Where's Brunson?

Good news everyone!

2010-03-19T12:16:00.001-07:00

I was offered an internship for the summer! I'll be doing undergraduate research in nanotechnology at Washington University in St. Louis. I'm pretty excited to finally get to live in (well, right next to) the City of St. Louis. It'll also be fun to see everyone I haven't seen in the two years since I was last there.

As soon as I get to St. Louis, I plan to have some Ted Drewes. But the second thing I want to do is finally buy a bicycle. So if you know anyone who is trying to sell a road bike, let me know. And if anyone knows of a good (and cheap) way for me to transport the bike back to SF at the end of the summer, that would be great too.

Hi there

2010-03-19T11:56:00.001-07:00

I've been quite busy for the last semesters and this blog has fallen by the wayside. Since I last posted here, I switched to Mechanical Engineering, though I still plan to minor in Environmental Engineering. I am still doing nanotech research in my department, though this semester I'm focusing on nanofiltration for water treatment.

Here are my classes this semester:

•ENGR206: Circuits and Instrumentation Lab
•ENGR305: Linear Systems Response
•ENGR306: Electromechanical Systems
•ENGR364: Materials and Manufacturing Processes
•ENG214: Second Year English Composition
•RAZA679: Central American Literature

There hasn't been much going on outside of school. I went snowboarding and didn't damage any of my limbs! I plan to go a couple more times before the season is up. Then we start cycling around the Bay Area.

Misguided Muni Driver

2009-10-04T21:09:00.001-07:00

I was riding the 14 Mission today from near the beginning of the line. At one stop I heard the bus driver say, "Oh no, you can't bring that on this bus." The girl replied that she wasn't going to eat it but was just saving it for later. "It" was referring to what looked like a bread bowl of soup with no container at all. I was really glad that this bus driver was standing up for the cleanliness of her bus until what came next. The driver said, "Alright, but you better go sit in the back!" Is there a new "nasty stuff must go to the back of the bus" rule? If so, people have been following it. I feel like I need to shower after leaving the back of the 14/49.

I've returned

2009-07-28T11:51:00.000-07:00

I returned to San Francisco two weeks ago. Since I wrote here last, I went to Matagalpa, Camoapa, San Juan del Sur, and Jinotega. Three of those cities are in the mountains and are quite beautiful. Matagalpa is my favorite city. It is like a little San Francisco. There are hills and fog. I am going to live there some day.

Since returning to San Francisco, my engineering classes have begun. My class schedule changed a lot in the first week. I can not take any general education classes this semester (I am very behind on those). I am taking fifteen engineering units. I might be doing research in my department. A professor at SFSU Engineering is studying nanowires for use in cheaper photovoltaics.

Here are my clases:

•ENGR300 Engineering Experimentation + Lab
•ENGR303 Thermodynamics
•ENGR304 Mechanics of Fluids
•ENGR309 Mechanics of Solids
•ENGR434 Principles of Environmental Engineering

This weekend is a five weekend because California State University is broke. My university is going to close for six furlough days this year to reduce costs. I am going to visit my family in Southern California for a few days.

En español:

Regresé a San Francisco hace dos semanas. Desde la cosa pasada escribí aquí, fui a Matagalpa, Camoapa, San Juan del Sur y Jinotega. Tres de esos ciudades están en las montañas. ¡Que bonita! Matagalpa es mi ciudad favorita. Es como un pequeño San Francisco. Hay colinas y niebla. Voy a vivir allá un día.

Desde regresar a San Francisco, mis clases de ingeniería empiezaba. Mi horario de clases cambiaba mucho en la primera semana. No puedo tomar una clase de educación general este semestre. Estoy tomando quince unidades de ingeniería. Tal ves voy a hacer investigación en mi departamento. Un profesor en mi universidad estudia alambres muy pequeños para usar ellos en paneles solares y baratos.

Estas son mis clases:
•ENGR300 Experimentación de Ingeniería
•ENGR303 Termodinámica
•ENGR304 Mecánicas de Fluidos
•ENGR309 Mecánicas de Sólidos
•ENGR434 Principios de Ingeniería Medioambiental

Este fin de semana tiene cinco días porque mi sistema de universidades esta palmado. Mi universidad va a cerrar para seis días este año para reducir gastos. Voy a visitar mi familia en California del Sur para unas días.

Este Fin de Semana

2009-07-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

I am going to try to do my posts in English and Spanish from now on. If you know Spanish, be sure to correct my translations in the comments.

Today is the 30th Anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution. Hundreds of thousands of people are gathered in Managua to hear several speakers, including President Daniel Ortega. Those not at the plaza right now are gathering in their individual barrios and celebrating (dancing, shooting off fireworks, listening to the event).

For lunch, we had lobster soup. It included a turtle egg. When I first heard that sea turtles here are either endangered or critically endangered, I wasn't going to find one to eat. But I was served it for lunch and abstaining from it won't bring the turtle back. It tasted alright. But, it's certainly not worth driving a species to extinction for.

Hoy es el treinta aniversario de la revolucion de Sandinista. Mas cien mil personas son en Managua para escuchar a Presidente Daniel Ortega y mas oradores. Las personas quien no esta alla estan en sus barrios y celebran por bailando, fusilando fuegos artificiales y escuchando a los discursos.

Comemos sopa de langosta para almuerzo. Almuerzo incluió un huevo de tortuga. Cuando oí que tortugas de mar aquí o ponen en peligro o ponen gravemente en peligro, no quiero encontrar un para comer. Pero mi familia se servió para almuerzo. Absteniendo de este huevo no va a regressar la tortuga. Fue bien, mas o menos. Pero no vale cierto empujando una especie llegar a ser extinto.

Crazy Taxi

2009-07-16T15:18:00.000-07:00

Today included our most exciting taxi ride to date. On our way back home from meeting a friend at ATRAVES (more on that some other time), our taxi was making a U-turn on a major street and the car died on us. So the three of us got out to push our taxi to the nearest gas station (a couple blocks away). As we pushed our way down this major road, people on the street were laughing at the sight of three gringos pushing the taxi.

Little Las Vegas

2009-07-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

One of our gringa friends went back home to Ohio on Saturday. For her last night here, a group of us got together to go to a discotheque called the Chaman. The Chaman would feel right at home in Las Vegas. It's a new expensive club that looks like a lit up Mayan pyramid. If you know me at all, you are probably laughing at the thought of me in a dance club. It's mostly full of crappy club music (yes, they listen to Flo-Rida in Nicaragua) and trashy people (both gringos and Nicas). I'm pretty sure that a root canal would have been an equally enjoyable experience.

I got a haircut yesterday. I couldn't talk to them much so they gave me a couple magazines with haircuts from decades ago. My friend and I mutually decided on the least terrible one and pointed at it. I don't think it mattered though since my hair looked nothing like the picture after it was all over with.

Notes from Nicaragua

2009-07-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

-After our first week's homestay, we decided to rent directly from our respective Nicaraguan families. My family is awesome. I'm staying with Esmerelda and her children: Carlos (20's/30's), Stefany (high school), and Steven (middle school). They speak English perfectly but aren't supposed to speak to me in English (though they cheat sometimes).

-In case you thought that Nicaragua was insulated from American culture, Michael Jackson has been the talk of conversation all over the place. The bootleg CD/DVD sellers at markets have all stocked up on their Michael Jackson supply. To get the Nicaraguan news stations to stop talking about him all the time, it took a military coup in the neighboring country!

-The news on Canal 10 is really graphic. For the past few days, one story included them showing a large bullet wound on a dead body. And I usually watch it while I'm eating!

-The water in my barrio goes out intermittently. It's common for the water to go off in the evening. I'm really glad it's on in the mornings. I wouldn't want to miss an ice-cold shower!

-Our Spanish teachers, Jeffrey and Joshua, are both in university. They keep teaching us bad words, off-color jokes, and some cheesy pick-up lines (piropos). Mostly because we bring it up first.

Casa Ben Linder

2009-07-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Casa Ben Linder for the first time. Casa Ben Linder is a community in Managua that serves as a networking point for the English-speaking and international people and organizations in Nicaragua. Every Thursday morning several people, from short-term volunteers like us to people who have been here 25+ years, meet at the house and hear from a speaker about some topic of interest to Nicaraguan culture or non-government organizations (NGO's).

The community began to commemorate the life and work of Ben Linder. Ben Linder was an engineer from Portland who moved to Nicaragua during the U.S .war against Nicaragua. While working on a hydro-electric project in northern Nicaragua, he was shot at point blank range by the U.S.-backed contras.

At the meeting yesterday, we heard from Laura and Christine who started a project to connect volunteers in the U.S. to a cultural center outside Managua, where they teach English, lead women's groups and youth groups, and teach people about starting small businesses. We also met several people from various organizations around Nicaragua. We plan on attending the meeting every Thursday.

Mercado Oriental

2009-06-29T13:54:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we went to Mercado Oriental, the largest market in Central America. It's a very intense experience with a ton of people in very little space. Anything you could ever think of buying can be found somewhere in the market (and many other things that you would never think of). I didn't know it, but I was in part of Mercado Oriental in January. The market has huge sections for furniture, electronics, clothes/shoes, fruits, vegetables, raw meat, and lots of other things. The meat section had every part of an animal that exists (piles of cow heads). They sold iguanas, both dead and alive.

We want to take pictures/video, but have been recommended against it. People say that a crime happens every seven minutes there. Here are some things I found from a quick Google search.

Hola de Managua, Nicaragua

2009-06-26T15:27:00.001-07:00

I am in Managua, Nicaragua with my friends David and Kristine. We are currently at a Spanish immersion school for the week. Each of us are staying with a family in the neighborhood. My family is awesome. They know English perfectly but have been instructed not to speak to me in English. We are in the process of looking for a place to rent in Nicaragua for several months. Once we find one, we'll have a better idea of where we'll be in the future.

Is this guy for real?

2009-05-13T21:38:00.001-07:00

I was sitting in my Differential Equations and Linear Algebra class on Monday. Some background: my teacher looks and sounds like The Godfather. Not only that, but he has quite a sense of humor similar to Douglas Adams. I always enjoy his lectures.

