New Facebook Messaging System

Palo Alto based Facebook held a news conference in San Francisco today to announce its new messaging system. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the new system is designed to combine chat, e-mail, SMS, and Facebook messaging services to produce a less formal and more seamless form of communication.

The new system will allow users to have a Facebook.com e-mail address and will use information from your Facebook friends list to filter messages. Users will be able to read and save threads of important conversations from chat, text messages, e-mail, and Facebook messages all in one place.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg says “this is not an e-mail killer. In fact, e-mail is one component of the new service.“ He expects e-mail to become a less popular as new, easier, and more immediate ways to communicate with friends and family online are developed.

SF Supervisors order Happy Meals to go for good

On Tuesday the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 to place new nutritional standards on food that comes with free toys, like Happy Meals. The ordinance would, outlaw Happy Meals and other fast food kids meals in their current form, within San Francisco limits. Mayor Gavin Newsom has promised to veto the measure, but Supervisors have enough votes to override the veto.

The measure is drawing fire from all over the country from people who don't like to be told what they can eat, or feed their kids. An opinion piece for the Philadelphia Libertarian Examiner has an interesting take. The author went as far as to call the people in charge of the Democratic Party "food fascists". McDonald's website says it serves "food to feel good about".

So what's the big deal? Supervisor and ordinance proposer Eric Mar wrote an op-ed piece for the U-S-A Today. The piece talks about the extreme calorie count found in fast food kids meals. It also says some of the "healthier options" aren't really healthy. He points to high sodium and sugar content as adding to the larger problem of this country's obesity epidemic.

Could the country's growing problem with fat kids be solely placed on the shoulders of Happy Meals? How much responsibility and control do parents have when it comes to controlling their kid's diets? Should the government focus on making healthy food more affordable and available to low income families? Will the new ordinance have any effect on what people feed their kids?

The Raiders: Commitment to a crazed fanbase

The roommates and I rolled out to Oakland this past Sunday to check out a Raiders game. The tickets were cheap and we all thought the level of entertainment would match the face value. I was pleasantly surprised. Before we entered the stadium we saw police officers dragging away 2 Raiders fans in hand cuffs. Security staff at the Coliseum turned away a woman because she was so drunk, her friends had to literally carry her back to the parking lot. After making our way through security we saw people dressed in skeleton masks, some had hard hats with what looked like knife blades attached to the top in a crazy mohawk, and others wore shirts that exclaimed disdain for the day's opponent they read F-U K-C. The negative energy inside that stadium was palpable. You could cut through it with one of the shanks that I'm sure 80% of fans somehow snuck past security. The Raiders booted the winning field goal in OT to beat the Chiefs 23-20, I've actually have never been happier to get on a BART train than following that game.

Game Stats...(what we saw)

Arrests: 2
Drunk people being dragged by friends: 1
Drunk people: 60-thousand out of 65-thousand fans
Skeleton Masks: 100 (under estimate)
Skeletor (the evil character from He-man): 2
Family friendly "Fuck K-C" chants: 5
Entertainment value > $30 < The life of my future children.

One GIANT Parade

Where else on earth can you see a bearded M&M? I'm willing to bet nowhere! The Giants brought the city of San Francisco its first world baseball championship ever on Monday and on Wednesday more than a million people flooded the parade route from Montgomery and Market to the Civic Center. Manager Bruce Bochy got to ride the parade route in a convertible while hoisting the World Series trophy. While players, including Brian Wilson and The Machine got to ride in fake cable cars.

During his congratulatory speech lame duck Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said "I thought I was the only machine as Terminator." On a side note Lt. Governor-elect Gavin Newsom actually took his seat in the mayoral drop top. The first time I've seen him in a parade since I moved to San Francisco.

Giants win! Giants win!

It almost feels like old hat to say that the 2010 San Francisco Giants are Major League Baseball World Champions even though they earned that title fewer than 12 hours ago. I got to hand it to them they won it the same way they've been winning games all season with dominant pitching and timely hits sprinkled in. Perhaps what shocked me the most about the game winning 3-run homer besides the fact that it was Edgar Renteria that hit it was how the ball carried and carried out of left field. No other home runs had been hit to left field in Arlington during the entire World Series, yet this aging, oft-injured short stop who is not exactly known for crushing the ball did with the ball something that no media proclaimed "big bopper" could do all series.

The best part about last night's win was the partying in the streets going on city-wide. Candace and I walked up to Fillmore and Haight where several bar patrons emptied out onto the streets to shout "Let's Go Giants!", they were singing, dancing and clapping. Cars on every major road were honking their horns and people spilled out of their homes to sit on their stoops and watch the action unfold. The revelers stood on the bike racks of Muni busses trying to pass through, but the driver was just as excited as some of the partiers. Someone finally cleared a path for the busses to get through. In the Mission District fans seized a fire truck where they danced and shouted. Folks in the Castro tolite papered Muni wires. Others gathered at 5th & Market then headed down to the old US Mint to celebrate on the steps. So many people gathered in and around AT&T Park that the California Highway Patrol had to shut down the highway off ramp at the end of 280. There were a few problems with rioting, but overall nothing too serious and my car is just fine!

I'm definitely planning on joining in on the Championship Parade and Celebrations at Civic Center on Wednesday. I'm very excited to see Brian Wilson's Beard in person!

RIP Spooktacular and What I've been up to

The picture above got me in the mood for Halloween. Now that I'm getting into the spirit, I feel the need to apologize to my Maine friends this year for not returning to help throw the Spooktacular. The legendary Halloween Soirre had a great multi-year run and all of the great memories that accompany such events. Some of my favorite memories from Spooktacular's past had less to do with the actual party and more to do with the preparation for the party. Late night brain storming sessions with Chris and Ben, getting the music and decorations together with Shorn, coming up with costume ideas and crazy games to play will always be among my fondest memories.

