Chu and I spent another day traveling around San Francisco exploring. I love this city, and especially the buses. So easy and cheap to get around. We hit the surplus store mentioned in a previous post, and passed by the place myr suggested we hit (luckily it was closed) while on our way to The Window for some of the best fried rice I've ever had. A huge steaming plate of chicken, shrimp, egg, and beef fried rice. So good. I paused to snap a picture of some appropriate graffiti on the SF sidewalk, and then it was off to check out the touristy Fisherman's Wharf and get a glimpse of the Golden Gate bridge. We wandered around the piers, checked out the Musee Mechanique where there were quite a few old mechanical toys and antique arcade machines. Chu pointed out the Freudian store selection all within a block, and then we headed back to Chateau de Chu to relax with some sparks. Tomorrow I get up and head down to Santa Clara and go to work for a few days. The weekend plans are still not set in stone, but it's looking like a trip to Santa Cruz beach with Erin. :)

The surplus store (Kaplan's) that we stopped by on Market St knew just what we were looking for. Cheap goggles, and a perfect "blank slate" for modification with some elwire, leds, and who knows what. Plus they were only $2.99. Score!

After bidding farewell to our organizer, s4xton, this afternoon, chu and I looked at each and went "now what?" We ended up going and checking out Haight street, spent some time in the shops there, met up with sinai, spent some more time in Ameoba where I picked up a limited edition LTJ Bukem album on vinyl, and then met up with Justin, a friend from college who's been out here for around 2 years now.

Then it was off to dinner at Gordon Biersch, where we walked in to see the Hurricanes and Edmonton playing the final game of the Stanley Cup and was glad to see the Canes winning at 3-1 with only 1 minute left in the game. They of course won and the Stanley Cup was theirs. A short while later I got a text message from my dad saying: "holy shit I just drank champagne out of the cup no shit, for real" So jealous. Hehe

After Gordon Biersch it was off to the House of Shields where we spent way too long talking about geek stuff, the state of the web, and the music industry. Then we headed over to Sparky's, grabbed some fries, chatted a bit more, and then caught our respective buses home. The weekend must be catching up with us, as it's 1:45am and I'm ready for bed!

Saturday night in San Francisco was spent running from the east side of the city to the west side under the directions of sf0.org. We started out with registration where we signed up with s4xton, bananachunks, and me. While we were waiting we met and added Britt to Team Bruce. A last minute dinner of pretzels and a powerbar, a briefing by Ian on the game, and at 7:45 a large group of sf0'ers sprinted out of the park trying not to run into the confused bystanders or get hit by traffic. The next 3.5-4hrs was spent running from "chasers", hopping buses, and basically getting lost in San Francisco. We hit 3 of the checkpoints before the time limit of 10:45 hit. When we decided to call it, we had a long wait for a bus before we flagged down a cab and sure enough just as the cab pulled up, the bus came. Then it was off to Ocean Beach for the bonfire party. We sat around the fire, drinking wine, getting to know the other players, meeting friends, and drinking. The cops tried to kick us out, but after ditching the alcohol in a car, we were right back out on the beach. The connections between people were a weird surprise. Many of the sf0 guys moved to San Fran from Chicago. People were very familiar with the hiptop community, recognizing skholla, hiptop3.com, etc. We met Nicole and Rubin who are part of the people responsible for Dance Dance Immolation at Burning Man that I had already learned about. They were out there spinning fire on the beach. I mentioned that I had wanted to learn how, and after an excellent 20 minute lesson from Nicole, I lit up some poi and actually did some spinning myself. Quite the experience, and I'm hooked. The sound of the fire flying through the air was exhilarating to say the least. The crowd dwindled down to only a few as the night continued. Finally around 4am everyone decided it was time to head out. I called a cab, we waited, Britt called a cab, we waited, s4xton stood in the middle of the street, we waited, finally a cab showed up, and of course so did the bus 10seconds later. We finally made it home and allowed our tired bodies some rest just as the clock turned 5:11.

All in all, a great night! Many thanks to sf0 and all the excellent people involved in the event. I can't wait for the next one.

Just realized I took a picture of my friend, Jager, who kept me up all night last night running around San Fran, enjoying the Arrow Bar, the End Up, and then the search for an all night dinner and a long climb up a hill.

We went to check out Treasure Island for both an sf0 task and some geocaches, as well a chance to enjoy the breeze coming off the water. The weather is friggin great out here!

Transportation mode #2!

The adventure begins with a car ride to O'Hare from work..

A little self portrait collage I've been collecting for 5 months or so. Gotta clear it out to make room for SF pictures.

Note the difference in poses.. Yeah, you know who I'm talking to. ;) hehe

Way too neat of a packing job, but I have to stuff enough in there to last 9 days. Getting excited about getting out there while I pack too. In 48 hrs I'll be running around the city doing who knows what, thanks to sf0. :)