halloween 2008

It was quite a Halloween this year. We went to a great party just down the street, hosted by a couple of our friends. If you want the whole boring story of how it came to pass, it's below. But, with no further ado: my Halloween 2008 photoset.

          

JR already had a costume planned, since his was a team effort. I, on the other hand, had no idea what I was going to be. Last weekend we tried a costume store in Lower Haight, but it was so crowded and everything was just jumbled up, and since I didn't have a plan, I couldn't pick anything that was right. Anything that did strike my fancy wasn't even near the right size. I saw an incredible Marie Antoinette wig strung with pearls, but they didn't have any matching costumes, so we left. I bought some orange/black striped tights in the hope that I could come up with something simple around that.

By 10am on Thursday, I was really starting to panic. My aunt and uncle were coming in that night, so I'd have zero time to work on a costume the night before. Then JR sent me a link to a costume more my size on buycostumes.com. The clouds parted and a ray of light shined down upon me. They had tons of costumes that would (should) fit, and if I ordered by 3pm, it was guaranteed to arrive by 3pm on Halloween. I can't say enough great things about buycostumes.com. USE THEM!

Then I spent forever trying to decide which costume to go for. They even had some sexy ones, and I was kind of leaning towards that. In the end, I chose two from two different sizing systems, to be sure that if one didn't fit, the other hopefully would. I ended up with a pirate costume, and a Marie Antoinette costume. The catch: they were sold out of decent wigs. They had some really crappy ones that looked like they were made out of the same material they sell for you to stretch all over the place into cobwebs, but no way! I got my order in, and then I had to get back to work. I'd have to leave the wig hunt for Friday.

The package needed to be signed for, so I worked from home, and miracle of miracles, it arrived before 11am. The delivery guy joked about how I was cutting it a little close. No kidding! I tried them both on. Marie fit. Then I tried on the Pirate. Explain this to me: how can an XL be so enormous on top that it won't even stay up, but so tight in the bottom that it won't stay down? Then I put on the wrap-around corset-like middle thing, and it literally wouldn't lace up. That's not very good for the ego, I can tell you that much.

So Marie it was. Now a mad search for a wig. I knew the Haight shop had one the weekend before, but it was doubtful it would still be there, and they'd already set up lines in expectation of the crowds to come. Oh well. Best bet. There was a long line out front, but it went pretty quickly. And they had ONE wig left - the one I fell in love with. We got JR a wig too, and some glasses. And me some tanga pants. And then a gold mask too. We finally got out of there, fully prepared to costume up. Yay!

busy weekend!

What a weekend! Thursday was the conference, then afterwards JR & I hung out with our friends Mandi & Mike who came in for the conference from San Antonio. The four of us went to Swatdee right around the corner to have Thai for dinner. After dropping M&M off at the place they were staying, we drove out to the airport to pick up Colleen & Jeff, JR's sister and brother-in-law, at about 10:30pm.

On Friday morning we had breakfast at Tartine. I had the always delicious bread pudding.



The whole day was essentially a slow photowalk; down 24th and Dolores, up and down Valencia for a while, taking photos and shopping. It's great to just ake your time to notice what's around you.



After having lunch at Papalote, we came back up to the house and I took a loooooong nap. We left at 6pm to head downtown for the Giants vs. Dodgers game. It was great (albeit freezing cold)! We got to have totally bad for you ballpark food, because that's the law, you know.

Saturday morning we went down to Kookez and had a delicious breakfast, which includes enjoying the company of Shy & Deano. We loaded up on carbs to be fully fueled for our visit to Muir Woods. It was beautiful as always. Got to see an otter, and several chipmunks. We continued on to Muir Beach, and then Stinson Beach where we had a late, late lunch that was pretty meh. Unfortunately, I was messing around with the settings on my camera, and came out with hardly any decent shots. Colleen's photoset of this weekend kicks my photoset's ass. Check hers out.



Everyone started working on photos and blogging and doing computer work, and it was nearly 9pm when we realized we needed to get some dinner, and most places around here close at 9:30. We almost ordered in Chinese, but decided to drive up to a little place we know. We were afraid they were about to close, but imagine our surprise when we open the door and hear karaoke streaming from the bar. We had a great meal and a number of alcoholic beverages before we moseyed on over to the bar area to watch the karaoke.