As I mentioned in my last installment, I'm trying to improve my San Francisco experience. Part of me hopes that I'm able to land a job eventually through doing this, the other part just wants to get out more often and make more friends. This past Saturday I checked out Potrero Hill History Night with one of the guys I volunteer with at KALW. I am eager to simply learn more about the city and the night included listening to interesting stories about what it was like to grow up on the iconic San Francisco hill in the 50's and 60's and about the early days of public gardening. The night was interrupted by the roar as the Giants won the NL Pennant.

On Tuesday night I checked out an event at Swissnex entitled Brain Date. My girlfriend Candace and Erica from KALW joined me for the discussion on how brain waves can be matched up to help you find your match. They even served free food and drinks after the event and let folks in the audience try out the brain date interface. I really liked the venue and the topic was quite interesting. I'm hoping to join Swissnex for future events.

The World Series starts today and I predict that the Giants will handle those pesky Rangers in 6 games and bring San Francisco a much deserved baseball championship. I guess we'll have to see.

Surfing, singing, and Seinfeld

During my last visit to Maine I decided that upon my return to San Francisco I would try new things, meet some people, and most of all have more fun. After all even in a city where the average 1 bedroom apartment is more than 15-hundred dollars per month, there is some good cheap fun to be had. After all, my Broke-Ass Stuart Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco tells me so.

The week following my return from the land of lobster and pine trees, I got a wonderful and unexpected offer to join a group of KALW news co-workers on the beach for a surfing spectacular. We arrived at the beach in Pacifica early enough to have to wait a few minutes for the surf shop to open. After grabbing boards and wetsuits we changed into our swimwear and lugged our boards to the surf. After some on the beach instruction from our resident on-staff expert surfer girl Martina Castro we hit the water. After figuring out how to sit on our boards and listen to instructions on what waves to take and which ones to let roll under us we prepared to catch waves.

The feeling of catching a wave is remarkable. You wait for just the right one and then you lay down on your board and paddle like hell with your arms. If you do this properly the wave will carry you in towards shore. People who know how to surf have developed the timing and balance that allow them to stand up and look like they belong in Point Break. On the other hand I tried to stand up twice and promptly fell on my face and with that I'm grateful that we surf on water and not asphalt.

Friday marked the beginning of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park. The free music fest has 5 stages and is a lot of fun. MC Hammer opened the show for the 3rd consecutive year and my concert review blog was a major hit with SFGATE readers. Friday night after working my shift at the store, I joined some of my radio co-workers out for a night of Karaoke where I helped deliver such hits as Bon Jovi's 'Living on a Prayer' and Pat Benatar's 'We Belong' very poorly.

If I could somehow boil my Saturday down into a half hour, it would have made a great Seinfeld episode. That night was Phillipe's birthday. Phillipe is one of my co-workers at TJ Maxx. TJ's is his second job. His first job is working at a sex shop located at 5th and Folsom. I should have known that something was up when he called and asked me pick up his b-day cake at the sex shop and deliver it to the bar where his party was being held later that night. I agreed to deliver the cake thinking I would have my car, but Candace needed to borrow my wheels to run some errands and she went out with friends leaving me without wheels for the evening.

I arrived at the sex shop shortly after escaping from TJ Maxx on Saturday evening. The cake was locked in a closet. When it came out of the closet I could not believe my eyes. Lying on the cookie sheet was a frosting covered penis the size of my upper arm. After a quick chuckle, the reality set in that I had to carry this cake without covering about 5 blocks through the not so nicest part of SOMA.


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I collected a few smirks and a couple of jaw drops along the way, but about a mile later the penis cake had reached its final destination, Club 93.

After I made the drop I hustled up to market street only to see the bus I was intending to catch roll away from the stop I was aiming to catch it at. 25 more minutes until the next bus. Patience is a virtue that I don't have a lot of so I decided to walk the rest of the way home. No bus passed me on the 1.6 mile walk to my front door.

I got ready, went back to Phillipe's birthday party, went out to Pandora and sang more karaoke. Then ended up waiting for another bus home at quarter to 2 in the morning. Suddenly I heard the voice of a strange say she was looking for a cab to my neighborhood. After spending a minute convincing Angela and her friends that I would make a fine cab mate we started trying to flag down some cabs. A few minutes later we had given up. Dejected, the girls and I headed for a doughnut shop to try to formulate a plan. Luckily they had a friend willing to pick all of us up. Casey, Angela, Claudia and blond haired friend whose name totally escapes me were gracious enough to invite me along for the ride and by 3am I fell into my own bed. Thank you!

Wally's Wedding and the Cotton Candy Slumber

Off the mountain and back to the city...well sort of. September 11th in Old Orchard Beach, it doesn't get more patriotic than that! And in spite of a name that delivers mental pictures of toga parties on the Mediterranean, it doesn't get more American than Jimmy the Greeks!

Urban Dictionary defines an O.G. as "someone who has been around, old school gangster." Wally is without question the O.G. of my Maine group of friends. His social skills are artful and inspiring. So inspiring in fact, that the guest list at his wedding could have played out as a this is your life episode for anyone that had known him for more than 10 years. At the wedding I saw my first ever manager at my first ever job, people who I grew up with, folks I played softball with, and friends I have long since lost contact with. I spent a lot of time just talking to people I haven't seen since college and as memory serves correct many of the guests wet their whistles like they were still in college. Although I am happy to report that there was no "Frank the Tank" to lead a streaking party down to The Pier.

