BLOG

They say that art usually immitates art, but I've generally found it to be the other way around, especially as we keep soaking ourselves in the gasoline-laden shrouds of mass media.       Such was the case today as I was sitting in my apartment. It was a pretty normal day. People were on the street and a helicopter kept flying overhead.       As I was at the computer in mid keystroke, I heard the massive crash from outside on the street. It was the kind of crash that you only hear from one car hitting another one. Then there was the squealing of tires and another crash.       All of that was enough to peak my interest, so I ran to the roof and caught the glimpse of something very strange. Apparently, the police were in a high-speed pursuit with some nitwit in a car who had made a bit turn at the corner of my street. Sutter is a one way street and he desicded to go the wrong way on it. In doing so, he slammed in to a parked car ont he side. He backed up and then slammed in to another.       At this point, the police had pinned his car in, but he kept backing up and slamming forward to get away from and get away he did as he drove up on to the sidewalk and then drove down the sidewalk with people jumping to get out of his way.       This last tactic was what I saw a glimpse of as I was on my roof. The police followed and possibly caught him or whatever, I'm not quite sure. I think the most surreal part of all of it was that something was actually trying to do something you see in an action movie.       Maybe he was just trying to find parking or that perfect gift. You got me, since either item will make you go insane in San Francisco at times.

Okay, so what's "smes"? Well, I gotta tell you that until a few days ago, it wasn't something that I was that familar with either, but since then, I've gotten to know it well. To properly understand "smes" we need to back up a couple steps though.       My profession is in information technology or IT as it is as known and those who work in my job are usually regarded on about the same level as dentists. Yes, it sucks, but it's the truth and you gotta live with it. Thankfully you tend to get paid decently to do this job though. At any rate, people hate to ask me things and they hate have me do things, since when I touch a machine, it invariably means that something will change on it and we all know how we feel about change. Change not good. Change require pitchforks and torches to burn away change. This leads in to people asking you direct questions so that you don't get off on a tangent and try to explain change to them. Direct questions, while impersonal beget direct answers and thus, IT people then get seen as being direct, callous, and uncaring. This in turn makes us saracastic, annoying, and darkly comic in order to cope with tis. And on, and on goes this viscous circle that just gets nutty and we IT people just say "No" to get beyond all of it.       So, I had to write up goals for 2005 and one of mine was to say "Yes" while still meaning "No" This is a tricky thing indeed, since, in the english language these terms are rather exclusive from one another and most would say that they are the opposite of each other. People always want to hear "Yes" and never want to hear "No" which of course isn't possible, since saying "Yes" all the time will drive you nuts, since you make promises that you won't be able to fulfil. So, therein was my dilema, until one of the directors was reading over my goals and saw that, looked up at me, and said, "What you need is the 'Small Yes'."       "The 'Small Yes'?"       "Yes, the 'Small Yes'. It is a 'yes' but with reservations."       "Ah, I see.."       Now, I understand the concept behind it, but I don't really like the term, since I'm a guy who doesn't like terms for things that are all about manipulating people, so I henceforth am calling this the "Smes" and I will try it when I can. But, there is one drawback in this in that now the director has let me in on one of his secrets. In fact, he came down and was smessing with me today as I was telling him about some things I'd like try. Of course now I realize it and see right through it, so I smes him right back. And on, and on the smessing goes until we stop talking and don't accomplish much. Pretty silly really, but hey, so is work and anything else that doesn't involve move making.

It was a funny thing as I was walking to the bart yesterday morning. As I was strolling down mason street to avoid the mess that is always Powell, I walked by the Hotel Niko. There, parked out front were three cabs. There's never anything really strange about that, since there are always cabs hovering in front of the hotels around Union Square, waiting for their latest fare. What was strange, or more eerily funny about things was that each of the cabs had advertisements for local strip joints on their roofs. I guess it says something about the clientel that may be staying in San Francisco. Maybe they're business men looking for a good time, or maybe this was all just a coincidence.       You never know with this kind of thing. I'd hate to think that the first thing people need to see upon arrival to our fair city is the sleeze trade plying their wares. Of course, I'm walked down Broadway more than once, so I know how strong the nudie thing is here. Such an odd business with a bizarre crowd that frequents them. Or... maybe not, as those three cabs in front of the Niko were saying.

This underground nightclub has reopened near the corner of Taylor on Sutter, next to the new Olypic Club parking lot.       I don't really know of the reasons that it closed down, but I think there was something ill like a shooting or some kind of drug thing that happened there. I tried to Google around for a definite answer, but didn't come up with one, so imagination will have to suffice.       Out of curiousity, I checked the place out and it's decently done up. The bar staff is still having opening pains and is pretty slow to get drinks to you. Not to mention that my vodka tonic was a bit sweet, which is always weird.       There are a lot of dark corners and mirrors in the palce now, which are always cool and the subterranean feeling is something I've always been in to in a club.       The crowd when I was there wasn't much to write home about. They were mostly BTP (Bridge Tunnel Penninsula) and other people who probably hopped off a party bus. Not that these are bad people, since they're looking for a good time, but they're really not my crowd and I tended to avoid places Broadway where they tend to congregate, since I'm not always in the "get completely sloshed" mode when I'm out and about.       The music was hit and miss, since there are two dance floors. One had a decent DJ that was spinning out tunes that were decent, but kind of bland. The other DJ was doing evil, terrible things to his tables and it seemed like he was more interested in impressing his DJ friends than playing for the patrons. It was pretty obvious since one of the floors was packed and the other where he was, was completely devoid of life. It just shows further proof for my theory of how to be a good DJ and the fact that there are a lot of really crappy DJ's in San Francisco.       Anyways, The Cellar isn't a bad palce to check out if you are looking for a good time and it will probably get a decent regular crowd as time goes on. If you're looking for more of a bar, check out Tunnel Top - www.tunneltop.com or Le Colonial. Both are in the same area and Colonial is more of a dance place than Tunnel Top if you're looking to get your groove on, instead of your drink on.

