jeremyrandall / blog /

I love hardware stores. I find it kind of amazing that they have so many fun, interesting, cool and unexpected items; that I can buy a single bolt or enough wiring and pipes to do up an entire house. There are three hardware stores near my apartment — four if you count the one that is on the next hill over. I like going to them and looking for project ideas. Sometimes it’s just hooks or picture hangers, sometimes it’s shelves or organizers, sometimes it’s a new idea for lighting or electrical projects and sometimes it’s coming up with a creative way to make toys and inventions out of common household items. I really like coming up with ways to store and organize things, clean, decorate, try new lighting or just manage the recycling and trash better. I like to do things that enhance my apartment without adding clutter, of course.

Last week I went to the hardware store and found a bunch of fastening gear for a home project I was finishing up. It usually takes me a couple trips since I tend to figure some of it as I go. That’s why the hardware store two blocks from my place is a good starting point. Of course it’s certainly no burden to walk another five or seven blocks to see if I can find the right items at one of the other two nearby stores (the fourth hardware store is eleven or twelve blocks away, which is still along a regular walking route, but doesn’t have the same “in my neighborhood” feel).

There are coffee shops and restaurants, a movie theater that plays indie flicks and a Good Vibes near my house and my hardware stores. Plus an odd grocery store that has fancy individual cakes (which I get once in a blue moon for a treat to share). Almost all of them are local businesses, not chains. I love my neighborhood.

This morning we went to the hardware stores and found hooks and tape, light bulb sensor switches, chains and ropes and odds and ends to finish up the projects we started from the bag of items we bought a couple weeks ago. Rubber dipping proved to be an interesting way to add a handle to an existing item. Arts and crafts day for grownups, with a nap thrown in for good measure. It was a gorgeous sunny day, just like yesterday when we walked along the Wharf and rode the cable car back up the hill. I never rode the cable cars before I started living near them with a monthly Muni pass; they get the tourists to pay five dollars one-way, no transfers.

I love August in the Bay Area. The weather is great, there’s lots to do and the sun comes up early and goes down late. It’s my favorite month.

We took the ferry out Angel Island a couple weeks ago to go hiking. I had done the perimeter road in the past, but this was the first time I had climbed to the top. I’m usually an urban hiker, but there are trees and dirt trails just a boat ride away. We plowed up the hill like billy goats; the view was gorgeous at the top. We sat and ate our energy bars and drank our protein drinks, then headed down the other side and back to the ferry boat. Walker, hiker, urban foot-transit enthusiast. I chuckle when I see the Segway groups near Aquatic Park; do we really need vehicles that mimic walking?

It’s slowing down here. The crowds at the Wharf and Union Square are thinning out. I guess the kids are back in school or something. September and October are greats months here too, especially for the locals. I’m done with today’s chores, cleaning my apartment, screwing in hooks, taking things out and adding things in. Until the next hike to the hardware stores, of course.

Social networking

I like Facebook. I like the clean interface. I like the way you can post snarky little status updates. I like that all of my friends are showing up there, and I can read their snarky little status updates. I’m amused that some people never change; sometimes I find that disappointing too. I even kind of like all the weird applications and add-ons. They’re generally silly, but being able to spend a few seconds sending someone a virtual gift or hug, a comment or a link makes keeping in touch both amazingly easy and remarkably effective. It kind of goes in waves for me. Someone may see my status update and that causes them to send a message. We go back an forth a couple lines at a time, and feel re-connected, caught up. I’ve had old co-workers, friends from organizations, friends from high school and even friends from junior high and elementary school get back in touch.

“Jeremy is feeling enamored with a major social networking site.”

Changing attitudes about finite resources

I get the impression that people — regular people — are genuinely changing their attitudes about energy, gas, oil, finite resources. Around the blogosphere people are writing about different fuels, new energy technologies, wanting governments to seek alternatives to oil. People seem to be accepting that it costs actual money to drive a large vehicle down the road, that maybe that’s not the best thing to be doing, and that there are other options that make more sense environmentally and economically.