The after party raged for a couple hours at the hotel but quickly deteriorated into a hand full of us in Ben's hotel room watching Gladiator, eating pizza, and munching on a mysterious bag of cotton candy that materialized out of nowhere. I had planned to sleep on the floor in Ben's room, but in the rush to check-in and get to the wedding I forgot a key ingredient to my overnight stay, a pillow. With that in mind I asked if everyone had enough cotton candy, tied up the bag, and plopped down on the floor for a very uncomfortable night's rest.

Maine: Part 2

On Thursday we hit the road for Baxter State Park at about noon. The temperature was near 90 and the humidity was stifling. We decided Friendly's in Augusta would make an excellent lunch destination. Such a decision was an ill advised "hot mess" as they refer to it on the left coast. My chicken sandwich sat in my stomach for hours. It felt as if had eaten a giant rock burger for lunch. I wish I could say that the ice cream made it better, but alas it did not. I had such great memories of Friendly's dining in High School too. I remember when dozens of Scarborough Redskins scampered over to the South Portland location after sports practices, dances, and other activities. I guess I'm just not 16 anymore, but that doesn't explain all the ancient people filling up the diner booths. Maybe those folks were actually 30, but they looked much older because they had never stopped going to Friendly's.

We arrived at Baxter State Park just after 5 and after talking to a few rangers we decided to beat Hurricane Earl to the punch and head up Mt Katahdin Friday morning. Katahdin is a beast! A 5268 foot monster that dwarfs all other Maine mountains. It is also the northern most point along the Appalachian Trail. Chris and Ben decided that the Cathedral Trail from Chimney Pond to the summit would make for the most epic journey. Then the plan was to hook around the dangerous (According to Wikipedia, 19 people have died there since 1963) Knife Edge Trail to Paloma Peak.

The Cathedral Trail was the toughest climb I've ever done. The trail was more like free style rock climbing. 5-5.5 ft boulders dotted a near vertical landscape for close to a mile. I like to think of it this way. The average person walking down the street can probably put a mile on their pedometer in about 20 minutes. The mile from Chimney Pond to Baxter Peak took this handsome hand-full of new 30-year-olds a little more than 3 hours! The view from Baxter Peak was excellent even as clouds swirled the summit. We ate our lunches, snapped some photos, and as out feet carried us on to South Peak we proceeded to wonder if taking Knife Edge back was a good idea.

After a morning of climbing boulders the Knife Edge Trail looked like a piece of cake. Up and down 3 more jagged peaks and we're home free I thought. That isn't exactly how it went. The blue blazes on the rocks were supposed to indicate the proper trail to follow, but that and the first 4 options for the path of least resistance were almost always different routes. For much of Knife Edge we found ourselves clinging to granite spires looking for foot and hand holds with a 100 foot drop into nothingness behind our backs. Loose gravel would sometimes squirt out from under our hiking shoes and no less than 4 hours later we arrived on Paloma Peak with cramped muscles, sore knees, and a burning desire to teleport back to camp with more than 3 miles of hiking still ahead.

Not long after leaving Paloma we bumped into Alison (one of our partners in camping) who wisely decided to ditch the 13 hour adventure in favor of keeping her body fully functional for the rest of the weekend. She provided a much needed lift in spirit for the remainder of our journey down the mountain.

Maine: Part 1

My latest trip to Maine was a whirlwind experience. Action packed from start to finish and the activity kicked up a few days before I left San Francisco. It started with a deadline for a story. SmartMeters were the topic and I gotta say its hard to write a sassy story about utility meters. After staying up bleary eyed for a few nights and pounding my thumb with the hammer a few times I finally hit the railroad spike on the head. I'm now working on a story about an obstacle course designed to give physically fit adults a fit. I better get my ass to the gym to keep up with my interview subjects.

My flight landed in Boston just after 6:30 in the morning September 1st. I really can't sleep on airplanes, so the red eye flight really did have that effect on my whites. I grabbed my checked luggage and made my way to the curb where I waited for Chris to pick me up. I hate taking the bus back to Maine after a red eye for a couple of reasons. First, I'm paranoid about missing my Portland stop so sleep is out of the question. Second, the movie is always terrible. Third, I always miss the bus by a couple of minutes and have to wait 2-3 hours for the next one. On this day Chris was running a little late so I ended up waiting for a while. Luckily not long after taking my seat on a bench to inhale car fumes for an hour Evan sat down next to me and lit up a smoke.

Evan was your typical 20 year old from Bah-stin. His thick accent was unmistakable. His pasty white skin covered by a dark beard with a twinge of red gave away his obvious Irish ancestry. The brim of his newsboy cap covered his uni-brow which you could tell he occasionally passed a razor through. He wore a giant bead neckless, the type that could gain you a major cleavage show at Mardi Gras. Evan wasn't returning home from New Orleans though, he was fresh off the plane from Las Vegas.

Sin city was kind to the young man who borrowed his 22 year old brother's license for the week. No Vegas bar or club turned him away. In fact, he was only carded 4 times during his entire week long adventure. Evan's luck didn't end there, he was up gambling as well, but he blew all that money on his "girlfriends". One of which was a smokin' hot polish chick whom he stayed up all night dancing with and then...Chris arrived! Parting Evan's side was such sweet sorrow.

The ride back to Maine was invigorating. Chris and I talked about our fast approaching trip to Baxter State Park and attempt to climb Mt. Katahdin. Shortly after crossing the Piscataqua I got a call from my dad. Two things became obvious at this point. One was that I needed Dunkin Donuts coffee in order to have a coherent conversation with the old man upon my return home. Two I needed to grab some sleep to get ready for the long days ahead.

