This was, I think, the day before Thanksgiving? Sophie’s mom and also Serena were in town, and we had an afternoon to kill. She’s been around here enough that all the regular tourist stuff was played out, so we did something more local-ish. The stair walks are from a book, Secret Stairs: East Bay. I believe it’s a series, even. Anyway, there are detailed instructions for how to find the trail for what amounts to an urban hike. This one starts and ends at the Berkeley Rose Garden.
As you might imagine, there are a lot of stairs, but it’s a reasonable balance of up and down, such that I didn’t feel too strained (he says, 6 months later). There were a couple really amazing, sweeping panoramic views of the bay. I’ve only put one here, just because when you’ve seen one spectacular sunset photo from roughly the same square mile of the hills, you’ve seen them all. The experience of coming around a corner and looking to your side to see it, that never gets old.
edit: added another sentence so the last graph doesn’t trail off
Posted on 2018-04-07T09:29:50Z GMT
Still working on this, despite the radio silence and despite the lack of coherent narrative. There’s something about it that won’t let me go. I just keep shooting, hoping to find something. A lot of times, I’ll work this way for months and months (I think this project is nearing the year mark).
It just occured to me, looking at these photos, that I could do a series just on the liquor stores on this street, and have something interesting. Hmm.
I know, the Albany Cinema isn’t on San Pablo, but the picture was taken from SP, so I’m calling it canon. For now.
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Posted on 2018-04-07T08:24:04Z GMT
Sometimes I do this; just take a day off, call in sick, and do whatever. Last thursday I woke up to my alarm and the knowledge that there was no way I was going to be a functional code monkey that day, so I called (actually slacked) in sick, and put in my time, and went back to sleep for four more hours.
When I woke up, I had this desire to go for a long bike ride. I have this road bike, the one that I bought with the proceeds from the sale of my motorcycle, and I decided it was time to dust it off for the spring and go around a bit. So I did.
BART to the city, and then down embarcadero to roughly fisherman’s warf, and then across the north end of SF all the way to Fort Point. From there, up into the Presidio. My legs were very tired, but I kept going, all the way to Golden Gate Park. The spot I came into the park meant that it was basically the last hill I had to climb, and I rode downhill all the way from JFK and crossover to 2nd and Townsend. About 17 miles all told.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: riding a bike makes everything better.
Posted on 2018-04-05T07:25:07Z GMT
the bee is from October; the photos from the walk home were from something in the mission, no idea what. Looks like I was getting there right at moonrise and then left after dark. Not sure what I was doing there to be honest.
I’ve been working on some tables since roughly january. Originally, I was going to buy myself a mini mill like this one and put it on top. I talked to my dad, who knows a thing or two about metal work, and he said I should just make a simple table out of 1/4” plate (~6mm) for the top, and 2x2 box tube.
I knew a long time ago that the first thing I needed for my little home machine shop was a welder. It’s an essential tool; if the mill is creation by subtraction, the welder is creation by addition. They are both required for the kind of shop I’m putting together. Somewhere, I have a draft post listing all the stuff I’d need, and the order and why; but the most pressing reason is with a welder, I can put together durable shop furniture.
So, for xmas, I bought myself the welder, and I called up the local metal supply yard. Albany Steel, real nice guys, they even flame cut my plate with their shear down (it’s been down since november). But, I found out, plate steel is expensive; a single sheet, 4’x8’, is $250. So, I decided that instead of just building one table and having a giant piece of steel that I had no use for hanging around, I’d just build another table, to replace my desk. (Why build one when two is twice the fun?)
I’m talking about this a lot because I really like both of these objects I’ve produced. The smaller table is one of my favorite things I’ve ever built, and the bigger one, although not completed, is just really rad too. They’d both hold up roughly an armored car. They also weigh a fuckton; the smaller one is 200lbs, and the larger one is ~350.
Anyway, after these are done, I have to catch up on a bunch of non-heavy-construction projects (anyone that does real construction laughs; but for me, this is giant). I’m working on some parts of a technical book with some friends, and hopefully it’ll be out by this xmas. And then there’s another watch project I’m working on, a hopefully python-based smartwatch, sort of in the mold of those big Garmin watches, but with some interesting UI stuff I’ve got going, plus I’m doing all the work for that out in public too.
Can’t stop won’t stop forgot how to stop.
Posted on 2018-04-05T06:48:00Z GMT
Still in March of last year now. We’ll take a jump forward soon, I swear. Anyway, these are from my friend Caleb’s semi-annual crawfish boil, that goes under his Marigny Social Club banner. Fucker can cook, is what I’m sayin. I only made it for the very last pot (and took the last beer too) because I’m an idiot and decided to take public transit to get there, got lost in the park and took almost an hour to get from the muni station to the actual location of the boil. Everything was delicious, and I seem to remember getting a ride back to the east bay. good times.
Posted on 2018-04-04T05:12:43Z GMT