Walkable cities are healthy cities

I read in the newspaper today that San Francisco has been rated the most walkable city in the United States. Yes, even with the hills. Maybe especially with the hills. I was walking up the hill to my apartment the other day and, as I got to the top, I remembered how hard that hill was the first time I went to see the apartment, and noted how easy it is now. I’m a Billy Goat.

Is ‘blogoshpere’ a real word?

I’m sort of amazed by all the blogs. People are writing about so many things… some are interesting to me… some are not… some are cleaver, insightful, delightful… some are not. This blog is interesting… maybe not.

Muni, Muni, Muni

I like it when Muni employees show a sense of humor. I heard this on the PA system at Montgomery Station this morning:

“Muni custodian, Muni custodian. Your services are needed at Van Ness Station. We have an extremely serious situation at Van Ness that needs your attention. We have a coffee spill.”

State Supreme Court says same-sex couples have right to marry. The ruling was just announced, and what a great thing.

Let people choose partners that they love and build their lives with those partners. It’s just so obvious what is right here. It makes me sad that there are hate-filled people working against this; perhaps they need to concentrate on their own lives and leave other consenting adults alone.

We sat on top of the hill last night, looking West out over the Sunset District. The Sunset is huge — geographically, if not demographically. It stretches out toward the ocean, a grid of rectangular blocks and two or three story duplexes and apartment buildings. Restaurants, shops, oil change places, fabric stores, gas stations, supermarkets, parks, schools, churches. There are even a couple big windmills if you know where to look. I know where to look for lots of things out here.

We can see the lights from the cars on 19th Ave as they cross into the park and disappear around the curve through the trees. This is the quiet side of the city.

The Sunset District is peach colored at night. The buildings have distinct colors during the day, but now everything is just uniformly peach. It’s the streetlights. Sodium-something-or-other lamps, I try to explain. I think they use those lamps to limit light pollution. I think I remember learning that when I was a kid. There’s a metropolitan area of something like seven million people stretching behind us; the light pollution isn’t being stopped at all.

“It’s like being home,” she said. I think we both felt like we were wandering for a long time until we found this place.

I’d been on top of this hill before. I can’t remember when, but it was hazy, daytime and I had climbed up the hill and collected a little bit of the rock at the top. That piece of rock sat on my bookshelf for years.

“It’s Greywacke.” Darryl, the geology professor at City College, had told us that all of the rock making up the hills of San Francisco is Greywacke.

I left the Sunset more than five years ago. I was on my way down then. When I first arrived I was full of excitement and potential. Just a kid, new to the big city, ready to make my dreams come true. When I left the Sunset, I had been holed up alone in the back of an apartment for years. I had long since thrown out all of my furniture, boarded up the front windows and ceased to exist on the inside.

I’ve lived on the other side of the city for years now, alive and existing on the inside, alive and existing on the outside, too. And I just sort of forgot about the Sunset until I started coming out to her neighborhood. My old neighborhood.

It started slowly and built up, memories leading to feelings. At first it was just nice to see the old places, the restaurants, the streetcars rumbling down Judah, the way the sky looks really blue when it’s not foggy. Riding to work on the N-Judah has been making me smile, even when it’s crowded and I have to stand all the way to Montgomery.

Last night I went to a meeting at 19th Ave and Judah before we met up, and the memories of the past started coming in, in huge waves. The way the streetlights bathe the concrete below in muted light, the sound of the streetcars rumbling up and down the hills and the way the dusk settles over the neighborhood made me think of the fog and the haze of my past, the cloudy memories and the self-destructive behavior. Of the smoke. And the escape. Thank God for the escape.

I hadn’t been past 19th Ave more than a handful of times in the last five years. Two days ago I had some time for myself so I rode to the end of the N line, walked the trail along beach, watched the sunset and laughed at the dogs playing at Fort Funston. I had to switch buses at the mall to get back. Past the college and the bookstores, the big parking lots and the students horsing around on the Muni platform.