I've decided to pick up the pace at KALW a bit. I really enjoy the work I do there. I just don't like the pay rate. My dad says "Close your eyes. What do you see? Well that's what you're gonna get!" Even though English Soccer announcers would describe the payment as "nil". I feel like some of the skills I can work to acquire and keep sharp there are valuable. My patience for writing 5 minute long news story needs a touch of improvement and if banging out a few more stories for the old portfolio is what I need to do to finally score a paid radio job in this town then it'll be worth it. I'll also be sure to have some fun on the way.

My work for the Teen Media Network's summer session is finally over. We had a great session with 5 kids, a couple of field trips, and we slapped together 30 stories! I feel really good about the work we accomplished this session and the kids were really into some of the interviews I set up for them. The best experience of the semester for many of them was our trip to the Marin Museum of the American Indian in Novato, CA. The students got to talk to a tribal elder and interview the museum's director. They watched younger kids paint horses and got a grand tour of the museum from the guy who donated a lot of the artifacts and photographs. The trip to the museum was certainly worth it for me because I got a radio story out of it and the kids got more than 10 stories out of the experience.

In less that 8 days I will be flying back to Maine for a 2 week vacation. I will certainly miss San Francisco, but as the Wizard of Oz taught us there certainly is no place like home. I am really looking forward to running around the old stomping grounds and seeing my friends that I haven't seen in way too long. It will be a nice mental break after what has been a very busy month of August.

Lassen and other things

I just got back from Lassen Volcanic National Park and it was one of the most fantastic natural experiences of my life! I'm an Eagle Scout with a lot of camping miles on the odometer so that says a lot. I've never claimed to be a scientist, but my science class of choice in high school and college was Earth Science and Lassen is certainly a one of the few living examples of that in the lower 48. On Friday, Candace and I first checked out Bumpass Hell where mud bubbled, steam rose, and the stench of sulfur spewed from the ground. The earth was a multitude of color from orange to blue and gray. The water was silver, bright blue and even black in spots. We dipped our toes for a bit in a naturally heated stream.

Saturday we did some hiking, saw a waterfall, some beautiful alpine meadows and lakes and checked out some of North America's newest rocks formed during the 1915 Lassen Volcanic eruption. The highlight of the day however was actually at night. We went to the lake to look at the stars. I don't think I have ever seen such a exquisite night sky. The stars were so bright they reflected in the hundreds off the lake's water. To describe the scene as truly amazing would hardly give it justice.

On Sunday, we hiked to Lassen peak. The views from the summit were breath taking. We could see the central valley, lakes of varying shades of blue, and the snow covered Mt Shasta. At more than 10-thousand feet it is the highest altitude either of us have hiked to. We ate lunch at the top, hung out for a bit and begrudgingly made our way back home promising ourselves a return to the Northern California woods.

Life at the store is as good as ever. One of my bosses was having difficulty with a mathematical equation today and asked me for some assistance. Now I'm the last person to proclaim superiority when it comes to advanced number crunching and problem solving. Save for the cats (and that's debatable), I'm by far the worst in my household. But I accepted the challenge and offered my assistance. You may be wondering, what is this nearly impossible brain teaser? 22-1. Yes, that is what is a dollar off of 22 dollars? HOLY *#@^! A Forest Gump quote seems appropriate to end this paragraph, "That's all I'm going to say about that."

The past week has been one of change. My buddy Tom is moving to Pittsburgh, PA. Not to be confused with Pittsburgh, CA, which is at the end of one of the BART lines. Tom's departure for the greener pastures of owning a giant T. V., actually having a married life, as well as the promise of a top notch masters and eventually a doctorate degree leaves all of us remaining in San Francisco without a token British friend to hang out with. If anyone knows someone with British accent who enjoys sports, hates tea, and isn't afraid to tackle s'more making we're taking applications. Seriously, Tom and Sandra are already missed very much and we better all get our fannies to Pittsburgh to visit.

The rest of July went something like this...the 4th, dad tries to sell the house, Keith visits, American River rafting, teaching in Fairfax, hello "in-laws", garden harvest, plan my Maine return, plane nearly crashes into WGAN, and work on next KALW story underway.

The Decision

The last thing I expected to be writing a blog about right now is LeBron James' hour long ego stroking ESPN special "The Decision". But Jason MacDonald, a former Scarborough Redskins' Baseball teammate, asked me whether we can believe anything ESPN says about LeBron since ESPN hosted the show about his flight to Miami.

My professional opinion as a reporter is that we can trust ESPN to report fairly about LeBron for the rest of his career. From my understanding all of the advertising revenue for "The Decision" went to The Boys and Girls Club of America. It is a reporter's job to get scoops and whomever booked the King for "The Decision" was doing their job. Reporters strive for exclusivity, and ESPN landed the biggest sports story in America since the Lakers won the NBA Finals.

On another note I am not impressed with the ridiculous level of coverage ESPN has given Lebron over the last 48+ hours. 2/3rds of Sportscenter today was dedicated to one sentence that was uttered on their airwaves last night. I wanted to see baseball highlights and World Cup Championship previews. What I got was crying Clevelanders, manic Miamians, and the coronation of a new NBA champion before the first preseason game has even been played.

As far as LeBron's decision to play in Miami, I think he can play where ever he wants. He's actually taking a pay cut to play with the Heat and if winning championships is important to him he's certainly upgraded his chances. Although going on national T.V. to rub it in the faces of his home town supporters was a classless and tasteless thing to do.

My 1st Earthquake!!!

At 7:47AM Pacific Coast Time I was sitting at my computer, minding my own business, and eating breakfast when a 3.5 rumbler shook my pint glass of iced coffee. Work crews have been disturbing the peace and quiet levels at my residence for the past couple of weeks, so at first I thought some of the workers dropped some heavy machinery in the basement. A simple check of the USGS website proved differently. A 3.5er centered just a few miles from where I sat was the undeniable culprit. Candace, who was sitting down at the table with me felt the shaking. Ashley and Veronica, who were still in their beds didn't feel a thing.

