Today is my day to relax and get my body clock starting to sync.  I have a pretty busy week scheduled and want to be rested, so I plan on doing very little today other than some sight seeing.

    Recovering from yesterdays meals I actually ended up staying in the room until after 11:00, even though I woke up at like 5:00.  I had plenty of time to enjoy abdominal cramps and get some writing done (not the least of which you're reading) between visits to the can.  There were to be lasting side-effects all day from last nights gastrointestinal adventures.

    Breakfast is included here at the Hotel Diva and features an assortment of rolls, cereals, and fruit - that along with coffee and juice is all I need as I am not much of a breakfast person.  I am saddened to see that they no longer offer the chocolate croissants they've had on my last 2 stays here.  That, among other things, will likely have me staying somewhere else on my next trip as this place has sunk below mediocre.  Shame too, they just got wireless in select rooms for only $9/day.  Anyway, I grab something light (two coffees and two peach-n-cheese danish) and I'm all charged for the morning.

    Today I had hope to search through Chinatown and find a nice Mahjong set.  Chinatown is loaded with "import" stores that hawk all kinds of crap to the touristas.  I found myself transported back to my visit to Beijing in 1998 where I saw all kinds of Chinese crap for sale at various locations.  They have the same Chinese crap in Chinatown, only now it's 10 times the price.  I did not find a decent Mahjong set - they all had the same crap.  I imagine that if I had a decent (bi-lingual) guide that knew the place I would have had much better luck in finding stuff not so crappy, but today was not that day.  It did, however, make me feel good because the stuff I brought back from China was pretty nice, and I have to believe therefore worth a lot of money.

    I was also transported back to my trip when I found myself standing at a crosswalk surrounded by about 2 dozen Chinese people and I was about 2 feet taller than all of them.

    It struck me odd that almost every store I walked into was manned by a wholly disinterested person.  In a couple shops the shopkeepers just sat reading the paper as I walked all over.  But then I realized that this is what their day is like every day - pasty, big nosed tourists traipsing in and out, not buying much if anything and pawing everything in sight.  Several of the stores I went into looked like the Blue Light table at K*Mart - all toe up.  Bunch of savages in this town.....

    I was equally oddly struck that it appeared to be "Ozzy" day in Chinatown.  No, not the bat biting kind, but the kind from the land down under.  Virtually every shop I went in had a family or two muttering things like "G'Day", "Oy", "You beauty" or "That's Australian for beer".  If found this strange as I would figure Australia had no problem getting loads of Chinese crap direct from the source as opposed to carting it all the way across the globe from America.

    I was bummed to learn that my digital camera may have gone tits up.  It doesn't seem to want to focus correctly any longer.  All the shots I got today were blurry, and I have zero tolerance for crappy digital snaps so I deleted them all.  Upon messing with the camera I believe that the problem may actually have something to do with the fact that I did not format the CF card with the camera.  I know that sounds really stupid, but formatting the card seems to have made things better.  I will know for sure tomorrow when I go to put it to use.  Too bad, I had some good shots from Chinatown, including some WidowMakers that make my suitcase look like carry on.