It’s strange to see the old places where things were bad and to be back again when things are good. The good is sustainable now. I’m whole now. I’m present now. I’m here now.

“It is like being home,” I replied, with a smile.

Spondork and I went for a walk on Mt Tam yesterday, in the rain.

I don’t think that walking on a mountain in the rain is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. And I don’t think it’s the smartest.

We stopped at Walgreens on Lombard before crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. I bought a poncho, since Spondork pointed out that carrying my gigantic blue and yellow umbrella into the woods would be dumb and “un mountain man -like.”

Right, that would be the dumb part.

We also bought a couple more of the “three dollar Walgreens hats” that we tend to buy every time we head out on a poorly planned outdoor adventure. They’re cheap, bright and goofy, and I think they are starting to litter both of our homes. I know there are at least two of them sitting on my bookshelf already.

On the drive up Mt Tam there is this ridge that actually has houses on it. It’s some weird zoning aberration that goes on for maybe a mile; as far as I know the entire rest of the mountain is National Forest and is protected from development. As we drove on the ridge and looked at the valley below, all we could see was a gray wall of clouds and rain. We passed a VW bus on the side of the road that looked like it was just one or two more gusts from being thrown off the ground into the canyon that presumably still lay below.

We got to the parking lot three miles below the East Peak and pulled in; it was so foggy all we could see was a wall of white in front of us. I joked that we were either pulling into the parking lot or we were about to drive off the side of the mountain into the abyss. Sometimes I make jokes when I am scared.

There were other folks out hiking (that was reassuring). An older couple advised us where to go, incorrectly, as it turned out. So we found ourselves on an unmarked trail alongside a rushing creek. Spondork walked animatedly ahead of me, talking loudly and gesticulating wildly.

The walking was great; I’ve been back on my game lately, so I was mowing up that hill with ease. But the roaring creek three feet below the crumbling earth that we walked on was making me nervous. Spondork started to totter as he crossed a log and I grabbed him and shoved him back onto the trail. Fucking shit. It occurred to me that it’s totally possible to get lost on Mt Tam. And, for some reason, I remembered the Blair Witch Project.

Forty five minutes and seven jumps over the creek later, we came up on a real trail, a fire road perhaps. Suddenly I could see the sheer beauty around me. The tall trees, the mist hanging in the air, the rocks and moss and leaves all around, everything drenched and sated by the water dropping out of the wind.

We walked down the big trail until we got to the part where it flooded over. We took turns peeing in the woods. And then we turned around and came back. We talked and joked and made fun of each other and everyone we know. And instead of taking the unmarked trail that we came on (we couldn’t find it again, thank goodness) we found a well marked trail with a name that we recognized and knew would lead us back. This trail was narrow and came down the grade on switchbacks. Spondork and I walked and yelled at the top of our lungs and made bad jokes and bad imitations of people we know. This is how we bond, I guess.

I’m not sure how to describe the beauty of the woods in the rain, but I think anyone who has seen the woods can imagine looking across a field as the rain comes down in torrents, hearing the water floating and dropping from all sides, hearing your own footsteps crossing through puddles, yelling and laughing like little kids and going from feeling lost to feeling found.

###

We dedicated our trek to Walking Bob, our friend and a hell of a guy, who is now hiking around somewhere beyond where we can currently go. We miss you, Bob.

It’s 2008!

For the last day of 2007 I went to work, met up with a lunch group, came home, did laundry, called someone and made a date, took a nap and then took the bus to the Castro area to attend two New Year’s Eve parties. I met some fun new folks and marked the new year with close friends and an intimate late night. Then I walked home, enjoying the exercise, the cool breeze and the city lights. The Transamerica building is blinking its regular red light; the multicolored holiday light has been retired until next year. The holidays are over (except for having today, New Year’s Day, off, I suppose) and it’s time to dive back in to the regular day to day.