So, on Monday, I was sitting in the second row, diagonally behind this one guy (we'll call him Sam). During the middle of the lecture, Sam pulls a paper bag toward his desk as quietly as he could. He then proceeded to pull out a sandwich. A large submarine sandwich. He tried and failed to unwrap it inconspicuously by only tearing away the paper while our professor was talking about Laplace transforms. He proceeded to eat the sandwich in the middle of lecture in the front row. I don't think he could have been sloppier if he tried. He completed the moment by licking the mayonnaise off of his fingertips and taking large gulps from whatever was in his bottle. This is the kind of thing I would expect to see someone doing while watching circus animals perform or perhaps at Medieval Times. Needless to say, I was incredibly hungry and couldn't wait for lunch.

Summer Plans

2009-04-26T23:12:00.001-07:00

A friend told that if I got the internship I interviewed for, I'll get a call in no more than four days. If I don't get the internship, I'll be in Nicaragua this summer. This is pretty exciting because no matter what happens, I win!

It's been an exhausting week

2009-04-17T14:33:00.001-07:00

Since I last posted:

•I had a job interview with the City a week or so ago. It seemed to go pretty well. I don't like interviews at all.

•When my parents visited, my dad got sick and gave me whatever he had before he left. I guess it was sort of a parting gift.

•I finally found the Créme Brulée cart that has been wandering around the Mission every so often. This guy set up a street food cart by preparing three flavors of créme brulée and then blowtorching sugar on the top to caramelize it. It's fantastic. Next I need to find his brother, the purveyor of the Magic Curry Kart. Perhaps I'll find him tonight.

•I had four midterms this week and didn't get very much sleep.

To make up for my absence, here's a video about a wolf chasing a pig:

Spring break is here!

2009-03-21T17:34:00.001-07:00

The last couple of weeks have been quite long. I had four midterms and a quiz within three days. So, some of us started studying the day before (Sunday 3/1) for a couple of them at 2pm. At 12am, we decided to study some more at IHOP (San Francisco really needs some good 24-hour options like Coffee Cartel...or even White Castle). We stayed there until 4am. We should have just gone there for dinner and then had breakfast on the same tab.

Last weekend I flew down to my family's end of California for my mom's 60th. She didn't know I was coming. This week, my sister and parents are visiting me for spring break.

Also, I got an interview for an internship! Now I have to find something formal to wear to it.

In local news, someone in San Francisco made international headlines by setting fire to over two dozen porta-potties on construction sites since this past summer. Now Clorox has announced that it is offering a reward of $5,000 and one year's supply of toilet cleaning products to anyone who reports a tip leading to an arrest.

Everybody dance!

2009-03-21T17:33:00.001-07:00

I wonder how much lessons from this bear would cost.

Saturday Things

2009-02-28T18:12:00.001-08:00

Today was the day of our scavenger hunt fundraiser for BRIDGE. Unfortunately, no one showed up (we suck at marketing). But, if they would have showed up, they would have had a good time finding random things in the Mission.

The day got better though. After waiting for a half hour or so, we decided to go have lunch at the Guatemalan food truck at 16th St.

As we arrived, our good friend Ralf Hotchkiss came by and met us there. We were surprised when he showed up with Thelma and her daughter Marcielle from Chinandega, Nicaragua. You can see all of us (except for Ryan who wasn't on our first Nica trip) in a picture below, taken in Chinandega.

(CCW from right: David, Kristine, yours truly, Marcielle, Thelma, Ralf)

We had a good time walking around the Mission shopping and snacking at various places on Mission St. At Giant Value (pictured on left) we came across the most amazing translation for this leash:

This is the coolest thing you will see today

2009-02-27T18:12:00.001-08:00

Fish with a transparent head

Lavanderia

2009-02-22T01:35:00.001-08:00

In Morrito (and most of the rest of Nicaragua), if you would like to wash your clothes you'll be doing it by hand. In Morrito, there are some stations in the lake for people to wash their clothes, some of which even provide shade.

As it turns out, washing your clothes by hand is pretty hard work. You especially get discouraged after all that work when a bird takes the liberty of crapping on your freshly scrubbed jeans, which are the hardest to wash. Two of us, including yours truly, got to experience such discouragement. Here you can see David learning how to wash his sock with me in the background, quite skeptical about the actual cleanliness of that sock.

Managua (BONUS: The Brunson Hole)

2009-02-11T21:57:00.001-08:00

Managua is the capital and largest city in Nicaragua with around 1.6 million people. It may be a big city, but it still isn't uncommon to a cow walking down the side of the street or chickens crossing the street. People in this city drive like maniacs. I'm not convinced that there are any rules of the road in Nicaragua. We were told that drunk driving was a huge problem there but we couldn't tell who was driving drunk and who was sober! It really amazes me that someone can ride a horse with a cart around the city without getting run over, especially in one of these traffic circles.

It's not uncommon to hear someone on horseback walk down your street in the evening announcing what they are selling on a bullhorn.

I don't have many pictures of Managua right now. We got to experience Managua more on this trip than the first one. We spent a couple days at the beginning, David and I came back for a couple days, and we got a good tour of it right before we left the country. Managua is a pretty neat city. I would love to spend more time there on a future trip.

If you read my posts last August on our first trip, you might remember that I fell down a hole. Since we stayed in the same hotel while we were in Managua, we managed take a picture of the aptly named Brunson Hole.

Sunset from Morrito, Nicaragua

2009-02-04T23:02:00.001-08:00

I'm starting to get some of the pictures we took in Nicaragua. I'll be posting a couple at a time and giving the story behind them. Here are the first few. This is a sunset over Lake Nicaragua as seen from Morrito. The big island in the distance is Ometepe, which was formed by two volcanoes. If you take the ferry from Granada, the first stop is Ometepe and the next stop is Morrito. But if you do take that ferry, don't use the bathroom. Just trust me on that one.

P.S. I don't know who that guy in the middle picture is. I guess he just enjoys standing on random stumps in a lake.

Back in School

2009-02-04T23:00:00.001-08:00

I've been back in school for a little over a week now. I'm taking less units, but I have a feeling that it's going to be a much busier schedule. We'll see. I'm pretty happy about the lack of 8am classes shown in the schedule.

I'm taking:

•ENGR 200 Materials of Engineering w/ Lab (3 units)
•ENGR 201 Dynamics (3 units)
•ENGR 205 Electric Circuits (3 units)
•MATH 245 Differential Equations and Linear Algebra (3 units)
•PHYS 240 Gen. Physics w/ Calculus III (3 units)
•PHYS 242 Gen. Physics w/ Calculus III Lab (1 unit)

I'm back from Nicaragua

2009-01-29T18:12:00.001-08:00

I have returned from an awesome time in Nicaragua. We were there for three weeks and spent a vast majority of the time in Morrito, the town we are working in. In all, there were eight of us, seven gringos and an incredibly patient Nicaraguan. We had a great time even though we were living in a space not much larger than my studio.

We didn't raise the money to build the library this trip, but decided that we should go anyway to spend time in the community and do a small project with the money we had raised. While we were there, the community decided that they could use some learning materials for their schools (pre-school through secondary school). So, a few of us went to Managua for a couple days with the principle in search of the supplies.

As we start getting our pictures together, I'll post more and more about the trip and include photos. In the meantime, you can take a look at our website to find out what we're about. It hasn't been updated with news/pictures from our latest trip though.

I'm off to Nicaragua

2008-12-31T13:57:00.001-08:00

I am leaving right now for Nicaragua for a few weeks. See you when school starts.

Slumdog Millionaire

2008-11-16T23:57:00.001-08:00

I just saw Danny Boyle's new movie, Slumdog Millionaire. It was amazing, certainly one of my favorite films of the year. As usual, Danny Boyle portrays the story beautifully. It's amazing to me that, while there is a unique 'Danny Boyle' style in all of his movies, each of his movies are vastly different.

If you're in St. Louis, there is a free screening Monday night at Ronnie's (and there are a few more free screenings before it is released in mid-December). If you're in SF, it is currently playing at Embarcadero Center. Speaking of movie theatres, did you know that AMC is $6 for shows before noon on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Because I didn't until I saw RocknRolla a couple weeks ago. I didn't realize a $6 movie still existed in San Francisco.

I've been meaning to post more on here. I blame my lack of updates on the economy. It seems like a good enough scapegoat.

•I have one week of school until our fall break. Yeah, we get a full week off for Thanksgiving. I'll be traveling across state lines to visit my family in SoCal (well, in an absolut world anyway).

•I was supposed to be registered for some of my Spring '09 classes by now. But then the State of California cut my school's budget again. Now our Spring '09 schedule is up in the air until a couple days before we register. Thanks, Governator (another convenient scapegoat).

•Speaking of the economy, it turns out that I couldn't have chosen a better semester to take a macroeconomics class.

•I'm almost done with Rob Bell's new book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians. It's been good so far. Not groundbreaking. It might have felt a little more groundbreaking if I didn't read almost the same content in Shaine Claiborne's most recent book, Jesus for President. Next week will hopefully give me some time to read some of the books I've bought in the last several months. I should really stop buying books until I have time to read them.

Election Night Thoughts

2008-11-05T02:03:00.001-08:00

I am an election junkie. Every election makes me want to stay up until the wee hours of the morning to watch the results as they come in. I mainly just watch California and Missouri though.

Celebration of our new President is in the air in various San Francisco neighborhoods. Walking through the Mission tonight, I saw people honking, hugging, cheering, and dancing. I've heard that, after the announcement, people spilled out onto the street shooting off fireworks and popping champagne bottles. It's been a pretty exciting day.

I am really disappointed by San Francisco's voter turnout. It was just shy of 50%! People had been reporting all day that lines were way longer than they've ever seen and turnout was still that low. 50% of San Francisco didn't make their voices heard and San Francisco is almost inconsequential against Prop 8 (contributing a measly 175,000 votes against it).

I am also very disappointed by Missouri. Not about the Presidential election. Missouri might show that my prediction was wrong and lose its bellweather status (though no one has called it either way at this point). Constitutional Amendment 1 (English Language) passed by a lot (86%). This amendment will make English mandatory for all government meetings (full text here). Because of this amendment, new immigrants (legal or not) will not be able to vote or take a driver's license test and will have a much harder time becoming a part of their new community.