My favorite singer of the night was a middle-aged Chinese man in a Metallica t-shirt who only sang heavy metal. I'm talking 'Feed My Frankenstein' & the like. And his wife was dressed in full San Antonio style headbanger getup, complete with teased up hair and mini-skirt. Very entertaining.

I was literally pushed into doing a song, which I promptly slaughtered: Sweet Caroline, by Neil Diamond. Apparently the number of Tsing Tao beers you drink is not equivalent to the same number of Mai Tais everyone else is drinking which make them bulletproof on stage. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Fun times.

On Sunday, we split up; Colleen & Jeff went down to the wharf, while JR & I ran a ton of errands in an effort to be ready for the party we're throwing this coming Saturday to launch "Backyard 2.0", which we've finally finished. It's awesome. Still much party prep to do though, and since I woke up pretty damn sick Monday morning, I haven't been much help. The turnout is going to be frighteningly good - I'm not sure where all these people are going to fit!

Back to coughing and moaning and generally feeling sorry for myself. And pizza - pizza is on the way has arrived, which makes everything better.

going to half of BlogHer, but still hoping

As I am friends with an amazing guy (who knows everyone and everything - especially about music!) who went way beyond the call of duty to get me into BlogHer, I have now secured a pass to Day 1 of BlogHer! w00t!!!

This means I do get to go to the Newbie Party tonight. I even went out on a limb, hoping against hope, and last night I got a great new haircut and style for the occasion, so I'm glad something panned out, last-minute or not. There will be pictures from the party tonight.

So tomorrow I'll be at BlogHer. And if you hear of any Saturday passes, send them my way. I mean, seriously folks, it's my chance to meet Maggie (mightygirl) AND Heather (dooce)!!! That's like two life-long dreams rolled into one!

I'll keep you posted!

point break LIVE!

This weekend, JR and I went to see Point Break LIVE! - a theatrical version of the movie, where they pick Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves' character) out of the audience, and that person reads their lines off cue cards, for a more realistic performance.

IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME. PERIOD.

I cannot believe I stumbled upon this from a live music mailing list at work. It was a 10 at 10 deal - $10 for the 10pm show. Regularly $25. It's an amazing show for 25 bucks, much less 10!!! AND they serve beer? Hell, yeah.

We stopped at the bar on the way in and asked for water (we were intoxicated enough already), and the bartendress said they were out, but she could get us cokes. Fine with us. Then she says, "We ran out of bottled water during the first show - someone's gone out to get some more." ...pause... She leans in and half whispers "Personally, I think it's cottonmouth..." Yes!

The show was outright insane. People chanting along with all the great lines, deliciously over-the-top acting, merciless dousing of the audience...

It is imperative that you go. "This is your wake-up call!"

what's busier than a bee? ME

I know what you're thinking. "Late with the April design too?" And my response is, "Ummm. No. Definitely not. It's not... I mean, it wasn't... late at all... Look! Over there! Something shiny!" This month just whizzed by for me, full of furious activity. For example: we bought an AppleTV, and this whole weekend we've been madly transferring movies to it and watching them. Maybe that's not a good example. But... I have been very busy (Oh yes - and I was quite sick for a while there - migraines from hell, you know.) and it's only getting worse in coming weeks.

Upcoming:

• Uploading the April design and acting like it's been there the whole time
• Creating and then doing a presentation for my product at work on the 22nd
  
• Finishing photos so I can upload them to flickr and be all caught up
• Creating a May design for the site
  
• My cousin Katie in town the 25th - 28th
• DeVotchka at the Fillmore on the 28th
• Former colleague Neff in town the 28th - 30th
• The Breeders on the 30th
• This American Life, Live, in SF, on May 1st
• MakerFaire May 3rd and 4th
• Antiquing at Alameda on May 4th
• RUSH in Concord on May 4th
• At some point in there, having LASIK (again!) on my left eye. Fun!
  

So, as you can see, it's pretty much non-stop starting the 25th, coming to a full-blown explosion on May 4th. Wish me luck! Actually, looking at the list, it's not really getting worse. As a matter of fact, apart from the LASIK thing, it's gonna rock! Or, as I would usually say, "It doesn't suck."