2007 was a big year for me; I have a lot of optimism about 2008. Out with the old, in with the new, positive choices, making progress.

On another note, my Mac is at the Apple Store getting a new hard drive, under warranty. I hope it’s back soon!

Plus some New Year’s resolutions…

Technology

When I bought my primary Mac a while back, I decided that I was going to treat it as a sort of “home production server,” meaning I wouldn’t use it to try beta software, I wouldn’t repartition the disk, I wouldn’t do things to mess it up and, thus, I wouldn’t need to reinstall the OS after some unnecessary technological debacle (I have other computers that I use for testing, experimenting and messing things up). But over time this computer started to degrade as some applications came and went and various parts saw incremental upgrades, and one not-so-incremental upgrade; for the sake of convenience I did an in-place upgrade to 10.5 instead of doing a clean install. Sure, all my stuff was intact, but performance and overall reliability went down, of course.

Last night I decided to bite the bullet and do a clean install. I run backups every night, so I made sure the backup data was valid, then started formatting. Everything went great and the machine was running perfectly after installing the OS and various universal binaries of the applications I use. Then I realized that I didn’t have any of the iLife apps that came preinstalled originally (iPhoto being the only one that is particularly important to me). I did some searching around and found that I could install the older iLife apps from the OS disc that originally came with the machine. I fired up that installation and everything was fine until it crashed unexpectedly. And brought the whole system down with it. The internal hard drive was totally corrupted! I booted from the CD and ran Disk Utility. It took three tries and then it claimed the massive amounts of corruption had been fixed. I went to start up the machine and, well, it’s not coming up at all. Here we go again.

The positive things: my backups are solid (as expected, using a shell script created before Time Machine was an option), it was pretty painless to import my database backups back into MySQL and it was a snap to configure apache2 for the webapps I use locally. I get to run through this whole routine again, which is good practice. And once I get this rig done up again, I expect performance and reliability to be back on track.

Update: I did another full rebuild, reinstalled all my apps and copied all of my data back, only to have the machine freeze up and refuse to boot again. Time to try TechTool and then go to a diagnostics appointment; the machine is still under AppleCare.

On another note, my boss bought me one of the new thin aluminum Apple Keyboards to use at work (I thought he was just being nice; turns out I was typing really loud on the old clackety keyboard); I liked it so much I bought one for myself to use at home. Excellent keyboard.

Travel

I did a small amount of travel over the holidays, both by train and by plane. I like train trips since I don’t have to deal with the airport, I can move around freely while en route and, most importantly, I can bring a laptop and write. Life has been so busy lately that having a day riding the rails meant I had a day to write and reflect. I wrote over 5,000 words on the train, examining my year and my accomplishments, looking at patterns I have been repeating and working out the things I’d like to keep doing and the things I need to change or stop doing. There are some hard decisions there, but that’s what taking an objective look at myself is all about. I was also able to see some amazing scenery and see how the train winds its way down a particularly tall mountain pass.

The plane ride was pleasant; I chatted the entire time with an interesting couple sitting next to me. We had a remarkably broad conversation for three people who had just met.

The silly moment was before the flight, at the security check, when they pulled my bags for a secondary search. I hadn’t even thought that my tube of toothpaste would be a problem, but it was more than the three ounce limit. I think that limit is ridiculous (as is removing our shoes), but I also know that it’s just not worth arguing about. I just quietly said, “okay, you can keep the toothpaste.” The security woman looked at me with compassion and asked if I’d like her to squeeze some of the toothpaste into a plastic ziplock bag so I could have a little with me to brush my teeth later. I thought that was nice of her, though it occurred to me later that since she believed it was actually toothpaste, and was willing to give some back, then why not let me keep all of it? I figure we were both doing our parts to act sane, within the confines of the insanity imposed around us.