St. Louis County also did not pass Prop M, the Metro sales tax. It does suck that nearly all of Metro's funding must come locally since the state of Missouri is completely useless (contributing less than 1% of Metro's annual operating budget). Without any new source of funding (preferably a relatively permanent source), the system will have to be scaled back a lot. If Metro does have to follow their current cutback plans, the system which was quite reliable and well-run for the amount of funding it got will be nearly useless by 2010. Some people believe they may be bluffing. But, knowing that they have been operating on a shoestring budget which has been decreasing for years, I doubt they'll be able to offer anywhere near their current level of service.

That's all for tonight. I've got to get some sleep.

I waited in line for two hours

2008-11-03T18:55:00.001-08:00

...and all I got was this lousy sticker:

That sticker is good for:
•1 scoop of ice cream at Ben and Jerry's
•1 tall brewed coffee at Starbucks (Maybe I'll try coffee from one of their Clover machines)
•1 donut at Krispy Kreme (Getting to a Krispy Kreme costs more than their mediocre donuts)
•1 glass of sangria at Balboa Cafe (I can't take advantage of this one, but if you happen to find yourself around Fillmore and Lombard, make sure to have your sticker with you)
•I'm sure there will be more election day specials allowing you to exercise your right to free stuff

I celebrated voting with borek and baklava from the Turkish place near City Hall. Performing your civic duty never tasted so sweet.

Tomorrow is election day, so go vote! Remember that if you are in line at the time the polls close, you are guaranteed to vote (in Missouri and California), no matter how long it takes. Don't let anyone, no matter how official they say they are, tell you differently.

Update: If you're in San Francisco on election night and need a TV for results coverage, there is a free party from 6-11pm with all the results coverage at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in SOMA. Most importantly, there will be free pizza served after the polls close (worth the price of admission, which is also free).

I'm still here

2008-10-20T22:43:00.001-07:00

I've been extra busy with my class schedule (and extra lazy on the occasions that I have had some down time). Here are some tidbits from the last couple months;

• I've had midterms in nearly all my classes so far. As usual, my grade is inversely proportional to how well I expect to do in a class. I'm doing the best in my hardest classes since I spend much more time on them. On another note, I don't think I could have picked a better semester to take macroeconomics.

• My family has visited me twice since I last wrote on here. That's always fun (and delicious since I get food that exceeds a college student's budget). While they were here, we traveled to a foreign land called Daly City. It does feel a weird to leave San Francisco's city limit. In this strange land, there exists two Target Greatland stores across the street from each other. Seriously, you can see one from the parking lot of the other. I think Lewis Black would have a heart attack.

• We went to the new California Academy of Sciences designed by Renzo Piano. That place couldn't be any more awesome. The architecture and living roof are stunning (and way cooler in person). Inside, there is a four-story rainforest. The climate control inside it made me feel like I was back in Nicaragua or St. Louis. The aquarium and the coral reef are unbelievable. We didn't even get to go into the planetarium. I'll have to catch it on a free third wednesday.

• I am pretty tired of people from various campaigns calling me. I no longer pick up 415 numbers that I don't know. Next time I inadvertently answer one of them, I'll be sure to tell them that there must be some mistake, I live in "Missour-ah" (I wonder if Obama lost any Missouri votes with that pronunciation at his rally under the Arch). By the way, phone bank warriors, 9:45pm is not generally considered an acceptable time to be calling random people.

• Speaking of elections, San Franciscans have a lot of things to vote on. We've got the President, various representatives (U.S. Rep. and State Senate), 12 state initiatives, and 22 local propositions. For those of us in odd-numbered districts (and D4), we are also electing our Supervisor, which is hotly contested here in D9. My Voter Information "Pamphlet" is 272 pages long (there really should be an opt-out for those of us who would rather just look at everything online). All in all, my ballot has 33 different choices to be made (35 if you include the second and third choice votes for the Supervisor). Voting is quite a chore this election. If the SF Dept. of Elections didn't give out those multi-lingual stickers telling people on three different continents that I voted, I'm not sure that I would do it.

No More Mosquitoes

2008-09-01T22:55:00.001-07:00

Last night, I awoke to a buzzing noise. I didn't really want to deal with it at the moment but when it made a fly-by right over my ear, I was finally motivated to kill whatever it was. I got out of bed and turned on my light. When I looked up over my bed, a fairly large mosquito was just sitting on the wall near my head. I must have brought him back from Nicaragua because I've never seen a mosquito that size in San Francisco. I immediately felt my middle finger itching and noticed a bite there, making me even more determined to kill it. I found a scrap piece of paper and went after him. I missed and it went off to hide. I didn't see or hear from him again.

Fast forward to tonight (just now, in fact). I hear the familiar buzzing sound and assume it's just my mind messing with me. I'm convinced it's real after the fly-by over my ear (seriously, why do they do that?). So, just like last night, I get up and see the very same mosquito just sitting on the wall above my closet door. The very same middle finger is itching and I realized that it bit me less than a half-inch from last night's bite. I tried a different tactic and trapped him with a plastic cup. Success! I won't be hearing anything else out of that particular little sucker.

Renegade Queen

2008-08-28T21:56:00.001-07:00

I forgot to mention this before I left for Nicaragua. In early August, a swarm of bees attacked someone's car in my neighborhood (near 14th/Valencia). The story is that a renegade queen decided that their hive was too small and went searching for a place to build a new one, taking about 10,000 bees with her. I was walking by that intersection about a half hour before the bees came.

Source

Fall 2008 Semester

2008-08-28T21:43:00.001-07:00

I am nearing the end of my first week back at San Francisco State University. It was way more tiring that I thought it would be. I'm taking 20 units total and it looks like I'll be lacking sleep most of the semester. These are the classes I am taking:
ECON100 Introduction to Macroeconomic Analysis (3)
ENGR102 Statics (3)
ENGR235 Surveying (3)
MATH228 Calculus III (4)
PHYS230 Gen. Physics w/ Calculus II: Electricity and Magnetism (3)
PHYS232 Gen. Physics w/ Calculus II Lab (1)
Spanish 1A at City College San Francisco (Noe Valley Campus) (3)

Here's what the schedule looks like:

In my macroeconomics class today, our professor brought up an example of a cost-benefit analysis of building levees for farmland on the Mississippi River. During the course of the discussion, she mentioned a city that was stupid enough to build a giant shopping center and 20,000+ houses in a flood plain that was under water not too long ago. I can't imagine any municipality that would give tax incentives for a developer to do such a ridiculous thing!

One Year

2008-08-22T23:27:00.001-07:00

A year ago, to this day, I arrived at my studio in San Francisco. I've really only spent eight months here so far since I was out of town most of the winter and summer breaks.

I had been thinking about going to Outside Lands tonight to see Benevento/Russo Duo, Beck, and Radiohead. I even left my apartment and boarded a bus with the intention of going. But, upon realizing that I had left too late for MUNI to get me there in time for my first band, I questioned whether I want to spend $85 to see Radiohead from across a polo field at a giant music festival right after spending a bunch of money in Nicaragua. So, I turned back around and came back home since I couldn't make it to all three bands. MUNI's shortcomings saved me $85 tonight. The ride around the City had some interesting sights and sounds.

On the 49 Mission-Van Ness, I overheard some guys in the back negotiating over the sale of a pair of pants. "What size are they?" "Your size. They're 31 around the waist and..." I wasn't really all that surprised that someone was trying to sell a pair of pants on the bus. I had recently experience people selling all sorts of crap on the buses in Nicaragua: watches, wallets, pills, cream, and more (God bless the people who get on each stop and sell food). What caught me off guard was the use of the word, "warsh." Spoken just like a true midwesterner.

Some part of my journey brought me way up to the northern reaches of SF I only see when my parents are visiting. I got on a 22 Fillmore, headed back home. The driver stopped the bus at a Kentucky Fried Taco Bell to get a snack. The bus was wide open. I wonder what would happen if someone decided to steal a bus. Not the best vehicle for a wild police chase, specifically because it can't stray too far from the overhead wires.

When the driver came back, a group of loud and lost tourists boarded headed for the Lower Haight. One of them proclaimed, "Wow, we're on a bus in San Francisco!" and went on to say that he thought it was one of the finest transit systems. I'm sure he'll change his mind when he's trying to get back to his hotel Saturday night after Outside Lands.

The conclusion of the story: I got home and checked my mail. There was a paycheck waiting for me which I wasn't expecting. It would have more than covered the concert. Oh well, I'm sure I'll have a chance to see Radiohead in a better venue at some point in the future.

One More Day

2008-08-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

Just as we were getting used to traveling around Nicaragua, the end of our trip is rapidly approaching. Actually, we thought we had less time than we really did. We were going to go to the airport tonight to wait for a 6am flight until we found out that today was not actually the nineteenth of August, but rather the eighteenth. So, we are getting an extra day in Managua.

We traveled to Chinandega again, which has been our favorite city we've been to. We went to find out what, if anything, is being done to help the kids we saw in the dump. We found out that there is already a large, well-funded organization operating schools, hospitals, and all sorts of other things all over the city. They mentioned that the kids in the dump actually have places to go and educational opportunities available to them. It's often their parents that send them to scrounge for rubble and sell it. We were disappointed by that news, but glad that there is a group of people making a difference there.

We met with some engineering students and faculty from UNI today and they have been quite helpful in giving ideas to start some designs. The meeting proved informative and difficult. Everything that was said by the three of us and the five of them had to be funneled through our friend Albarelys, the only bilingual person in the room. Hopefully, the three of us will know quite a bit more Spanish when we come back in four months. We'll meet with them tomorrow before we go to the airport for real this time.

Agujero!

2008-08-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

We went to UNI (National University of Engineering) yesterday with the goal of making friends with the faculty there. We found our way to the right place, where we were greeted by a very cheerful administrator who was happy to connect us and show us what UNI has been doing in Nicaragua. He arranged for us to meet some other faculty members. It just so happened that Eva Lloyd Wright was there giving a lecture about her grandfather, Frank Lloyd Wright. While we were not able to go, we did get to briefly meet Eva in person. I've met the granddaughter of one of the most well-known architects in the United States!

We met UNI's head of volunteering (the title sounds much cooler in Spanish) for pupusas tonight. She told us a little bit more about what UNI does here in Managua and was happy to learn about what we were doing in Morrito. On Monday, we will meet her and some students from UNI for lunch. My hope is that we get to collaborate with UNI in January and beyond.