I recently had a nice dinner at Palomino in San Francisco. I have to admit though, that the best two parts of the meal were the view and the fact that it was free.       I suppose that this is, in essence, an Italian restaurant south of Market on the Embarcadero. My meal wasn't really what I would call Italian though, since I had a steak. Of course, this was started by a salad and ended by tiramisu. As one of my dining companions noted, who is an Italian chef by birth, that what we had was truly not tiramisu. I don't really know what real tiramisu is, since I've probably ahd 15-20 different versions at various restaurants, both Italian and otherwise.       Overall though, I wasn't terribly thrilled by the meal. It was fine, but the salad was small and lacking in anything very unique. The steak had fatty areas in it, but was decently flavored. And the desert was sweet, but was lacking in any kind of coherence as to what it was, kind of inviting the theory that a pile of sugar was having an identity crisis.       The one thing that was truly great was the wine list, from which I managed to kick back two bottle of Grgich Hills Zinfandel. It was a nice varietal to drink while watching the rain pound outside with the Bay Bridge as a back drop.       I'd give it two stars out of four. For a good contrast, I'd recommend Cafe Tiramisu in Belden Place, which doesn't ahve the view of Palomino, but has never let me don't on the wonderful quality of the meals, desert and service. It also happens to be cheaper than Palomino.

Holy criminy! What is it with these Mac people?!! They are religious about their damned machines. I would say that there is something they put on the keyboard or in the screen that makes them addicted to these hunks of junk, but these people are so loyal, so decidely feeling "right" about this pile of plastic and electricity that it gets to be like talking to a Mormon about evolution sometimes.       I always go back to this one guy at my last office who had three Macs die on him and then one day he calls me up asking what kind of Mac laptop her should get. I was flabergasted. "Why, oh why would you want one of these things when you've seen first hand how unreliable they are?" "They just work better, man." "What?!! You're joking, right?" "No, not really. They're just smooth machines that make a lot of sense." "Uh, I see. Well, in that case, I think you should get the most expensive one you can afford, since obviously that will be the best one." "Oh, okay, cool, that's what I thought." What a retard.       Then, just the other day, I started getting in to it with a designer at my current office. The conversation went something like this:       "This is such a great machine."       "You're joking, right? You do see me trying to get this thing running, since it's crapping out on you, right?"       "Oh, that just started happening."       "I remember that you've been having problems with this thing for about two months."       "Well sure, but it's much better than a Windows machine."       (beat, Michael scratches his head)       "Actually, I run all this exact software at home on a Windows machine and it works great."       "No, I don't think so. It runs best on a Mac."       "Um, once again, you do see me working on it in front of you, right?"       "Sure, but that's just today."       (Michael tries to find a hammer to disarm his frontal lobes.)       "Okay, so, why do you think this is better than a Windows machine?"       "It's just easier. I can find things."       "Like this folder of all your stuff on the desktop?"       "Yeah, like that. It's hard to find things like that on a Windows machine."       "I woudl think that you would just put a folder on your desktop, just like you have here. I'm not really understanding what the difference is."       "It's just easier, that's all."       "Ah, I see."       (Michael looks for knife to slit wrists and put himself out of misery)       "Okay, so I can't do much for this machine right now. I'll have to completely rebuild it, which means that you can't do any work until then."       "Oh, why is that?"       "Because, like I said, I can't fix this problem. There is an inherent issue with the core of the machine that has to be completely erased out and rebuilt."       "Oh, I see. It'll be all right."       And of course, it really isn't. I think that Mac people like their machines so much because they never have to work on them, since they would have no clue how to. We recently ordered 30 new PowerMac G5 desktops for my office and out of them, there were 30% of them that failed. That's right, one out of three of these machines were no good and had to be sent back. That's pretty horrid, especially since these are $2000 machines. To counter that, of the 40 Windows based machines we got, not one was dead and some of those were $500 desktops and some were $1400 laptops.       Makes me crazy I tell you.

It's kinda sad that people are just turning to bickering about the whole election still, since it doesn't really solve anything. Of course, there are some discourses that are amusing and are enjoyable reads. Here's a rather lighthearted romp through someone's angst.       We'll probably all get over this some day and be smarter about things and realize that venting solves nothing, but it certainly is tough to see all of your representation done by another group that isn't even close to how you feel. The only bright side that I can see in all of this is that people will get motivated to take on some of the big issues and actually make change happen for good. Despite what everyone thinks, we are making progress. I mean, do you think the premise of gay marraige would even have been shown on the evening news 50 years ago? Me thinks not.