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!