Transit

I got a chance last week to ride the double decker bus that Muni is testing out. It’s nice and clean, and the view from upstairs is interesting. The ceiling on the top level is pretty low, so heads will be bumped. The bus itself felt responsive and didn’t seem to strain under the load. I did notice that it has double axles at the back; I’m assuming that is to carry what must be much more weight than a regular bus carries. I’m curious how these buses compare, weight-wise and fuel efficiency-wise, to the long articulated buses that are used on many of the routes.

I think that an electric trolley-bus version of the double decker would be needed here in SF; we should be lessening the amount of diesel burned here, not increasing it.

Weather

Someone recently said, snarkily, that I “just write about the weather” here. I disagree. The weather is a handy way to mark changes, and the changes in the weather often remind me of the passage of time and prompt me to write a little something here. But the weather is in the background, helping me set a tone for the limited writing I do in this space. I’d like to think that someone who thinks I just write about the weather is someone who is not really paying much attention to what I’m saying. That being said, it’s 45 degrees Fahrenheit right now. To me that is really cold! I am so grateful for the double-paned windows, the radiator and the new boiler down in the basement, firing with half the gas consumption of the old one.

Work

I have some interesting projects underway at work. The big ongoing project has been rebuilding the core network, moving everything to new equipment, renumbering the network with new subnets and moving machines around. All without the folks using those systems noticing. It’s sort of like the way Caltrans is rebuilding the bay bridge and approaches; they build around the old and then move the traffic back and forth, all without shutting down the roads. Caltrans has closed the bridge a couple times, but I’ve avoided any prolonged outages. We’ve migrated from one firewall to another and moved the core switching to a new “layer 3 switch” (layer 3 switching is still so cool). There was about 30 seconds of downtime when we switched traffic over to the new firewall. I’ve been joking that we scheduled it for when the CEO was in his car for the ten-minute drive between the office and his house. It did take some time to migrate some IPSec tunnels to the new firewall, but those tunnels are for specific traffic, not general access.

Design

I’m rooting through my list of art and design projects, looking to pick out a couple small projects I can fit in here and there, scoping some medium projects to make them more manageable and doing some preliminary planning for a larger remodel-type project that may get underway later in the year.

Social

I already have plans into the first couple weeks of the new year. Community, seeing friends, helping folks when I can, enjoying people and being enjoyed; that’s what it’s all about.

I’ve been posting short status updates fairly regularly on Facebook; if you know me in person, please add me to your friends list there.

I’ll be attending the usual events and look forward to seeing folks and catching up.

New Year’s resolutions

I actually have New Year’s resolutions to exercise more, eat more vegetables, lower my fat intake, rest more and pay more attention to healthy choices, physically and emotionally. Delightfully outrageous, indeed.

Here are a couple cool items from DWR, both of which are thin, vertical and unique:

Image: Design Within Reach

The bookshelf holds books horizontally on thin shelves; once it’s full the shelves basically disappear and it looks like a huge freestanding stack. I like the coat rack’s design which seems both clean and complicated to me. I’m thinking the bookshelf may fit by the closet and the coat rack could, of course, go by the front door.

My place is feeling very cozy with the new love seat; I chose a bold color and it works quite well. Some of my walls are a fairly bold color as well, which seems to change throughout the day as the outside light changes. I keep looking for new pieces that might work, but then I have to remember that this space is basically filled now. A new and more attractive ceiling fan would be great to replace the existing one. And the old-school track lights in the kitchen are ready to be updated.

I’m on the lookout for some wall shelves that will fill this weird “nook” in the corner of my kitchen. It’s 24 inches wide by 16 inches deep in a back corner, and is basically wasted space right now. Since it’s not visible from the rest of the room, I am going to shelve it all the way to the ceiling to create a pantry and storage area. I’d like to cook more and I need a more accessible pantry-type space. I think I’ll have the specifics figured out soon.