The Bay Area is used to earthquakes and the only inconvenience that I read about was the BART subway system having minor delays so that the tracks could be checked. Other than that life goes on. For most people that live here today's quake will be just another in a long line of minor earthquake memories, but for me the sight and sound of ice gently slapping against the sides of my pint glass is not something I will soon forget. Welcome to California, more than a year later!

B2B and Yosemite

Bay to Breakers Sunday started like any other Sunday. Candace made a half gallon jug of gin and tonic, Chris, Ben, and I put on skin tight denim shorts and plaid tops before stuffing a handle of Jack into a backpack and heading out the door. Meanwhile Veronica, Ian, and Ashley were the proud owners of a walk of shame theme. High heels attached to handbags, smeared make-up, and messed up club attire matched meticulously with a handle of Jim Beam.

Any good road race competitor will have at least one goal. Ours was simple. To find our way home while completing approximately 2/7th of the actual race. Seems like a fairly simple and easy task, but not when you mix in booze with 119,993 other clowns, mythical creatures and pants-less wonders. Ben nearly got arrested for uncaging the urine monkey on a fence in Hayes Valley. I wasn't sure what to expect when the bicycle riding boys in blue told him to beat it. Chris was on a mission to lose his pants ever since we saw a group of people in their underwear yelling "just say no" to pants. He tried to tell everyone that the giant rip up the side of his denim booty shorts was a mistake, but I know him better than that. The gesture was an attempt at solidarity with the pants-less army that he wished to join. Candace on the other hand thought it'd be a great idea to take the final 1/3 of her drink out of a skull funnel. There might be some mathematical equation or some famous words from a philosopher that describes how we all arrived home safely that day. If you find either or both let me know.

Monday arrived before the last human dropping was cleaned off our neighbor's porch from the day before. For most that meant heading back to work. For me, Chris, and Ben the fun was just beginning. We were Yosemite bound before the sun reached its highest point in the sky. When arrived to rain, snow covered parts of the ground in the higher elevations and fog disguised the magical splendor that is the view from the valley floor.

We immediately set up camp and started asking around about out planned accent up Half Dome. Some people told us we wouldn't make it very far, but to spite those nay sayers we hit the trail loaded up with gear the very next morning. The climb was tough, but we didn't hit the snow until we were about 85% of the way to the top. That snow was packed down solid. We got all the way to the cables, which were laid down with no steps in place for safety. We decided to conclude our accent rather than try to scale the final 400' with our depleted shoulder strength and no real safety gear. I certainly plan on finishing off this piece of unfinished business very soon.

The rest of Chris and Ben's visit I'll sum up with a few words and phrases, you can fill in the rest of the blanks...lost camera, ouch my tooth, burritos to remember, red wine to forget, no need for sun block, sushi, Indian Food, and the Clifton comedy cashier of Yosemite.

Robogames, Mankend, and the travesty of TJ's

After a week and a half of going on a sojourn for just the right words, actually sitting down and writing, an mostly just editing, Robogames is just about in the books or on the air. The amount of work that goes into producing a single story for Crosscurrents still amazes me. Like a finely mixed cocktail the slow production process is one part I'm new at it and two parts no overwhelming sense of urgency for stories about robots. I guess the robots will show us one day when they take over the planet!

The toughest part of the entire process perhaps was voicing the piece. My voice is a real live wire. I wield a lot of authority and sound like an announcer even while speaking with friends and family. I really had to tone it down and talk at a level out of my comfort zone for this one. After an hour of throat clearing-water sipping excitement, I finally produced enough usable tracks to make the story. Note to the friends/family who I announce to on a regular basis, some voice acting classes would make the perfect birthday gift (November 18th, wink-wink).

Working in radio is clearly one of my favorite things to do. Even when a story takes a long time to produce or eats away from my free time I still enjoy the work. Something that is increasingly not my passion is working at the store. I've been there for over a year now and the needless stress is starting to get to me. I haven't learned anything new in a long time and the work is the same everyday. I realize most jobs are repetitive and not very exciting but as a reporter I have been trained to want more. I feel like something is lacking if I'm not learning something new every day, expressing myself through my work, and striving to get better at what I do. A working environment that doesn't engage those qualities is boring at best and soul crushing at worst.

Once in a while there are glimmers of light that come out of the retail darkness. Just last week a guy decided to wash himself under the nozzle in the store's parking lot. The man was stark naked at 6 o'clock Friday night bathing himself as customers came and went from the busy store. Management called the police, but in San Francisco citations for public nudity are not high on the to do list. The cop arrived about 10 minutes after the gentleman finished his leisurely shower session. Events like that don't happen often, so fortunately I have other outlets for my creativity and to blow off steam.

Enter Man-kend, its like a weekend where you do manly stuff. Candace and our roommate Veronica were both out of town last weekend. As a result Veronica's boyfriend, Ian and I decided to get some guys together. We started by catching the hit movie Kickass. Then made our way back to my place where we drank beer and started talking about the state science funding in America, military spending, British politics, the Arizona Immigration law, and finally strip clubs and boobies! You can probably spot in the previous chronologically written sentence where the beer started having its effect.

Soon we started a longer than necessary walk to The Pig and Whistle, a so-called British pub on Geary. The journey was longer than necessary because "We're men! So what the hell do we need a map for! The meal was very unmemorable partially because of the band of 60 year old rockers trying to recapture their youth through playing really annoying/terrible music at decibel levels scientifically proven to cancel out brain waves. One other thing made the meal less than notable, the food sucked! Even Tom, our token British friend, thought so!

