OK let's cool it hipsters and Googlers -- this culture shift in the Mission is getting a bit out of control.  Now I view many aspects of gentrification in a very positive light, but last weekend I became a victim of its devastating effects and now I'm much less sanguine about neighborhood embetterment: I got my ass rejected from Medjool for trying to enter with shorts on!  In the Mission, people!  I think the last time that happened to me was at the Limelight night club in Mountain View.

There's a few new SF pics on my Snappage page over at Larry's house.

I have a few new helmet cam videos on my YouTube page.   The first is a remake of the "maiden voyage" video where I cruise down Nob Hill on Mason Street scaring tourists and self alike, but this time my bike has a chain so it's a bit more exciting.

And here's a silly time lapse video of me riding from work to the PartyCar with a stop at the local market for Cracker Jacks (the prize is usually more fun than the jacks themselves so long as the prize is some sort of trivia question):

Soon I'll make a similar time lapse video of me riding all the way to work which should be less choppy (unfortunately 30 seconds is the shorest interval I can have my camera take pictures at).

Easily my greatest discovery of the year was when I happened upon the SF Midnight Rollers last Friday night.  I was blading the Embarcadero simply because it was a nice night, and as luck would have it that's where the weekly night skate leaves from every Friday at 9.  I'd seen these wheely-footed freaks occasionally on nights out in years past and just assumed they were too extreme for me, but I was invited to join and was assured that it was all very casual.  I'm a bit of a "Sunday skater" and never do things like get airborne, skate backwards, or execute any other such maneuver to impress women on rollerblades.  On the other hand (and by design), I never crash either which is of primary concern, easily trumping most positive attributes of aggressive skating.  Turns out that my conservative skating style and concern for safety is totally encouraged at the Friday Night Skate!  I have the evening's adventure photodocumented here so you can get an idea how kickass this event was.  I'll definitely be attending as often as I can in the future.

Bummer, rainy season has arrived early this year!  Not only has it affected my bike commuting, but it canceled the Friday Night Skate this week!  I just bought new faster wheels that I was keen to break in too.

Trying to qualify for Bay to Breakers by running 10Ks is an apt metaphor for life.  Sometimes you can work your butt off preparing for something that you know you can attain, but you narrowly fail in your quest.  So, you try harder... and fail again.  But then out of the blue another opportunity comes along, you grab it, and you succeed attaining your quest!  That's what happened when a few days ago I found out about the Stadium to Stadium 10k that conveniently began just one block from my apartment this morning.  The course was mostly flat and hence fast and guess what: I'm in the Bay to Breakers' sub seeded division -- sweet!  As the race's name implies, participants run from Mays Field to Candlestick Park which sounds quite nice until you realize that takes you straight through the heart of the Bayview.   All I'm sayin' is that if only one more runner ahead of me got shot I would have taken 3rd place overall. ;^)  Seriously though, the run was for the very worthy cause of promoting health and fitness in SF's District 10 which I very enthusiastically support.  The area is now serviced by MUNI's new T-Third light rail line, and although it's torturously slow I really hope it helps integrate the southeastern neighborhoods with the rest of the city.  I'm also hoping that nimbys don't impede development and economic progress along the T-Third line deriding it as evil gentrification.  We have enough of that in the Mission.

Favorite conversation of the morning, overheard as I ran by two older guys waiting for the MUNI:

Old guy #1: Man, all them cats is runnin' a race!
Old guy #2: Damn... what the hell fo'?

They probably weren't going to the health and exercise fair at Candlestick. ;^)

OK, I'm going to try and get with the times and move my news page to a full on blog that you can comment on (if you dare) and even subscribe to. I can't guarantee that I'll keep using this blog because I'm not loving the interface, but it's a little more "this decade" so why not give it a shot.

All the original "News From Karstytown" journal entries are here to satisfy any nostalgic pangs that may strike you.