Noir City - No Happy Endings!

Poster and logo design: Bill Selby; Poster and Noir City 6 photos: David M. Allen

This is so cool, and if I could, I would go every night. It had me at "No Happy Endings..."

It's Noir City 6, and they have an SF Noir night, and a Dames Tough as Nails night. Yeeeeeeeee!!!!

what are you doing tonight?

Oh, I don't know... We're going to THIS!

castro street fair 2007

fantastic faces, originally uploaded by ashleyv.

Last weekend JR and I walked to the Castro Street Fair ("Where everyone can have a gay old time!") to drank beer, get mediocre street vendor food, and do some people-watching. We showed up just in time to catch DJ Earworm, who was as far away from the food as possible, but was very close to beer. Not a good combination for an empty stomach. So before his two-hour long set was over, I was a little tipsy. Let's just say there was some slight dancing involved. But I got some decent photos.

DUR: it's just good manners to include a link to my Castro Street Fair 2007 photoset.

SEED conference

A One-Day Conference on Design, Entrepreneurship & Inspiration, by 37signals, Segura Inc. & Coudal Partners.

"On Monday, October 29, 2007 in Chicago, Jason Fried, Carlos Segura and Jim Coudal will lead a presentation and discussion on design, entrepreneurship, and inspiration."

The price is $399/person and is limited to just 135 attendees. I'm not exactly sure why it's called "SEED".

google dance (a recap)

I was looking forward to this event because it was a lot of fun last year, but lots of the UXers didn't go or were out of town this year. It just wasn't the same.

On the up side though, it didn't look like all the set-up was going to come together in time, so I e-mailed Anne, one of the coordinators, to see if they needed any help. It turns out they did. I got to distribute t-shirts to Googlers, which is a total madhouse. We even ran completely out of shirts. But I had a lot of fun - I always have fun when I get involved in setting events up. It kind of brings me out of my shell. I think I'll volunteer for more things like that. (I also got a "STAFF" shirt, which rocks.)

But back to the event itself - there were arcade games everywhere, pool tables, product demo stations, shaved ice vendors, beer and wine, and some good food. I didn't stay for the DJ and the dancing - my feet were tired from standing up for so long handing out t-shirts (that ankle still isn't at 100%), and I still had out-of-town guests to get home to.

The amount of fun I had behind the scenes reminds me how much I enjoyed being the self-appointed social coordinator at my old job, setting up get-togethers and retro shirt days. And it just occurred to me that my mom loved that too - she actually had a business for a while setting up conferences and events. So it must be in my blood. That makes me happy.

IxDA in SF

IxDA (Interaction Design Association) San Francisco held it's first speaker session last night, "Communicating Concepts with Comics" by Kevin Cheng, of the hilarious OK/Cancel comic strip/blog and Yahoo!. It was a good presentation, and I'll have to think about how/if I can incorporate it into my process. As someone who considers themselves an "artist", it is unendingly frustrating for me to suck at drawing people and faces. It would take some practice and probably a WACOM tablet, and much patience (and we all know how patient I am...)

After the presentation, we met up with the G-UX/SF crowd at Velvet Cantina for yummy nachos and rather crappy margaritas. It was fun to see all those folks outside of work. We don't do it very often, and it's one of the big things I miss from life in San Antonio. (Then again, I don't know how much of that was socializing and how much was work driving us to drink.) I am really looking forward to Aaron & Shannon getting here to regain some of that after work camaraderie. Anyways, two measly cheap tequila margaritas, and I've got a nasty headache this morning. I missed the kinda-late shuttle so now I'm on the late shuttle. (At least I'm not taking the late-LATE shuttle.) Which is OK; I'll take the later shuttle home, because as I discovered after the Google Dance the other night, the later evening shuttles are faster and way less crowded.

just a regular ol' tuesday

Today is just like any other Tuesday, except Aaron & Shannon are looking at a rental just a few blocks away this morning that we really hope will be THE ONE, and tonight is the Google Dance.