    Now let me take a moment to digress and talk about (my take on) San Francisco.
    SFO is not the place for you if:
    - you hate gay people (to start with the obvious)
    One of the things I like most about SFO is it's diversity.  Other places talk about it, but this is the only place I've seen it in every day situations.  There is not a lot of racial tension.  I see black & white folks bantering on public transport.  Today at the "gate" to Chinatown (there's a park there) I saw some black people with a boom-box playing hip-hop sitting next to a bunch of Chinese people playing cards.  Everyone was smiling and chatting.  On the bus I passed a hip-hop festival sponsored by a local radio station - it looked more like an all nations fair.  There are same sex couples doing what hetero-sex couples do.  If you are at all intolerant this is not the place to be.  Not all fags are tiny, mincing faeries with kind dispositions and intolerance is... well... not tolerated well.
    - you're a conservative
    The flip-side to the awesome cultural diversity is that it's likely the result of an extremely liberal mindset.  They don't like "Under God" in the pledge of allegiance.  They want to open all the borders for anyone anytime.  They don't want prayer in schools.  They don't want anything done to discourage pan-handling / homeless.
    - you can't imagine not owning a car
    There are far too many people in SFO, and even fewer parking spaces.  Having rented a car here on past trips I know that you are likely to spend twice as much time looking for parking for a given restaurant than you are time actually in the restaurant.  Also - when it comes to gasoline California in general is a sellers market.  It's $2.00 a gallon all over the place here.  On the other side of this, public transport is very viable here.  It's not speedy, but it works for the most part.  A mix of bus, subway, trolley, and cable cars keep things interesting if nothing else.
    I'm also amazed by the number of expensive cars.  I can understand it if you leave the city often, but I can't understand the desire to own a Ferrari when the fastest it will ever see is 40 or so (and only that if you speed from one stop to the next).
    - you like a nice shower
    California practices the illusion of water conservation.  Oh, I'm sure that not watering lawns helps, but ALL the showers in CA are "water savers".  What does that mean?  Well, it means that instead of a reasonable shower head that passes 3 gallons of water a minute which allows you to get nice-n-clean in about 10 minutes you get a spritzer that passes 1 gallon of water a minute allowing you to get marginally clean at best in about 30 minutes.  The net water usage is the same, you just get really pissed off in the process, and you never really feel that clean.  And water here is the equivalent of liquid concrete - I've yet to be in a hotel that had a water softener.
    - you hate panhandlers
    With the .com crash there are more panhandlers than ever here.  They're more prevalent than pedestrians at some intersections after dark, and even for me that's a bit disconcerting, particularly given my near Fleet Avenue beat-down of a drunk and too obnoxious homeless guy in Canada a couple months ago.
    Sadly, the quality of homeless has degraded (if that's possible) - gone are the street musicians that at least tried to give a little something, or the "funny" homeless signs like "Why lie? It's for beer" and "Will write HTML for food".  Now you get guys telling you they're diabetic and have to get something to eat (then you watch them take your money into the closest package store) or you see signs that say "I'm Hungry" (these are particularly entertaining when said homeless person weighs about 300 pounds).  What really bugs the crap out of me is when you tell them "Sorry - no change" they feel compelled to say something like "Well - do you have a smile?" - at which point I really want to say "No - but I have a finger for you".  Last time I was here I had the distinct displeasure of being down wind from a guy (likely near my age) that had shit himself real bad.  There but for the grace of God go I.......
    - you hate "foreigners"
    In short, the white (hetero) male is, by FAR, the minority here.  On the bright side, if you can find those that do not "bat for the other team" there are lots of chicks here.  Likewise for the ladies.  Like Hawaii, SFO has a huge Asian population, but it's by no means limited to Asia - there are folks from all over the globe here.  Many still feel the need to represent their country of origin in many forms (i.e. political) and that can be bothersome.
    - you are poor / middle class
    I do not see how anyone can live here that is not making $150k / year per person.  Aside from the usual gamut of fast food, everything here is way expensive.  During the tech boom of the late 90's things here got WAY out of control.  Now that the .com crash has introduce El Cabong to many overnight Yuppies there are plenty of properties and used Range Rovers available, but many of the day-to-day expenses have not really dropped.  Furniture is ungodly.  If I lived here I'd have to sit on milk crates.
    - are in bad shape
    SFO does not exhibit the bovine tendencies that middle America is famous for.  If you live here you walk a lot and likely have lots of things to occupy your time that do not include watching hours of Jerry Springer while shoveling KFC into your gullet.  As I have said, walking anywhere will involve hills.  I have walked on several routes that absolutely require that you rest at some point or blow out a ventricle.  There is just something about being here that makes you want to take better care of yourself (probably all the "beautiful bodies" surrounding you).  I lose an average of 7 to 10 pounds when I'm here for a week.  I bet if I stayed here long enough my skin would clear up and go tan, my hair would go blonde, and my eyes would turn blue.

    SFO is for you if:
    - like city life
    - you are fairly tolerant of a mixed society
    - can watch idiotic legislation get passed without bursting an aneurysm
    - enjoy ever-changing weather
    - like to garden (and can afford something with actual dirt around it)
    - want to stay fit
    - like seafood (really, like any kind of food - it's all here)
    - have serious "F**K YOU" money" (don't get it? buy the book)

    So back to the rest of my day.  It was sadly mundane, but that's pretty much what I had planned.  I rode the bus and the trolley all over the western and southern parts of the city before coming back to the hotel.  I did have an awesome lunch at a pasta place along the way.

    I am concerned that the usual stream of wacky events that seem to find me will dry up, making these logs as tedious to type as they are to read - but we'll wait and see what happens when the show is under way.  The Linux crowd is sure not to disappoint.

    I was delighted to find that my room had not been made up while I was away, so I got to sit in the lobby for a half hour while they cleaned up my mess.

    Hopefully tonight will be quiet - tomorrow is the first day of the show, and I have a Beowulf class all afternoon and a bunch of schmoozing to attend after hours.
 
 

Time for Day Three.....