After the meal that made us all hope for Amnesia we started walking down Geary looking for a place to throw some darts and watch some boxing. We found such a place at 5th and Geary, the Abbey Tavern. There we watched Mayweather defeat Mosley, had a couple of drinks, watched the current version of Ian have a dance with Ian 40 years from now, and started chucking darts! All in all a fun night. One that no farm animals were harmed in the making of, always a bonus!

Wondercon, my 1st San Francisco story

I am exhausted today and am stunned that I am actually back on a computer. I spent the past 2 days starring at a screen writing, editing, emailing, and finding just the right sound bites in an effort to put together my very 1st story for KALW News. I covered Wondercon, the Bay Area's big-daddy comic book convention. The story turned out fantastic. If you haven't already you should give it a listen, and then retweet it to all your friends.

Creating a 4 minute story is like nothing I've ever done before. Usually editors slash stories, cut them down to fit in a particular space. My editors wanted to add stuff to my story. Coming from WGAN, my sensibilities are to keep it short and cut out all superfluous words and information. Things are a bit different at KALW and it took a while but I'm finally warming up to the new and strange culture here. I'm off for the day now. I really need to get outside!

Two Great Friends Visit

My very good friends Chris and Holly visited from Maine last week. It was a whirlwind couple of days. Neither had been to San Francisco or the West Coast before and I was super anxious to show them around. This 30 year old man was sure to run those two mid-twenty somethings ragged for their 3 and a half day visit to The City.

They arrived on Thursday and once they were settled in their hotel I took them to the Full House house on Broderick Street, we then explored The Haight before hopping on a bus to the Castro. From there we grabbed some beers and sat in Dolores Park, did some dog and people watching before making our way to the Mission for a burrito.

The next day we met early at 8:30 in the heart of Civic Center plaza, we snagged a bus up to Alamo Square, walked to my house on Grove St, got in my car and drove to Ocean Beach, the headed over the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin Headlands, back to Golden Gate Park where we had a picnic outside the Conservatory of Flowers, we then saw some Buffalo, and laid down in the tulip garden next to a windmill. From there it was on to Polly Ann's for ice cream where Chris was the only one brave enough to let the giant wheel decide which flavor he would try. We enjoyed dinner and drinks that night at a cute little Italian place up on Nob Hill.

Saturday we met at the ferry depot for Alcatraz! After scoping out the rock and having PB&J's there, we checked out Fisherman's Warf, took a ride on the Cable Cars, visited Northbeach and finally Chinatown. It was a long day that started at about 9:30am and didn't end until close to midnight.

Sunday was the day Chris set aside to propose to Holly. She didn't know a thing about it and after some coy deception the day before I was able to "have Chris to myself" for the morning. As we were having breakfast, grabbing the rental car, and getting out hair hacked (and Chris had a lot of it after 91 days of growth). Candace and Holly enjoyed pedicures. After Candace, who did know about the big surprise, lead Holly to Twin Peaks where Chris and I were waiting for them. The problem here is Chris and I were just getting out of the rental car when the ladies drove by in my vehicle. Chris was nearly busted! Luckily Candace pointed to the amazing view and that captivated Holly's attention long enough for Chris and I to duck behind the wheel well. After a race up the stairs we waited for what seemed like forever at the top of the hill. When the ladies arrived Chris proposed to Holly and soon after she said yes and he recovered the ring that he dropped in the dirt, he slipped the dazzling ring onto her finger. We were then off to a nice lunch at Cliff House before they blew out of town enroute to the Central Valley countryside.

Vacations like these make me want a vacation from my vacation!

News Update

Check out the latest story I helped out with. I interviewed the people in the park at the beginning of the story.

Also here's my Daily Digest for Thursday...

Beats cherry flavored Pepto-Bismol in a national taste test...

World & National

Chilie can't get a break as 7.2 quake hits on inauguration day...

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/11/breaking-strong-quake-reported-in-chile/?hpt=T1

National jobs bill may help avoid city layoffs...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/11/MNM21CDP5U.DTL&tsp=1

Students held captive in Iran with E.T. are allowed to phone home...

http://www.kcbs.com/localnews/Detained-Hikers-Allowed-to-Call-Home/6545132

California...

Some state workers get raises, while others deal with furloughs and pay cuts...

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/11/2598495/california-agencies-pay-cuts-hit.html

Newsom draws Gray Davis comparison...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/11/BAQB1CDQBD.DTL

The Bay...

Evidence withheld in Santa Clara Sex Crimes cases...

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14651293

New Bay Bridge eastern span may open before finished...and you thought the S Curves built on Native grave sites were dangerous...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/11/BAKS1CDUBF.DTL

SF...

New School assignment policy goes into effect next year...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/11/BARG1CDQ7Q.DTL&tsp=1

Radio and Teaching Radio

On Monday I started a broadcast consultant job in Fairfax, CA for The Environmental Education Council of Marin. They're a nonprofit group and part of their mission is to teach teens about protecting their environment, natural resources, and sustainability through journalism internships. More specifically the interns interview people in their community on the above listed issues, then produce 2 minute radio stories.

I did enjoy my first day on the job. There is certainly a lot of work to do on the organization and technology fronts, but I left Monday feeling excited and confident that I can make an immediate positive impact on the program as it continues to expose young people to some of the most important issues of our time.

I feel like I'm starting to play a bigger role at KALW news. Last Thursday I interviewed students and teachers as they protested state education cuts. This week I talked to city park fans about what they will do when one of the widely used parks shuts down for a while. That story should air Thursday of this week.