One thing we've noticed about many Nicaraguan cities, especially Managua, is that there are holes in the sidewalks everywhere. A lot of them are small holes because people steal the lids off of water meters. In Managua, several corners of the streets do not have grates over the sewers, resulting in giant holes on streetcorners. We have been warning each other of holes we see all throughout the trip. On the way to dinner, David made it a point to walk behind me so that he would not fall into any holes. This turned out to be a good strategy. As I was about to step off an unlit corner to cross the street, I fell right into a large hole. The hole was about a meter deep and dry (fortunately). I was unharmed except for a couple scrapes and a bruised elbow. I couldn't stop laughing for a good two minutes. If the fall resulted in a serious injury, I was lucky to have a hospital across the street at the time. Of the three of us gringos, I've been the one who has been falling (I also fell on our trek through the marsh of Morrito), but David and Kristine are the ones who have been getting sick.

Managua

2008-08-14T09:26:00.000-07:00

We traveled through the morning yesterday from Morrito to Managua, which consisted of taking a 5am bus from Morrito, watching the sun rise in the bus, and transferring to another bus in Juigalpa. In the process of transferring buses, Kristine left the bag with her wet shoes on the first bus and our busdriver to Managua stopped to let us find that bus to get her shoes, but it had already left. We got to Managua around noon, found a hotel, and rested for a while. For dinner last night, we had pupusas. Even though pupusas aren't actually common in Nicaragua, I can now say that I've had pupusas in Central America. Today, we are going to try to get in contact with several people in Managua about wheelchairs and water stuff. Speaking of water, the entire city of Managua, with a population of about 1.6 million people, turns off its water from 12pm to 5pm every day. It turned off at 10am today. We've been told that everyone here runs on "Niaraguan time," which means "plus or minus a couple hours."

In Morrito, we had no running water. A shower consisted of filling up a bucket with undrinkable well water and pouring it over yourself with soap. Actually, that's pretty much how you do anything with water except drinking. To drink, the people of Morrito use a certain well which makes them sick. The only good well with good water for the people is at the school. We made the trek to the three wells which were dug next to the lake in 2003. That journey consisted of walking through a marsh after a large downpour. We walked about a kilometre very slowly as we were trying to cross little ponds that had formed from the recent rain. We were all quite wet and tired at the end and our friend Albarelys made the trek in her sandals. What a trooper!

Traveling to Leon

2008-08-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, our friend Ralf showed us around the city of Chinandega. He has been coming here for twenty five years and knows the city pretty well. He showed us around one of the marketplaces and then took us to some of his friends´ homes. We met several residents and played with some awesome kids. In the process, we nearly got run over by a horse being controlled by what appeared to be two drunk guys. We hope to visit the dump here, where we have read that eight hundred children live.

Today, we are taking a bus to Leon. In Leon, we will meet with Jorge, who lead a pump repair team from Living Water International. He will show us around a couple wells, one that they have drilled and one that they have repaired. On Sunday, we will travel to Granada, where a ferry will take us to Morrito. I may or may not have internet access in any of these places.

The other day, we ate at a Nicaraguan fritanga, which is a fast food place. We found out that it is customary to eat with your hands. The food here has been awesome. If you´re reading this from St. Louis, you can have some authentic Nicaraguan food at Fritanga, nearJefferson and Russel. It´s not actually a fast food place even though it´s called Fritanga. If you´re reading this from SF, there are several Nicaraguan places available in The Mission.

Greetings from Chinandega

2008-08-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

We went through four airports to get to Managua, Nicaragua and narrowly dodged Hurricane Eduard, which hit Houston less than an hour after our plane to Managua took off. Our friend Rolando picked us up and we met our incredibly friendly and helpful translator Albarelys, who will be traveling with us for the duration of our trip. In Managua, we met a man named Mario who runs a Christian radio station. From there, our friend Rolando took us to Chinandega. Yesterday we went to Amaya to help Rolando with a clinic which is being built at the church in that village. We worked with a group from a church in Colorado to prepare a frame for the foundation and mix a few batches of concrete.

Today, we will meet our friend Ralf, who teaches at SFSU and has a wheelchair factory in Leon. Soon, we will travel to Leon to see this factory and see a pump repair team from Living Water in action.

Traveling Abroad

2008-08-04T14:43:00.001-07:00

I just returned from St. Louis, where I had a great time seeing old friends and playing with lights. Those two months went by really fast. It's been nice to be back in SF for a couple days (yes, I have already had a burrito, pupusas, and a bacon dog in case you were wondering) before leaving the country.

In about twenty hours, I'll be landing in Managua, Nicaragua. From there, I'll be traveling to Chinandega, Leon, Granada, Morrito, and back to Managua. The three of us hope we're prepared for it but we really aren't sure exactly what to expect. Hopefully, we'll find feasible, ongoing projects for our engineering department to tackle. I'll be taking pictures for as long as my camera's battery lasts. I'll try to conserve enough of the battery to get some of Morrito, but I can't make any promises.

I've heard that there are internet cafes in Managua and Granada, but that they cost a good bit. So, I probably won't be posting on here until I return (not that that's anything new).

Just for fun, I looked up the current weather in the three cities I have been in this summer (in order from coolest to hottest):

Google Street View in St. Louis

2008-06-10T20:00:00.001-07:00

Google has finally added Street View to St. Louis. Looks like the Googlemobile took a long break when they were driving down Morganford. If you "walk" south on Morganford and cross Connecticut, the sun magically shifts from being directly above you to further west. Perhaps they took a lunch break at Tin Can or Stella Blues. Speaking of Tower Grove South, I noticed that these were taken before Three Monkeys opened on Morganford, which means these were taken before November 2007.

The coverage of St. Louis seems lacking compared to other cities. Old North St. Louis, St. Louis Place, Lafayette Square, Forest Park Southeast, Compton Heights, Hyde Park, Skinker-Debaliviere, West End, University City, Carondelet, Francis Park, Forest Park, Laclede's Landing, and many other neighborhoods/places aren't represented very well, if at all, on Street View. If you're spending the money to send a car with a crazy-looking camera to document this city, why not do it completely?

Some quick notes

2008-06-09T20:41:00.001-07:00

At the hotel my parents and I stayed at last week, the elevators had little TV's in them in case someone can't pull themselves away from television on their lengthy two minute commute to the lobby. A bar above the TV screen cycled between ads for services in the hotel. One of them read, "Stop off at Starbucks for your favorite chilled or hot coffee favorite."

I had baklava four times in one week. I believe that alone nominates last week for the best week ever. On top of that, I had gooey butter cake twice, gelato twice, Ted Drewes once, and a shake from Crown Candy Kitchen. My sweet tooth has been satisfied for the next decade or so.

I was shown how to solder today and successfully fixed two cables. I've found that your face itches only while holding a scalding hot piece of metal.

I filled up my first tank of gas since last August. It cost me more to fill up that tank than it does for an entire month of transportation in San Francisco.

Speaking of Starbucks and gas stations, I was at a gas station last month on a trip to UC Davis that had a Starbucks inside a gas station. Fitting that two of my least favorite things were combined into one. If that wasn't enough, there was also a Burger King in that gas station. To add insult to injury, the gas station charged $.25 to use the bathroom. If we're you paying $4+ a gallon to fill up our rental SUV, I expect to be able to use 0.6+ gallons of your water. I decided it wasn't worth the quarter.

I've been enjoying the storms we've been having in St. Louis because I think lightning is one of the coolest things ever and I haven't seen it for a while. I'm sure I'll start complaining about them soon enough.

A little bit of home

2008-06-02T21:09:00.001-07:00

I don't have a lot of time to write this before my battery runs out. But, I thought I would mention that I went to a new pizza place in St. Louis called Pi. Earlier this year I heard the rumor that this place was opening and that someone from San Francisco was opening it. Turns out, the owner lived across from Little Star Pizza in the Western Addition and wanted to bring that recipe to his hometown of St. Louis. I live four blocks from the Mission location of Little Star and love it. It tasted every bit as good as Little Star. It felt a little bit like home.

Earlier this week, I had a burrito at La Vallesana on Cherokee in Benton Park West, which is like St. Louis' version of the Mission. The burrito wasn't nearly as good as home, but it was the best I've had in St. Louis. Good horchata too. Next time, I'll try Taqueria El Bronco.

My internship is going well. Sometimes, I feel like I haven't been gone for very long. It's good to know I haven't forgotten absolutely everything about lights since last year. I'm already through my first of nine and a half weeks. I do miss San Francisco already, but it's great to visit for part of the summer.

I'm off to St. Louis

2008-05-25T09:11:00.001-07:00

Hello St. Louis.

Goodbye San Francisco, I'll see you in a couple months.

Of all the things that could happen to someone in this city...

2008-05-19T19:21:00.001-07:00

Being chased by a large lego boulder isn't exactly at the top of the list. Just another reason I'm glad I don't live on a hill.

This is on Potrero Hill, the neighborhood just east of mine. Here's the location on Street View. They start out at 19th/Texas and roll it west a couple blocks down 19th St. I realize that this can't actually be a completely solid ball of legos, but I still don't know what they expected to happen.

My Hero

2008-05-17T14:49:00.001-07:00

I could have used The Rectifier on my street last night.

Preparing for a St. Louis summer...

2008-05-15T17:12:00.001-07:00

The Chronicle tells us that San Francisco broke its record of 91ºF set in 1970. Oakland and San Jose also broke records today.

I have officially finished all my classes! I now have four finals left:
CHEM115: General Chemistry
PHYS230: General Physics w/ Calculus I
PHYS232: Physics Lab
MATH227: Calculus II

A tour of my neighborhood

2008-05-13T21:59:00.001-07:00

When I started this blog, one of the things I planned on doing was posting lots of pictures of my neighborhood and my city. I've been meaning to take my camera around with me more often. But, I've failed all four of the readers of this blog. I recently came across a couple extensive threads full of great pictures of The Mission. So, if you're curious about where I live, you could come visit me. Or you could just take a look at these pictures (warning: there are about a hundred pictures in each part).

Part I

Part II

I officially have four classes and four finals left of my freshman year. I can certainly wait for the semester to end since I leave San Francisco right after my finals end. I'll have a great time in St. Louis and Nicaragua, but I know I'll miss my city, my school, my neighborhood, bacon dogs, and the BART operator with the Boston accent.