I’ve had a nice weekend. I had time to rest and do chores during the day on Saturday. I went to an adult-themed party with some friends Saturday night, where I met a lot of wonderful new folks and had a great time. This morning one of my sisters was in town with a friend, so we all met up for brunch and catching up. Then more chores, some exercise, more rest and getting ready for the week ahead. Once this last load of laundry is done, I’ll be all set and can go to sleep. I have a busy week ahead, working by day and being social by evening. It’s a nice balance, as long as I get enough sleep!

Update: I ordered the book Apartment Therapy: The Eight Step Home Cure for more design ideas. I suspect my philosophies on space, flow and lack of clutter will mesh with the book’s philosophy, “how to create a home that works for you — physically, emotionally and spiritually.” The Apartment Therapy site/blog has been a great source of ideas and examples of others’ designs.

Image: Amazon / Apartment Therapy

I’ve been listening to a lot of music lately. I’ve never been one of those people that sits around with a group of people talking incessantly about bands and songs; music has always been more personal to me. I don’t get any pleasure from analyzing songs with people, I much prefer to say, “hey listen to this new song/band I found; I think it’s neat” (yes, I actually say the word “neat” because, well, I like it). Since I got rid of the TV I’ve been buying more music than I used to over a given period of time.

I was looking at this stack of blank CDs on my desk at work today and thinking about the name, “compact disc.” Such amazing technology in the early 80’s. I only owned a few actual records that I inherited from God-knows-where; once I was old enough (teenager) to scrape together some funds I started buying CDs. I had a couple of those big binder things stuffed full of them. One was “high school music” and the other was, for lack of a better term, “my twenties music.” I still have one of them. The other, as far as I can tell, didn’t make it out of the apartment of an ex and I never tried to ask for it back; I suspect they got thrown out. That makes me sad, but life goes on. I’ve learned that holding on to things is never as rewarding as just remembering they were there. Plus, I can’t remember the last time I actually listened to an old CD anyway. I’ve been an iPod user for awhile now; the music is purchased with mouse clicks and gets backed up to a second hard drive. I guess I’m keeping up with technology pretty well; I text people from my [cute] cell phone, after all.

I was reading the blog of an old friend from high school. Actually I guess I could say the blog of two old friends from high school. The two of them met when we were freshmen or sophomores and have been together ever since. They have a baby now and, despite my lack of child-rearing interest, I find it cute and moving to see how their family is doing.

Thinking of them made me think of Tommy, another high school friend. He was killed early in Bush’s war; the guy never saw his thirties. I went back for his funeral and our high school named their stadium for him. Just a tragic situation. He and I used to sit around for hours and hours listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, a CD that I asked for, and was actually given to me by my rather progressive grandmother.

We’d listen to that album all the way through and talk about how the way it felt must have been like getting stoned, which neither of us had [yet] tried. I’d go with friends to see Floyd laser shows. I would listen to Dark Side of the Moon alone in my room. If I heard one of those songs on the radio in the car I would turn it way up. It was just so visceral at a time when I didn’t yet have many life experiences of my own. I even tried listening to it while watching The Wizard of Oz though I didn’t find it all that impressive.

I have no idea where my copy of that CD is today. It may be in the missing binder, it may be in the back of a binder that I still have, out of order, lost, quiet. I could just go on to iTunes and buy the album again, but for some reason I haven’t. I will, sure. Eventually.

Those old records had art on their covers, of course. CDs had art on their covers too. The downloaded songs include digital versions that pop up on the screen while the music is playing. There’s a certain continuity there which I like. It’s not about the packaging, it’s about the sight, the sound and the feel, as it always has been. For me it’s about memories, of building soundtracks into periods of my life and then coming back later to hear those memories anew.

Some bands I’m into right now: Tosca, Mindtrap, Cantoma.

That’s all for now.