I'm also keeping up with my weekly digests...My internet research from last week...
***

Today Federal regulators investigate the Day of Action's monopoly over California media coverage...

Nation

Gay Community given no rights in immigration...

http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/Letters-from-our-Readers-Gays-lesbians-given-no-rights-in-immigration-86283767.html

California

Edukasion (what do they need $ for?) protests today...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/03/03/state/n145604S63.DTL&tsp=1

Governor tries to iron out issues ahead of education protests...

http://www.kcbs.com/localnews/Schwarzenegger-Meets-With-Higher-Education-Leaders/6492001

More racist markers sprout at UC campuses...

http://www.ktvu.com/news/22733386/detail.html

Court rules against state budget cuts...

http://www.ktvu.com/politics/22733929/detail.html

Water situation getting betterSierra Snowpack above average...

http://www.ktvu.com/bartshooting/22731356/detail.html

Bay Area

Shutting down NUMMI plant will cost us...

http://kron.com/News/ArticleView/tabid/298/smid/1126/ArticleID/5170/reftab/536/Default.aspx

San Francisco

Muni Driver's family can stay in U.S....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/03/BAIO1CAD3J.DTL
******

That's all for now. Next week Chris and Holly come to town!!!

Daily Digest

Every Thursday morning I produce what is called the daily digest for KALW news. The work entails scanning other news sources for noteworthy stories that we discuss in our morning meeting. Sometimes we follow up, expand, or take the story in a new direction for the show. Other stories are worth noting for later, while others yet are discarded on the news-noise scrap heap. Here's a copy of my digest from today...



World/National News

Power generated in a box, a bloom box that is...Somebody please explain how this thing works!


Healthcare summit in Washington today to interrupt Days of Our Lives. More importantly does it have Emmy winning potential?



California News

High Speed rail to take passangers away from Bay airports suffer.



Bay Area

Is Oakland picking on low income neighborhoods?


Muslim discrimination case at San Mateo Mall.




SF

In an electrifying public statement Police Chief Gascon says he wants tasers for officers.

Mayor Newsom says City close to solving homelessness. On a side note, I'm really close to single handedly ending the War in Afghanistan without further bloodshed.

Lake Tahoe Adventures

Last week Candace and I celebrated 4 years together. On Tuesday we packed up the car and headed to North Lake Tahoe. For my Maine friends who have never been to Lake Tahoe, I would describe it as Sebago Lake surrounded by the White Mountains, with a few casinos thrown in on the Nevada side. The place is a winter sports paradise with a rich history and perhaps most importantly, excellent beer!

I certainly am a bit of a history buff and part of this trip's adventure was learning about the tragedy of Donner Party. The general idea of the Donner Party story is as follows...more than 40 men, women, and children who were making their way cross country decided to "take a short-cut" to California. They followed the Donner brothers 2 men in their 60's, into the Utah desert without appropriate provisions. Natives attacked the group, stealing horses and destroying wagons and other belongings as they journeyed through Nevada. The group finally somehow made it to Reno. Even today it is never a good idea to spend 5 days in Reno, but back in 1846 it was even a worse plan. They "regrouped" there only to become snowed in soon after entering the Sierra Nevada. The lucky ones survived the next several months by eating rationed food, oxen bones, and eventually each other. Many of them didn't make it out of extreme eastern California with their lives in tact.

Lessons can be learned from every story. First here is that if you don't know where you're going short-cuts often end up being long-cuts. Second if you are setting off into the wilderness, bring enough food with you or know how to catch, hunt, or find food. Today 30 is the new 20 and 40 is the new 30, but in 1846 I'm pretty sure 60 was the new 104. Be careful about who you follow or accept candy from. Finally if you're going to a place where there could be snow, bring skis! We all have a lot to learn from the Donner Party's grave misfortunes.

We had a very un-Donner like vacation in Tahoe. Wednesday we snowshoed up Boreal Ridge. The hike was steep but it was at least 50 degrees with beautiful sunshine. Once we got to the top of the ridge we whipped out our brand new MSR stove and cooked us a dehydrated meal while taking in the pristine view. On Thursday we took a nice hike on the beach at Donner Lake. It was another warm winter day in the 50's, and we had a great time pounding the powder with our snowshoes. After we headed to Truckee to have the most giant hot chocolate I've ever seen.

That night, we had dinner at the fifty-fifty brew pub in Truckee. The food was good and the beer was impressive. I enjoyed the Base Camp Golden Ale. It was cold and crisp with just a hint of fruit flavor and an extremely smooth finish. A great summertime brew, but I would drink it just about anytime. We ended up bringing back a growler to share with dinner this week. As we were leaving we saw that they have a special, limited edition stout aged in a Jack Daniel's barrel. Come to find out they only sell it at the brewery so we missed out. It would have been terrific to taste.

On Friday we drove south along the western edge of the lake to South Lake Tahoe. The drive was loaded with excellent panoramic views as the surrounding mountains reflected in the lake under blue sky. Then the westward drive home.

Tilden and my 1st field assignment

January/February is a slow time for retail, as a result workers tend to get a few more days off. Some folks become desperate for hours and money. They call every day to see if someone called out sick. I'm not like that at all, not that I couldn't use the money. But I see it as I've earned these months after working the long hours and dealing with the exhausting craziness of November and December. It is tough to exclude yourself from Holiday Parties and not see your family, meanwhile almost everyone else is skipping out on work to shop, cook, decorate, and drink themselves to a Happy New Year.

I've decided to take my added time off (about 4 hours less per week) and explore my surroundings. This week I checked out The Exploratorium in San Francisco. The building from the outside is impressive. The domed building with columns resembling a Greek or Roman structure dominates the Presidio/Marina skyline. Inside there are several exhibits that are meant to teach people about science, how their senses work and how they can be fooled, mechanics, and to a lesser extent living things. I think I would have liked it better if I had never been to the Museum of Science in Boston. Some of the exhibits didn't work and it was small compared to the Boston Museum of Science. No awesome IMax either!