In other news, I finally found a dentist here. You have no idea how groundbreaking this is. It's almost as groundbreaking as my mother learning how to send text messages. Since I was five, my family has been going to this dentist in Mission Viejo, CA, which is about seven hours south of San Francisco and should be avoided unless you really must go there. For the seven years that we lived in St. Louis, we went to a dentist 2,000 miles away. To be fair, he is a really good dentist. Every time I've been there, it's been very quick and painless. I finally found a dentist up here through a friend. Now I just need to find an optometrist up here so I don't have to go all the way down to Dana Point for the optometrist I've been seeing for many years.

Severe Weather Alert

2008-05-12T09:21:00.001-07:00

There is a severe weather alert for the Bay Area this week. There are "...very warm temperatures expected for the second half of the week..." Having looked at the 10-day forecast, I noticed that the highest high this week is 88ºF in the City. How will we ever survive?

My summer

2008-05-11T20:47:00.001-07:00

Summer is just around the corner. In just under two weeks, my first year in college will come to an end. I have a total of seven classes, five finals, and one final project left. I finish my last final on Friday, May 23. Two days later, I fly to St. Louis for nine weeks where I'll be seeing friends, hanging lights, hearing the phrase "It's not the heat, it's the humidity," riding buses that actually adhere to a schedule, avoiding bugs the size of my fist, walking down narrow streets lined with large trees and brick buildings, seeing outdoor musicals through binoculars from the free seats, smelling cigarette smoke indoors, seeing movies for $6.50 on couches, saying hello to a cat named Spike while browsing for books, and eating as much gooey butter cake and frozen custard as I can in nine weeks. It should be fun.

After coming back home for a day or two and satisfying my craving for a good burrito, I'll be taking off again to Nicaragua for two to three weeks. I'm a part of Engineers Without Borders at SFSU and we'll be going to a rural town called Morrito. This will be the first trip since the group was re-started this semester. We're going to build relationships with the people and NGO's in the area with the hopes of going back and doing various projects there. This will be my first time in Central America and, needless to say, I'm very excited about going.

Yesterday, David, Kristine, and I (the three committed to going to Nicaragua so far) travelled to the giant UC Davis campus. Seriously, that place is humongous. And the Engineering department has its own building. The three of us thought that Davis was ridiculously hot. I think it might have been gotten to the low 80's (we are such San Franciscans). I haven't felt hot weather for quite a while (which is, of course, why I'll be in St. Louis for the summer). While at Davis, we met with an engineer from Lake Tahoe and his wife, who is actually from Morrito. We will be staying with her family while we are in Morrito and, if it works with her schedule, she'll be going with us to translate.

Public Service Announcement

2008-05-05T22:53:00.001-07:00

Dear fellow riders of the 29 Sunset,

We've spent a lot of time together and shared a lot of great moments. Remember when the hydraulics on the hybrid bus failed to lift the crowded bus up for several minutes and the driver yelled at the "85,000 dollar piece of junk"? Remember when our bus narrowly avoided hitting a particularly observant driver who ran the two-way stop at Ramsell? That was exciting! And that time when our driver missed the turn at Plymouth? We've had some good times on this bus. We've become close over time. Sometimes a little too close for comfort.

And that's exactly what I wanted to speak to you about. You see, from 3:00pm - 4:30pm on weekdays traveling outbound toward Balboa Park, the bus is crammed like sardines by the time it reaches SFSU. But there aren't actually very many people on board! Yes, I'm talking about you, fellow backpack-wearing students from SFSU, CCSF, and the myriad of high/middle/elementary schools on the route. Those backpacks take up precious surface area. In fact, we're standing uncomfortably close to each other because each backpack-wearing person is essentially taking up two spaces. If you would only take your backpack off and hold it by your feet, we wouldn't have to endure the twelve crammed minutes between SFSU and Balboa Park.

And you, the one with the iPod and the large backpack standing by the back door blocking any hope of moving to the rear of the bus. Take a look to your right and you'll see a virtually empty area just waiting for people to stand in. Then look to your left and you'll find dozens of people who would love nothing more than to get their faces further away from the armpits of their fellow passengers. Guess what? You can do something to help them! There's nothing wrong with moving further back. In fact, those signs that say, "Please move to the rear of the bus" are speaking specifically to you! You won't miss your stop, I promise. A simple "excuse me" will part the way between you and the exit.

If the riders on other lines have mastered these simple acts, I'm sure you can handle them too. Seriously, I know many of you backpack-offenders are in college. I watch you offboard at CCSF and SFSU every day. We don't have to put ourselves through this every day. If you want a genuinely crowded bus, the 30 Stockton is a fun one (especially with the mass exodus as you emerge from the Stockton tunnel into Chinatown). The N Judah is great too (you can even stand pressed up against doors that feel like they could open at any time while traveling 50mph through the subway). Unlike those lines, the 29 is not really overcrowded. Its riders just need to exercise a little common sense. Please, I urge you, please act with common courtesy. Put your backpacks by your feet and move to the rear of the bus.

Sincerely,
Brunson

Fall 2008

2008-04-23T00:22:00.001-07:00

I've been looking at the class schedule for the fall semester and trying to piece together my classes into some sort of reasonable schedule.

The classes I plan on taking are:
MATH228: Calculus III (4 units)
PHYS230/232: General Physics w/ Calculus II and Lab (4 units)
ENGR102: Statics (3 units)
ENGR235: Surveying (3 units)
1 G.E.: I'm trying to fit in a GE that's not offered during summers. Right now, MUS506 Survey of Jazz (3 units) seems to be the best option (and a good excuse to see more jazz shows).

So far, this is the best schedule I can come up with. Whoever thought it would be wise to offer three sections of Surveying, which is only offered in the fall, at the same inconvenient time is crazy. I would understand if it were a combined lecture. But, the schedule says they are in three different rooms (in two different buildings). This semester will be the first semester where I've taken classes before 9:30am. Yes, there's the dreaded 8am calculus class. I'll have to become a morning person over the summer. On the bright side, it gives me an excuse to brew more tea (not that I needed an excuse). The other good part is that I would be out of class by 11am on MWF (which means my schedule no longer prohibits me from holding a part-time job). Though my TTh schedule is all kinds of disastrous.

She lives on!

2008-04-17T20:19:00.001-07:00

So, it looks like the rumors of the Hi-Pointe's demise might be wrong. I could say that I jumped the gun, but I don't really have any sort of journalistic integrity to live up to (not the news media lives up to any sort of integrity). This article claims that the theatre has closed tonight, but will reopen in a few weeks under new management. I won't really be sad to see Landmark go if that is the case. Outside of St. Louis, I haven't been too impressed with Landmark (it seems that the theaters they actually built tend to suck) and worried that they might make similar changes to the operation of the Hi-Pointe and Tivoli (though, the Tivoli is showing commercials now). I do hope that the Hi-Pointe remains an art-house/foreign theatre since that comprises the bulk of my movie-watching.

May she rest in peace

2008-04-17T01:09:00.001-07:00

(Image courtesy of Flickr user Arbitrary.Marks)

I've heard that tonight, a truly sad night, will be the last show at the Hi-Pointe Theatre. I first heard the rumor on 52nd City and found that Landmark's site listed no show times for the Hi-Pointe next week. The last movie I had the privilege of seeing there was Sunshine (like a slasher flick...in space!) last August.

The Hi-Pointe really is one of my favorite movie theatres anywhere. I think that theatres were where the Art Deco style was really able to shine the brightest. This beauty from the 1920's was such a great place to see a movie. Looks like this is the end for St. Louis' oldest continuously operating movie theatre. It's unfortunate that St. Louis lost both its Hi-Pointes in the last two years. I hope someone puts it back into use as a movie theatre and preserves it as well as they can. I'd love to see Webster University move their film series to the Hi-Pointe.

By the way, if you find a way to get the Avalon Cinema out of its crazy owners hands, restore it, and put it back into operation, I will love you forever.

Walking the Mission

2008-04-16T00:25:00.001-07:00

I was walking home this weekend from the Outer Mission (the southern end of my neighborhood) and decided to walk home on a street I'd never been on before (which I try to do when walking home from anywhere). I came up with the idea to start mapping on Google where I've been. When I got home, I made a map of every block I can be sure I've walked in my neighborhood. I didn't include anything I wasn't sure of, so I might have left out a lot of places I have actually been to.

It looks really sparse. My new goal is to complete the map on the weekends between now and Memorial Day (when I fly to St. Louis for the summer). I'll try to remember to take pictures along the way. Maybe next year I can branch out and walk every block of surrounding neighborhoods like the Castro, Noe Valley, Bernal Heights, etc.

As a side note, if anyone wants to get me this blue/charcoal house on Shotwell, I would be more than happy to accept such a gift.

Woah

2008-04-12T17:17:00.001-07:00

Today and yesterday have been great here, even a little hot. Kind of makes me feel guilty for spending a couple hours at a movie theatre. But, I think the three or four miles I walked home from there made up for it.

Well, that changes things

2008-04-10T17:51:00.001-07:00

Someone came across this message downtown:

Luckily I am free that day, so I don't have to worry about coming up any with excuses to miss this once-in-a-century event. But I imagine my commute to school that day will be hell. I think MUNI will need to include this on their Special Events Calendar as I'm almost positive transit service will be disrupted (though, can MUNI service ever be considered disrupted if it is neither consistent nor reliable during normal conditions?).

I am now a licensed driver in California

2008-04-09T22:37:00.001-07:00

I went to the DMV today to get my CA license. Supposedly, I was supposed to do this within ten days of moving here. But, of course, I procrastinated it for 200ish more days. I was expecting a trip through the sixth circle of hell at the San Francisco DMV. Turns out, they are way more efficient than the Maplewood, MO DMV. You can make appointments at the DMV in California. So, I got right in and zoomed in front of a line of people who didn't have an appointment. I paid the fee, got a picture, took my test, and was out of there in a little under an hour.

I got out of there around 3:00pm. It was a really nice day today so I decided to walk home. I weaved my way from NoPa through Lower Haight and through the Mission. It was wonderfully sunny and warm (unlike yesterday).