I met up with someone cool the other day who writes a couple of blogs. One is more professional and one is more personal. We talked a bit about posting life details in a public forum and the implications. I have written here before how the public/private blog balance is a challenge (perhaps I should just blog about that all the time). I like the idea of posting a lot of interesting things about myself (since I am so goddamn interesting, of course) but I know that striking a balance is important. I believe my caution is appropriate, yet I find myself envious of the people who do feel to write more about their lives. I guess my final take, though, is that I’d rather interact with people in real life who want to get to know me than to post everything on a blog and then exist only as a virtual being. Deep, huh?

On another note, I find it completely annoying when people do nothing but complain in their blogs. C’mon people, stop complaining and go do something to improve your lives! But I digress.

My love affair with San Francisco continues. I shared with someone the other day that I am “living my dream,” here, no matter how cliche that sounds. I am really grateful for that.

We’ve had some overly warm days, but once the wind picks up and the fog starts to roll in it cools down and is really pleasant, at least to me. I’ve been here long enough that I a sweatshirt serves as enough of a jacket to keep me comfortable even when it is in fact chilly.

I’ve been riding cable cars more often now that I get a FastPass routinely each month. Sometimes I will do a long walk toward the Embarcadero and take a cable car home, sometimes I just go for a ride because they’re there and they’re cool.

I was mugged a few months ago and since then I’ve stopped carrying a backpack. Which means I don’t routinely carry a camera with me anymore. I’m really missing taking pictures when I’m out and about. I think it may be time to get another backpack (too bad those “man purses” are so ridiculous) and get a new camera. Probably a good excuse anyway since it’s been a long time since I bought a digital camera and the quality is sure to be a lot higher. I’m planning to get a bunch of my existing photos up on Flickr soon and then start building the collection with new material.

Unfortunately the camera in my new-ish phone takes pictures of considerably worse quality than even my several-year-old digital camera. Some shots from the camera phone:

This Southbound cable car has just come up the steep hill from the Fisherman’s Wharf area; the curvy part of Lombard street drops off in the background with North Beach and the bay visible.

This Northbound cable car is about to drop down the steep hill to the Fisherman’s Wharf area.

The busy part of California Street facing West toward Polk Gulch.

I’m off to work shortly, after the holiday yesterday.

There’s been a lot going on lately, but no one thing has inspired me to write a story here. I guess it’s just time passing that has prompted me to write here now, which, honestly, is a fine enough reason. I only post here about once or twice a month which is just enough to let my friends know that the site is still active and for me to pay attention to the hosting system. I know people who blog every detail of their lives and I know people who blog on certain topics of interest. It’s all interesting, but I find it hard to get a real sense of someone from a blog. In fact the ones I like the most are the blogs of people I actually know; then it’s an adjunct of a person that I know more intimately.

One of my friends summed up this whole idea when she told me, “your blog is bullshit since it doesn’t portray who you really are.”

I understand her sentiment, but for what it’s worth, I’ve made it a point to state that this site represents a minuscule part of who and what I really am. I’m a big fan these days of living in the real world, not in the virtual.

My life has been busy, filled with work and friends, a recent trip to Monterey, technical issues, thinking about the new sailing season, writing and overall growth. That’s a small glimpse of my life, to be sure, but it does portray a tiny bit of who and what I really am.

I rarely talk about people I know here in the ol’ blog, which sometimes strikes me as strange since the relationships I have, with all sorts of different people, are so important to me.

In this case I have been specifically asked to be general.

Last week the company I work for had its holiday party in San Francisco. The following is a funny shot of men in suits getting wild, wild and crazy, crazy. They found funny hats and started dancing like the Village People. No policeman, though.

I asked the legal department at this company if it was okay to post pictures from the party. They said as long as I never identified the company by name (roger that), received permission from the photographer (got it) and received permission from the people in the photo(s) then it wouldn’t be a problem. Okay, so I’m doing a little “work around” on the last part.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Bay to Breakers is going on right now, streaming past my building. Earlier the “serious” runners came through; the crowds were light and it was still quiet. Now the throngs are strolling by, the crowds are cheering — it’s in full swing:

Images (c) Jeremy Randall