Hiking has been another activity I have taken on regularly as I continue my preparations for many backpacking treks this summer. This week I scurried across the Bay to Berkeley where Tilden Regional Park is located. I scurried up a slick and muddy trail to Wildcat Peak on the Northwestern edge of the park where the views were amazing in spite of the foggy haze that tried to hide the Bay. I can only imagine how beautiful the entire bay must look on a clear day from atop Wildcat.

Finally this week I took on my first assignment in the Field at KALW. My work brought me to the campus of City College in San Francisco, where the powers that be recently canceled summer classes in the name of bringing the school's tight budget in line. I asked students how they felt about it. Most were pissed, a few even dropped F-bombs on my recorder. The story will likely air Monday on Crosscurrents. Unfortunately I will not voice the story as I believe it is part of a larger story that another reporter is working on, but I should be credited for my work. Steps in the right direction.

Rain, radio, and rallying from homesickness

The Biblical rains have continued in California this week. I don't hate rain, as a matter of fact I think the California's "golden hills" appear as if they need a serious drink towards the end of summer/beginning of fall. especially when you compare it to the lush greenery you see back east that time of year. I am however really annoyed by the fact that I have to carry around an umbrella with me where ever I go. When rain threatens around here it can pretty much happen at any time. The fancy weather predicting machines and their seasoned meteorologist masters stand no chance against the micro-climates of the Bay Area. A flash storm can give you a clothed shower and make your khaki pants appear see through if you are into that sort of thing or not. Also since I've never had to be perpetually linked with an umbrella, I find that I am not very adult about carrying one. Today I caught myself walking down the street wielding it like a sword wishing I had taken up fencing or watched more Ninja Turtles as a child so I learned more cool sword moves from Leonardo. Maybe I should watch other umbrella carrying adults a little more closely so I don't hurt myself or put some body's eye out with that thing sometime in the near future.

Work has been going well this month. The store has calmed down considerably and I'm slowly taking on more responsibility at KALW. I've started writing the morning digest Thursday mornings which consists of scanning news sources and writing a summary e-mail to help brainstorm story ideas. The station also debuted its brand new news website and I'm also learning to become a web editor. I really hope I can find the time and energy to get out in the field and put my special stamp on a story in the near future. I miss the excitement of being out in the field covering a story. I love hearing what other people have to say and having a job where the unexpected can be expected virtually everyday.

I think that's part of the reason why I've been a touch homesick lately. I miss my former job, my friends, and my family in Maine. While I did enjoy skipping the holiday travel season and staying in the relative warmth of California, there is certainly something to be said for being surrounded by familiarity that time of year. I am very excited for my first full year out west. Tahoe next month and true friends visiting in March, April, May, and June! I love being a tour guide so at least the first 6 months look like a sweet start.

Tahoe, Yosemite here we come!

A lot has happened in the past week as bright sunshine and moderate temperatures have been replaced by rain, clouds, wind, and chill. The good news is my basement is flooded which makes taking out the trash and laundry nearly impossible. Aside from putting chores off for a couple of days, my hope is that all this rain in San Francisco will translate into white fluffy snow for the Tahoe area. About one month from now Candace and I head to the hilly trails of Tahoe for skiing, snowshoeing, and other discoveries. My only snowshoe experience comes from high school gym class back in Maine, but Chris and Ben have had some great experiences out on the trails this winter and we figure if those jugheads can do it so can we! Besides it promises to be at least 40 degrees warmer with a little more daylight and a significant less chance for frostbite than the western Maine hills. I'm really going to enjoy visiting the snow for a weekend, then returning to the snow-free city!

The Yosemite trip is coming together as well. Friday we obtained campsite reservations and wilderness camping permits. Now all we have to do is make like The New Kids on the Block and make sure we've got the "Right Stuff" for and overnight hike and camp plus a death defying ascent up a 45 degree rock face. Should be fun!

On a side note, I can't believe that its Martin Luther King Jr. Day already! One year ago today Gordo, Byrne, and I were on the Mall in Washington listening to Bruce Springsteen, U2, Cheryl Crowe, Garth Brooks, Usher and more! It was cold and windy and out 2009 Inauguration adventure was just getting underway!

Walking the winter doldrums away

My only regret is that I have not written more in the past month, otherwise my holiday season was a productive one. I worked like crazy for the first time in many retail high seasons. It is funny how Christmas seems to find a way to zap your bank account no matter how much you work though. Christmas was nice and relaxing I'm glad we decided to stay in California rather than pay twice as much to fight through the extra giant airport crowds o our way back to Maine or Bermuda.

20-10 is shaping up to be the year of the hike. I'm already making plans for several major hikes this year. The first of which will likely be Mt. Diablo (3,849') over in the East Bay this winter. This May Chris and Ben are rolling in for a visit and we plan to storm Half Dome in Yosemite (8,880'). That will be a 2 day adventure as we'll probably set up camp half way in little Yosemite Valley. Then this summer when I return to Maine, we'll tackle Mt. Katahdin (5,268'). I'm really looking forward to these hikes and am determined to keep myself in the best physical shape possible so I won't be sucking wind in the thin air. Today I set out to conquer Mt Davidson (925', most of it driven) and San Francisco's famous Cliff Walk from Cliff House down to the Golden Gate Bridge. After hours of running, climbing, walking, stumbling, and sight seeing (I even saw a naked man at Baker Beach) I figured a blog and a picture would be a fitting end to my day of exploration.