I hadn't heard anything about the torch run yet, since I went to the DMV straight from school. Turns out, if I would have walked north toward the Marina/Golden Gate Bridge instead of southeast toward home, it's possible that I could have actually seen the torch. If you haven't read about it, they completely deviated from the publicized route by busing the torch halfway across the city. So, ten thousand people were on one side of the city to see/support/protest the torch run and the torch was clear on the other side of the city. I'm not very surprised since this is the same administration that has been killing public events and canceling Halloween recently. But, it does raise the question: If a torch is run through a city and no one is around to see it, does it make a statement?

I wish this were an April Fools post

2008-04-01T17:37:00.001-07:00

...but I really couldn't make this up. Someone drove into the West Portal station at 2am. This is the point where three light rail lines converge and enter the portal into the subway. Needless to say, the subway wasn't exactly meant for cars (I wonder how it smelled in there this morning since I doubt the ventilation is designed to handle exhaust). You would think that, upon driving into a subway, one would decide to stop. But, instead this guy made it TWO MILES into the subway before it was too narrow for him to go any further. By my calculations on mapmyrun.com, he must have driven through the Forest Hill station and got stuck about halfway to the Castro station.

My only post in March 2008

2008-03-31T23:47:00.001-07:00

My first post of the month of March is happening in the last thirty minutes of the month. Since I last wrote on here, I have had several midterms and spring break. My spring break was last week. I had today off too (Happy César Chávez Day). For spring break, my parents and sister came up to visit. I've decided we should follow this rule: Whoever lives in the better city gets to stay put. We had fun. We ate well and did a few touristy things (but not too many).

On the last day, I had to get my sister a burrito in my neighborhood since I've been boasting about them for so long. She wanted to take half the burrito home to her boyfriend in Long Beach. So, we did our research and called the TSA to ask them if burritos were allowed through security. The guy on the other end of the line took it completely seriously. The official answer was, "No, liquids must be under 3 oz." "A burrito is considered a liquid?" "Well, you know, the beans and the salsa..." My sister decided to see if she could get it through security at OAK anyway. It was a success. My sister is a master burrito smuggler.

On Saturday, I went with a friend to see The Phenomenauts at Slims, our version of Mississippi Nights (may she rest in peace). They're sort of a rockabilly/punk/scifi rock band with an amazingly fun show. The night involved a keytar, toilet paper, space costumes, a ukulele and more. But, before the Phenomenauts, a guy from the band The Slackers did a couple of songs. He made me think of Chuck Barris as played by Sam Rockwell in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind if Chuck Barris played blues-y, folk-ish music. Then, a hilarious guy in a grass skirt called King Kukulele played the ukulele. He did quite the cover of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by They Might Be Giants.

But, before the Phenomenauts came up, one of the worst bands I've ever seen did an agonizingly long set. Seriously, if anyone tells you that they like a band called The Lovemakers, the appropriate response is to punch that person in the face (and that's coming from a relatively non-violent person). I think the terrible music actually made my stomach feel sick over the weekend. My theory is that they got lost in their time machine and went to the 21st century instead of the 1980's. They must have lost their synth player along the way because half of the music was from a track. As a general note, wearing a leather jacket that would comfortably fit a five year old is only a good idea if you are, in fact, five years old. Also, if you are able to stand behind a pole in such a way that I can no longer see you, keep your shirt on (even if it is the leather jacket that comes with a Ken doll).

Good news everyone! I found out that I'll be an intern at The Crossing this summer. So, I'll be in St. Louis for June and July. Also, I might be going to Bolivia for the month of August with my Engineers Without Borders - SFSU group. Speaking of which, I've been meaning to learn Spanish. Can anyone recommend a good grammar/vocab book to use?

...Speaking of Infection

2008-02-23T18:20:00.001-08:00

That is a light brown apple moth. The Chron had another article about it recently. Basically, this moth was discovered in California in the last couple years. California's Department of Agriculture is going crazy about it. The state of California wants to spray the Bay Area with a relatively untested insecticide called Checkmate for the next five years. Santa Cruz has already been sprayed using extremely low amounts of this pesticide and had numerous reports of skin irritation and other things (though it's questionable whether or not they are, in fact, related to the spraying).

Even with all the media buzz and the impending public outrage, I think everyone is missing the true consequences of spraying this over urban areas. Have we not learned from movies like 28 Days Later and Resident Evil? If this goes through, I'll be busy preparing for a zombie infestation of San Francisco! I guess it's time to finally buy The Zombie Survival Guide, buy myself a shovel (since I probably can't buy a shotgun in San Francisco), and study tactical maneuvers from Shaun of the Dead ("Take car. Go to mum's. Kill Phil - "Sorry." Grab Liz, go to the Liberties, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over. How's that for a slice of fried gold?"). Forget being prepared to survive 72 hours after an earthquake, we need to know how to survive three days after the zombies start marching on our streets.

Infected by your picture frame?

2008-02-16T14:35:00.001-08:00

I read this article today.

An insidious computer virus recently discovered on digital photo frames has been identified as a powerful new Trojan Horse from China that collects passwords for online games - and its designers might have larger targets in mind.
...
The virus, which Computer Associates calls Mocmex, recognizes and blocks antivirus protection from more than 100 security vendors, as well as the security and firewall built into Microsoft Windows. It downloads files from remote locations and hides files, which it names randomly, on any PC it infects, making itself very difficult to remove. It spreads by hiding itself on photo frames and any other portable storage device that happens to be plugged into an infected PC.

The article has a section about "How to avoid problems." It essentially says that anything you try to do, the virus will be one step ahead of you. But fear not, for there is a solution:

Deborah Hale at SANS suggested that PC users find friends with Macintosh or Linux machines and have them check for malware before plugging any device into a PC.

God Rides BART

2008-02-13T18:00:00.001-08:00

On my way home this afternoon, I saw something new on my BART ride. The ad by the door simply showed text asking, "Does God give you more money if you obey him?" Beneath it was a logo for GodRides, a URL to godridesbart.com, and a tagline which read, "All viewpoints. One platform. Join the discussion."

I found the above image on Flickr of a similar ad. A Google search brought up this article from SF Weekly (ew!). Apparently the ads went up back in December.

My first thought was: Wow, God rides BART. I thought he was more of an omnipresent kinda guy myself. But, you learn something new every day. I guess I can believe that, if God has to transport himself, he would choose a fairly sustainable and stress-free form of transportation. Although, with infinite patience, I imagine the stress level associated with driving in SF's traffic vs. riding BART is sort of a moot point to God.

So I followed the link when I got home. It's pretty much a discussion forum. Navigating over to the About section revealed their mission and motivation.

A part of us understands why this is. Who wants to debate the existence of God when you're trying to enjoy yourself at a party? Or why would you bring up your religious beliefs at work and risk dividing the team you work with? Why strain your marriage by disagreeing about big issues when you have a hard enough time agreeing on who should do the dishes?

But another part of us is concerned. What if there is more to life than what the eye can see? Wouldn't it have been wise to at least have considered the options?

The problem is there are very few places where it's easy to discuss these issues without getting hit over the head with one viewpoint. GodRides.org's goal is to create an open environment where you can join in the conversation, learn what others think, express your own thoughts and ask your own questions.

My interpretation of the motivation is that truly open environments in our lives are virtually nonexistent. So, for an open environment to discuss life, the universe, and everything, we should turn to the internets. Certainly, it isn't the tubes that are clogged, it's our human interactions that are clogged!

The role of online communities is becoming an increasingly important topic in the field cultural studies. Are online communities virtually the same as real-life communities? What role does the offer of anonymity play in our behavior with other people? One thing that anyone has observed on the internet is that people will do and say things in an anonymous venue that they would never do if they were personally interacting with someone face to face. GodRides seems to bet that people will be more open/authentic with others online than they are willing to be in real life. Whether or not that is true, I would ask whether authenticity online is nearly as valuable as authenticity with those around you.

I'm not saying that GodRides or online communities should cease to exist, just that they might need to re-evaluate their mission. What role do they hope to play in an overall cultural conversation?

Re-modelling?

2008-02-05T23:46:00.001-08:00

I ran across a site the other day that gives you links to the suppliers that Apple uses for their retail stores. Items to Build and Apple Store

The one thing that I always liked in their stores (other than the glass staircase, of course) is the cable system which they use for many of their window displays. The floor-to-ceiling steel wire holding up flatscreen televisions and product displays almost makes the objects look like they're floating on those wires. The materials on the suppliers' site are cheaper than I would have guessed (though way out of the range of a college student wanting a tasteful solution of hanging prints in his apartment).

Go Vote

2008-02-05T10:02:00.001-08:00

I Went to 1975 the Other Day

2008-02-04T23:09:00.001-08:00

In some cities, day trips are confined to going to certain places. You take a trip to Coney Island, Lincoln Park, or the City Museum. That may be fun. But, in San Francisco, we take trips to certain times. I took a trip to 1970's Castro last week and brought back some pictures. A movie called Milk (starring Sean Penn) is being filmed there and it takes place in the Castro in the 1970's. So, instead of just creating some lame Hollywood set for the movie, they chose to temporarily remake Castro St. into that time period based on tons of pictures and memories of locals. They're redoing storefronts into old shops/restaurants, repainting the Castro Theatre's marquee, and putting a bunch of old cars on the street. Word has it that SFMTA will be temporarily replacing bus shelters and parking meters with older styles for the shoot.

I got a few pictures. It looked like they were shooting some scenes inside one of the stores that day. I didn't see Sean Penn though.

Blasphemy!

2008-01-31T00:10:00.001-08:00

In the earlier days of this blog, I made a post about San Francisco's odd obsession with putting mayonnaise on burgers. Sometimes I would forget to ask for no mayo. Sometimes the burger joints simply are adamant about putting mayo on burgers. In any case, I've had a lot of burgers with mayo since I've been here. I've even mentioned how odd it is to some San Franciscans. But, they give me funny looks and ask, "You don't put mayo on burgers in St. Louis???"

I know. It's blasphemous for a midwesterner to say this: But, it's really not so bad. In fact, there have been times when I have *GASP* intentionally left out "no mayo." Some people told me I should never change. But, well, I guess I have.

If you can ease your mind about my blasphemous mayo-burger-consuming actions for a second, you should check out this human tetris game.

I took some pictures today for this blog. I shall post them soon.

