentó coger al perro e incluso chapoteó en el agua para tratar de atraerlo. Pero claro, Bruce tampoco ve bien. «Mi miedo -cuenta su ama- era que acabase agotándose, porque claro, él nadaba, pero cada vez se alejaba más y no sabía cuánto tiempo podría aguantar».

Dos chicas vivieron con Carmen la tensión por el animal, que tiene un ángel de la guarda que, si no vuela, nada bastante bien y, además, monta en bicicleta. «Yo no lo vi llegar, pero cuando me di cuenta, allí estaba un chico... tan amable -continúa Carmen-; me dijo 'no se preocupe, señora, que yo lo saco'».

Y así fue, el rescatador iba preparado. Parece que su destino era la playa, e hizo una parada en medio para ejercer de socorrista. Se quitó la ropa y, en bañador, «me pidió la correa de Bruce , se la enrolló en la muñeca y se tiró a por él». Totalmente empapado, pero sano y salvo, volvió el can a brazos de su dueña. «Estaba tan nerviosa... le di las gracias, claro que sí, varias veces, pero ni siquiera le pregunté cómo se llamaba, ni nada», lamenta ahora, pasado el susto y con el propósito de ampliar el agradecimiento.

«Yo, desde luego, no lo olvido, no puedo olvidarlo», comenta sobre el gesto decidido y espontáneo del chico. Carmen cree que «no lo haría cualquiera» y vio respaldada su impresión en el propio escenario del suceso. «Había un señor allí que él mismo me dijo que nadaba habitualmente con su perro, pero que no se atrevería a tirarse allí para rescatarlo». Por eso, se siente como en deuda con el anónimo joven. Tanto que «se lo cuento a todo el mundo, que exista gente así es...», no sabe muy bien cómo expresarlo. Creyó la mujer que tan desinteresada acción merecía algo más que un reconocimiento corrido de boca en boca. «Por eso escribí al periódico -explica-; yo trataré de fijarme, cuando pase por la zona de la Marina, en cada chico en bicicleta, aunque no sé si lo reconoceré».

Por si acaso la casualidad no se repite y el encuentro no es posible, ahí quedan las gracias escritas de un perro con nombre de artista, medio ciego, mitad sordo... y la suerte de cara.
Fuente: http://www.lavozdegalicia.es

LX2, 1/125, f/2.8, 6.3mm, iso100, B&W JPEG, edited in Aperture

The Ferry Building's architecture is breathtaking. Just a nice place to walk in, taking in the sights and smells.

LX2, 1/400, f/3.2, 8.7mm, iso100, B&W JPEG, Unedited