It's been really nice having Aaron & Shannon in again; we can get a glimpse of what we've really been missing this whole time - close friends to go to dinner with, or have movie nights with, or get smashingly drunk with at a moments notice. Last night we took the bus and then walked to a great little restaurant at Market and Church called Chow. It's one of those places that we've always wanted to go, just never taken the opportunity. It was yummy: really good food was eaten, and Stella Artois was consumed. Ahhhh... A week or so ago we got a taste of how nice it is to have friends so close after going over to Rick's place to learn how to play craps - you can have a great time, consume too many alcoholic bevs, and WALK HOME. We really, REALLY hope they get this apartment a few blocks away.

Also, going rental-hunting with them this weekend was very eye-opening. Read Aaron's description of it: it's dead-on. Each one had something perfect AND something absolutely intolerable. The land-lady at one was like something out of a movie. You can't write characters that are that freaky.

Although this wouldn't happen any other time, they also saved me from a street-cleaning day parking ticket yesterday. Our neighbor Pam came banging on the door to let them know my car was still on the street, and they moved it and then moved it back. Yay!!!

The other part of the normalcy of the day is Google Dance tonight, where a gazillion SES Conference attendees come to the G-plex to drink and rabble-rouse and see all kinds of cool stuff and listen to good music. Depending on the amount of alcohol consumed, there may be actual dancing. We'll see. And then I get to ride the shuttle home, so I don't have to worry about driving. I love that! Plus, I get a cool t-shirt. And come on, that's really what it's all about.

Hopefully I'll get good photos tonight and then be the responsible blogging/flickring adult that I'm supposed to be and immediately upload them and blog about the event. Why they have to do this on a Tuesday night is beyond me.

Between 10am and 6pm though, it really is just a normal day. Maybe I need to find some way to become involved in organizing of these things, because just talking about tonight makes me feel like today is a blow-off day. I'd rather be helping set it up than doing my regular work.

So, be sending your good vibes our way at around 10am Pacific time, because that's when A&S see the last place.

And, after re-reading this post, I see that the repeating thread is alcohol consumption... Here's to a less alcohol-related post in the future. *clink*

full weekend

Today is the G summer picnic, over at Shoreline Amphitheatre - I'm getting ready to head over there as I blog. Tonight we're going to the Dark Matters Opening Night Party at Yerba Buena. Tomorrow night we're going to the Laughing Squid: Paradise Lost party. (Even though SFPD has canceled the Flaming Lotus Girls performance (bastards). Oh, gosh. There is just too much going on to even list here. Good times. Good times.

fire arts festival was wicked cool

It took me forever to finally get around to uploading the photos, and now I'm finally getting around to blogging about it...

We went across the bay to Oakland to see the festival, put on by The Crucible. I love public transportation here - we just hopped the bus up to the BART, and then took the BART under the bay to Oakland. The stop was literally a block from the event.



The Fire Arts Festival was an entire city block transformed into a fire theatre. There were enormous interactive fire installations, and fire sculptures, and fire machines. There was "Dance, Dance Immolation" - where you get into an enormous fire suit and do DDR but if you get the moves wrong you get engulfed in flames. I did not try this. The team from SRL was there with some color-changing fire robots and mechanical fire stuff I can't even describe. The whole festival was essentially my two favorite things; metal sculpture and big fire. (Oh yeah, and there was this big production in the middle that was a play called the Fire Odyssey, which is better left not even talking about. There is not enough beer in the world...)

The whole thing is better said in pictures, anyways.

luckyoliver party

Last week we went to LuckyOliver's First Birthday Party at ACE Auto. It was pretty darn cool. We met Hunter and Brian of LuckyOliver at SXSWi earlier this year; it's a unique stock photo site - check 'em out.



ACE Auto isn't even very far from where we live, and it's the perfect place to have a party for photography enthusiasts. Photo opportunities galore. Metal sculptures, hundreds of irons, random collections of things in barrels, an abandoned bus, and a life-size mouse trap. You heard me. Unfortunately, it's either not operational, or they just didn't run it that night. I think you run bowling balls through this massive Rube Goldberg machine. It involves bathtubs and metal staircases and big boots and massive springs. Too much stuff to mention.



Anyways, we had a great time, and I took a few photos. Go see more in my LuckyOliver's birthday photoset.

dammit! scooped again!

Again, JR scooped me on my own event - I found it, I bought tix for it, and this is what I get for my effort. Go read JR's blog post about it to see the cool and exciting thing I discovered. Sigh.