School Has Started

2008-01-25T00:00:00.001-08:00

I took my first two classes of the semester today and got to say hello to some friends. My schedule is pretty crazy. I'm pretty much at school from 10am to 5pm every day except Monday (stay until 8pm) and Wednesday (leave at 12:30) All the classes I'm taking this semester are math/science related, so I'm hoping that means I'll get a lot more reading done than I did last semester.

Here are my classes:
MATH227.03: Calculus II
CHEM115.09: General Chemistry w/ lab
PHYS220.01: General Physics w/ Calc. I (and its corresponding lab, PHYS222.05)
ENGR103.01: Introduction to Computers (From the textbook, I gather that we learn C++)
ENGR106.01: Introduction to Engineering Lab (the Intro to Engr. class was pretty useless, I can't imagine what the lab will be like)

My body is kinda sorta thinking about getting sick. I tried to alleviate this with lots of sleep and water (and, of course, pho). This is a very inconvenient time to get sick since missing any classes during the first week or so means you will be dropped from the class. I plan on spending this weekend not getting sick.

On a funnier note, someone has been adding to the Rambo ads on the streets and subways of San Francisco. (Images taken from Flickr)

Anecdotal Wisdom, Courtesy of In-N-Out Burger

2008-01-15T02:15:00.001-08:00

I went to In-N-Out Burger tonight for the first time in quite a while. The two In-N-Out locations near me are too far for me to justify traveling for fast food (and one of them is in the middle of Fisherman's "Tourist Hell" Wharf). But tonight, for lack of any better late-night options in Orange County, we went there. After ordering on the drive-thru speakerphone, my mom decided that she would like a lemonade. Upon arriving at the window, I asked, "Would it be possible to add a lemonade to our order?" I heard this fortune-cookie-like gem from the man at the drive-thru window:
"Anything is possible in this life."

I guess single-serving lessons in philosophy are now on In-N-Out's secret menu. Perhaps I should attempt to fly. When I fail and injure myself, I can contribute to California's epic amount of frivolous lawsuits.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T00:33:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

I'm visiting my family in SoCal right now. It'll be kind of hectic around here as some friends of the family who we haven't seen in a while stay with us for the next week. On my flight down here, I had a perfect view of a full moon over the California coast. The plane flew south over the ocean. My east-facing window had a view of the shoreline. Though it was still light out, I could see the full moon and its reflection on the water throughout the flight. When we approached Los Angeles, identifiable by the massive area of lights and freeways, I could see the brown smoggy air permeating the region.

I found out that my trip to St. Louis will be shortened. I will be there from 1/3 to 1/8 (right around youth weekend at the Crossing). I can't wait to see everyone I've missed for the past several months.

David Bazan Still Runs the Show

2007-12-16T20:11:00.001-08:00

On Wednesday, I saw David Bazan (formerly of Pedro the Lion) live at Bottom of the Hill. This is the first rock club I've been to since I moved. So before I left, I decided that I shouldn't wear my jacket (even though it was cold out) because I didn't want it to smell like smoke. Once I got there, I realized this would be the first rock club I've ever been to where I didn't walk out reeking of smoke (CA banned smoking in bars/restaurants a number of years ago). The venue kinda felt like I went to Toontown to see a band though. The decor was kinda cheesy. It was all decked out for Christmas (which was not completely tasteless). But there were some ridiculous, cartoonish neon signs and other odd things that felt out of place at a rock club. Other than that, it was a nice small venue (about the size of the new Creepy Crawl in St. Louis) on the ground floor of a handsome Victorian building sitting at the bottom of Potrero Hill.

David Bazan was awesome. I never got to see Pedro or Headphones live, so I was really excited about seeing Bazan's solo show. He played some EP stuff, new stuff, Pedro stuff, Headphones stuff, and he covered Leonard Cohen's (recent Rock Hall of Fame inductee) "Hallelujah." Throughout the show, David took questions. Many of them sounded like this: "Why can't you still be Pedro?" I do wish his fans would just let David Bazan be David Bazan instead of whining for Pedro the Lion to come back. David's response was, "Well, I kinda still am Pedro...just without the name." I really like his new stuff. I can't wait until his album comes out sometime next year.

I was on my way home today. When I came out of my BART station, I heard some ska/punk coming from the BART plaza. This punk band was playing today and had attracted a bit of a crowd. They sounded vaguely similar to NOFX. They were singing in Spanish so I have no idea what they were saying. I haven't seen a good punk band in forever! They all seemed to actually be having fun while playing the show. That's a nice break from seeing so many snobby bands who take themselves way to seriously.

Speaking of live music, I noticed that I'll be able to see both Eikon (1/7) and Tree Heart Orchestra (1/8) while I'm in St. Louis in January. How sweet is that?

A "Josiah" Moment

2007-12-15T01:20:00.001-08:00

SFSU's Library is fairly large. I am not sure how it fares in comparison to other schools' libraries, but every section seems pretty extensive. I was in the library today looking for some books on architecture. I was just browsing around the section and came across this book that seemed relevant to my paper's topic. Upon bending down and picking it up, I had to literally blow off a layer of dust that had settled upon it (and I was sneezing throughout the following class as a result). The book had not been checked out since 1986. I realized that I could be the first person in the course of my lifetime to lay hands on that book. I did not end up checking that book out. Instead, I checked out an equally dusty book which had not been checked out since 1983 (which is odd since it's a relatively well-known book in the world of architecture).

This post is brought to you by the letter "u"

2007-12-13T00:28:00.001-08:00

I was walking around Potrero Hill tonight. I was on my way to see David Bazan at Bottom of the Hill. Perhaps I'll write about that later. As I left a bookstore at the corner of 18th and Missouri, I began to walk down the hill. One of my favorite things San Francisco did for pedestrians is their signage on the sidewalk. On every corner of any given intersection, the street names are engraved into the concrete. It's a very helpful tool since it's a pain to look around (or straight up) for street signs. As I passed Mariposa St., I noticed something about the engraved street names. It said, "MISSORI" in the concrete! I took a picture, which would have made this post much more exciting. But, the camera on my phone can't handle low light situations. So you'll just have to trust me on this.

Confessions of a Relatively Safe Mind

2007-12-04T00:52:00.001-08:00

I have a bit of a confession to make. Some of you have known that I have always said that I don't like Coca-Cola. Every so often, when I go to one of my local taquerias, I have been getting a Mexican Coke. These are imported from Mexico in glass bottles and are still made with cane sugar rather than corn syrup. The result? It actually tastes like a cola should taste. I'll confess: (Mexican) Coca-Cola is really tasty. But, I still don't drink that syrupy, American Coke. My theory is that if I'm going to pay to dehydrate myself by drinking some soda, it better be amazing.

I'm pretty excited that I'm nearly finished with my first semester of school. Two weeks and some finals and I'm done until January 24! My schedule next semester looks pretty intimidating though. I'll likely be taking Calculus II, Physics, Chemistry, and two Engineering courses. I guess the good news is that I probably won't have to write a paper next semester. In other San Francisco news, it's got pretty cold here. It was 46ºF a couple days ago. I checked the weather at the same time in St. Louis and it was 59ºF. What an insult! It's gotten back up to the 60's now so it's all good.

So, I've been observing a couple atrocities on the way to school. Sometimes I take the M-line (a street-running light rail line) to school. On the way, there's this little, stone house that looked quite a bit better than anything around it. Most of the housing in its vicinity is pretty uninspiring so this house really stood out. One day, I noticed this one stone house up on giant stilts. I should have taken pictures every week or so because it's like watching a car wreck happen in super slow motion. At first, I thought they were adding a garage like most of the other housing in San Francisco (crazy west coast cities, that's what alleys are for!). But now, it just looks like they're just adding a story below the house. But, they've covered a good chunk of the stone on the house! It's only getting worse as time goes on.

This other house on the same route gets the "Travesty of the Year" award, if ever there was one. The ground floor had bronze-ish glazed brick on the facade with bricked archways. There really wasn't anything wrong with it the way it was. One day, I noticed a painter and some red paint. My "Really Bad Taste" alarm began to go off. The next day, I saw what had happened. They painted their glazed brick bright red and white! I managed to snap a cell phone picture.

I feel like sending them a box of these for Christmas for "hours of imaginative fun!"

Happy Belated Turkeysgiving

2007-11-25T21:11:00.001-08:00

I was in Long Beach, CA for the last week visiting my sister. We had a fun time visiting, eating, and generally being lazy. My parents were in Tennessee most of the week (yeah, I felt bad for them too). But, we had a fine and tasty Thanksgiving.

On Wednesday, my sister and I made our way up to the Wiltern in LA to see Travis. This was my first time seeing them live. Travis put on a great show. Though they just released a new album (which is excellent), they probably played an equal amount of songs from each album. The highlight of the show, though, was the first song out of the encore. The lead vocalist, Fran Healy, came out with his guitar and explained that he was going to do an unplugged song. He said that, since these old theatres were built acoustically for non-amplified sound, it would be a truly unplugged song. He unplugged his guitar and walked to the lip of the stage and sang "20" while the crowd shut up (when someone made a noise, the crowd would SHHHH... them - I felt like I was back in elementary school). We sat in the first row of the upper mezzanine level (I felt old for not standing on the floor). Nevertheless, we heard him with stunning clarity. I've never actually heard someone do that in an old theatre such as the Wiltern so that was quite the treat. Here's a (somewhat motion sickness inducing) recording of it on Youtube.

Happy Belated Pupusa Day!

2007-11-15T00:34:00.001-08:00

I had pupusas tonight and I remembered that I hadn't wished you guys a happy pupusa day yet. National Pupusa Day is celebrated in El Salvador on the second Sunday in November. How awesome is it to have a national holiday solely devoted to your country's food? Not that I'd want to see National Fast Food Day here in America. So, even though it's late, may you joyfully feast on the great, cheese-filled goodness that is the pupusa.

Before I had pupusas tonight, I stood in a line that spanned at least six city blocks (and that was only one of the lines!). I saw Barack Obama at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. It took an insanely long time to get people in so the event was started later (I think they cut out a few opening speakers too since there was only a quick introduction before Obama took the stage). The problem? There were a grand total of four metal detectors that several thousand people had to funnel through. I thought about ordering a pizza to the line and was longing for there to be a bacon dog cart closeby. After nearly three hours of waiting, they finally started the event with everyone inside. I was hoping for a speech from Obama that actually dealt with stuff. Instead, it was simply a rally with several sentences like, "It's time for change," all followed by applause (Obama probably could have given a dissertation with the total amount of time the audience spent applauding). Although, it was marketed as a rally, so it was exactly what they said it'd be. Obama did give a good speech and pour out his charisma upon the crowd. But, he hasn't overtaken my cynicism when it comes to politics.

the gods aren't angry

2007-11-12T23:52:00.001-08:00

It seems that my blog has been affected by the writers' strike. I had hired a team from LA to keep this blog up. But, they claimed that I was not treating them well and went on strike. They are saying that packets of ketchup is not an acceptable currency to pay them with. I don't know what the deal is.

I just got back from seeing and hearing Rob Bell at The Grand (like the Metro in Chicago but much larger) on his the gods aren't angry tour. Sorry, St. Louisans, but he's not coming there. I guess you'll have to wait for a DVD (or find a bootleg online - not that I'm endorsing that type of behavior or anything). I saw his Everything Is Spiritual tour last summer in Pomona, CA, which was a great learning experience. They just released a DVD of that tour. I would definitely recommend seeing that.

When I got off the bus, there was a crowd of protesters surrounding the theatre. The bus stop was right in front of the entrance so I didn't hear or read much of what they had to say. But, I did hear someone say something to the effect of, "This pastor seems to be as concerned with feeding someone's belly as he is with feeding their spirit." I'm no religious scholar or anything, but I'm pretty sure Jesus was concerned with both of those things as well. Speaking of protests, I do wish I would have gone by Dolores Park a week or so ago when the big "End the War" march was ending there. Turns out, the world's largest Thriller dance was the same day at Dolores Park. I imagine the mixing of the two groups would have provided for a good afternoon of entertainment. If only that paper I was writing at the time would have written itself.

Unlike Rob Bell's last tour, this one feels more like a long Nooma video. He talks about how, throughout human history, humans have been creating religious systems to try to please different gods. He then shows how God came down and radically changed changed this paradigm of jumping through hoops. The basic premise is that, for as far as we think the human race has progressed, we still try to make sacrifices in order to please certain gods (ambition, wealth, image, etc.) when God has shown us a completely different way to live. As usual, he does a great job of weaving through the different ideas he's presenting. If you get a chance, I'd suggest going to hear what he has to say.

After the Quake

2007-10-31T01:01:00.001-07:00

Tonight, I was sitting in my apartment when, all the sudden, it seemed like dozens of kids were in the apartment above me jumping up and down. After it persisted a little longer, I realized it was actually an earthquake. It was only a 5.6 and the epicenter was 20-30 miles away. But, it went on for longer than normal (it felt like a good 40 seconds of shaking). The USGS is telling us that there is a 30% chance of a strong (>5.0) and possibly damaging aftershock within the next week. There is also a very small chance that there will be an equal or larger earthquake in the next seven days. Exciting.

Oddly enough, the last time I moved to California (1994), I had an actual earth-shattering experience. I was five years old when we moved from St. Louis to SoCal. My parents assured me that there would be no thunderstorms or tornadoes to worry about. Less than a month after we moved, the Northridge earthquake caused somewhere between $12bn and $18bn of damage and freaked out a five year old kid who had never heard of an earthquake before.

I may be in San Francisco, but I do still keep up on happenings in River City. For those interested, there is an event called artfix '07 on November 10. artfix is an art auction benefitting Rebuilding Together - St. Louis, a volunteer organization that helps repair homes for low-income residents in the St. Louis area. There will be a silent auction of art and gifts from local artists and companies as well as food from several great local restaurants (Bailey's Chocolate Bar, anyone?). Tickets are $35.

I'll leave you with a link to Energie in Motion. This is a lightwriting project in Germany. They basically take pictures with really long exposures to draw pictures with light. Be sure to check out the video towards the end.

Let Me Tell You About My School

2007-10-26T17:44:00.001-07:00

I took my camera to school last week. But, since it didn't really know how to white balance correctly, only one picture actually came out. I'll get more some other time.

This is the Cesar Chavez Student Center from one of the sides (though it would be hard to define the front for this building), which houses the bookstore, restaurants, conference rooms, multicultural center, and other student center-type things. While I'm not a huge fan of Brutalist Architecture, I think this is an example of that style of architecture done well. It is nice to go up onto the roof, eat lunch, and study while seeing and hearing the activity below in the Quad and the Malcom X Plaza. In that Plaza, there's a stage that usually has bands of all types, DJ's playing, or someone promoting any cause you could possibly dream of during lunchtime hours.

Inside the Student Center, there is only one staircase from the ground level to any of the other levels. Supposedly, that design was at the request of the police. They say that, because there are controversial speakers there often, the police wanted an easy way to block the exit and keep an unruly crowd from getting out of hand and wreaking havoc elsewhere. True or not, I don't see how that conforms to fire code at all.

On a completely different note, I saw after the quake at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre last night. It is based on a novel of the same title by Haruki Murakami, a well-known Japanese author. If the book is as good as the play (and I've heard it is), it should be an excellent read. I was a bit disappointed by the audience though. After one of the funniest lines in the play, I was the only person in the theatre who found it funny.

Oh My

2007-10-10T22:28:00.001-07:00

On my way home tonight, I was emerging from the 16th Street Mission BART station as I noticed a certain scent in the air. Why yes, it was the scent of bacon permeating the BART plaza. And this can mean only one thing. BACON DOG CART! This infamous cart appears in different parts of my neighborhood selling these glorious bacon-wrapped hot dogs. Tonight, it was in the perfect place.

I do believe that the people who make these tasty treats available to the residents of the Mission deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. There is simply no amount of evil, injustice, famine, or poverty that cannot be overcome by the overwhelming goodness of the bacon dog.

Seriously, what's with the mayo?

2007-10-06T18:12:00.001-07:00

I shouldn't have to remember to say "no mayo" when ordering a burger. It is universally known that mayo and burgers should not be together. Then I have to try to drown it out with the ketchup. Gross! What a terrible thing to do to an otherwise decent burger! All was not lost, however, as I had tasty Mexican food four days this week. Three burritos and two enchiladas. My intestines are alright, thanks for asking.

Today I walked down Mission St. with my camera. I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I would (I usually go crazy snapping pictures of cities). It did feel weird acting like a tourist in my own neighborhood. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure:

Mute Math

2007-09-26T01:05:00.001-07:00

Last night, I went to my second rock show in San Francisco (the first was a free, in-store performance by Okkervil River). So many bands come through here that I now have to make decisions on which ones I don't see. Sometimes, there are scheduling conflicts like Arcade Fire playing the same night as White Stripes (though, White Stripes ended up cancelling the rest of their tour). It would cost way too much to see every good band to come through SF. I guess what I'm saying is that Beatle Bob has it easy in St. Louis.

The opening band was a band called Eisley. I liked what I've heard from them before, so I was pretty excited to see them. I was kind of surprised that they were opening for Mute Math as I always assumed they were more well-known than Mute Math. In any case, they put on a fun show, which was well worth the ticket price alone. Sorry St. Louis, but they won't be coming anytime in the very near future.

This was my sixth time seeing Mute Math live. They've gotten better each time I've seen them. But, this time they were headlining the Fillmore (it's about the capacity of the Pageant but has the historic feel of Metro in Chicago). The venue seemed pretty full. The production was a large-scale version of the lighting and video they have used for the past year or so. The production seemed to be much more unified now. They played a familiar setlist beginning with the Intro, Typical, and Chaos... But, they added a new song called "Clocktower" (I'm pretty sure that was the name). If it's indicative of their next album, whenever that is, it won't be disappointing (by the way, Paul plays guitar on this song). The show was every bit as energetic as ever, and then some. It seems like they go crazier every time (Darren nearly fell while jumping over Paul's Rhodes). During "Break the Same," Paul threw a drumstick at Darren's crash and it bounced right by Darren's head. If you've never seen them live, I highly recommend it. This band puts on one of the best live shows I've ever seen.

On a side note related to music, there was this awesome jazzy band playing in the Quad today outside the Cesar Chavez Student Center at my school. Good music was accompanied by great weather. When I remember to charge and bring my camera someday, I'll post about my campus.

Choose Your Own Adventure

2007-09-18T22:44:00.001-07:00

Back in July, someone or some group stenciled a choose your own adventure story on the sidewalks of my neighborhood, The Mission. These boxes are all around the neighborhood with a piece of the story and an arrow pointing the viewer to the next piece. It's a love story starting at two places following a girl and a guy as their stories come together and break apart. They are somewhat faded, but still readable. I didn't feel like taking my own pictures so these are from Flickr.

This one is in front of one of the best bakeries I've ever been to. There's a line out the door most of the time. But, since I live only a few blocks away, I'm sure I'll be able to find the times that it's less busy.

This is one of the two choices the viewer can make.

This is where you end up if you've made the "wrong" choice. I wouldn't say tasty food is a bad choice, though. This is in front of a taqueria around the corner from my apartment.

My first post with content

2007-09-16T01:32:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday, I checked out a church near me for the first time. I wasn't really paying any attention to what was going on there, though. I spent the whole time thinking about all the awesome people at Windsor. I miss you guys a lot. It's sad to think that I won't be seeing you every week.

So, later that day, I thought I'd go out and do something to cheer myself up. So, I had a burrito. My new theory is that a large, tasty burrito can overwhelm any emotion you have. Since my neighborhood has about 40 taquerias in less than two square miles, I'll be able to put that theory to the test.

After the consumption of the burrito, I walked over to the nearby Dolores Park. This park is two large city blocks on a hill between the Mission and the Castro. Like the Mission, it's usually warm and sunny. The park was full of tons of people (probably escaping the fog from other parts of the city). Upon climbing the hill and turning around, one gets quite a view of the downtown skyline and surrounding neighborhoods.

Hi

2007-09-09T23:12:00.000-07:00

Hello there. You've found Brunson's blog! I can't make any promises about how long it'll survive or how frequently it'll be updated. But, for now, I'll be posting about the happenings Brunson and his adventures in San Francisco for all my awesome friends in St. Louis. Also, from now on, Brunson will not be speaking about himself in the third person.