I finally got my act together and uploaded photos from the my Asian getaway to the Philippines and Vietnam late last year.  As you'd expect, it was another great adventure!  The first leg was making my way to the remote island of Siquijor for some mountain biking and snorkeling.  There I met by far the friendliest locals on the trip, and also some really nice travelers that I got to know rather well because we were all stranded on the island due to a nearby typhoon that stopped all of the ferry services.  Eventually, after some typhoon-related flight changes, I made it to the El Nido resort in Palawan for Kim and Tara's wedding wich was set in one of the most picturesque possible locales.  Then, off to the southern parts of Vietnam where the highlight was probably exploring the Mekong River Delta.  While this included the expected touristy boat rides through backwaters and floating markets, I also had a chance to get out into the middle of nowhere on bike rides and sunrise runs.  I definitely want to return to the area soon to check out Cambodia and North Vietnam.

Pictures are here, and I also whipped up a video of the highlights:

Here's a photo I took on the way to work a few weeks ago.  I was trying to feed the ducks that hang out near my office some really yummy but slightly hard bread and they were all "hey stop throwing rocks at us!" and quackingly flew away.  The seagulls were smarter though: in only moments dozens charged from over the horizon to hook into the feast.  Here's one hungry scavenger, the photo ineverted and cropped so that only reflections are seen:

For the last several months I've been getting up around 5 AM roughly every other week to hop on my bike and check out the sunrise.  Yeah that IS pretty nuts but it's probably the most scenic time to view SF.  And riding around on the dark quiet streets makes me feel like I have my city all to myself which by itself is totally worth it.  Check out the pics at Larry's house.

Wow.  Kim says the live music we heard tonight was the worst he's ever experienced.  I might have seen worse back in 2001 or 2002.  Anyway... a local bar had free Labor Day jazz which seemed like a chill way to end the long weekend.  The first two of the three bands on the bill were OK.  But it was the last band that I will never forget.  First, they started out with a long period of careful tuning of instruments and general pre show sound tweaking.  Then, out of nowhere, the entire bar was slammed in the face with a million decibels of brutally angry sonic disembowelment.  It was like the opening scenes from Platoon.  Some members of the audience nearly fell from their chairs from the shock and others merely held their ears with stunned expressions.  As most sane patrons -- after only a very short appraisal of the wildly different and horrible situation they now found themselves forcibly thrust into -- made a hasty retreat to the relative safety of the streets of the Mission, I inserted my ear plugs and put my camera into video mode and moved closer to the stage.  This is a sampling of what went down:

That disagreeable orchestration of noise was matched only by its ferocious loudness.  This band was certainly not shy about the act that they were committing; they wanted to be absolutely sure that we were acurely aware of every screech and caterwaul.  I'm still too shaken to be able to rationally ascertain if this is indeed the worst music ever created.  It was definitely close to being the loudest.  But if not worst and/or loudest it's very close, and will certainly be discussed for decades to come.

Awesome.  Fantastic.  After the show we had one of the best laughs I've had in some time.  Definitely a summer highlight.

Forgive this silly post.  But for my birthday Julie gave me an "acrylic-based resin pigment expanding frog".  As cool as it is, this is not one of those instantly gratifying gifts: you have to place it water, and over the course of ten days it grows to 600% of its original size.  Here's the time lapse of how it all went down:

I'm such a proud frog daddy. :^)  In the off chance that the above video doesn't satisfactorily convey to you the full experience of my frogrearing, the HD version is here.

But wait, the story gets better!  Julie's birthday is a few weeks after mine, so for her gift I went into the Mission and got a princess doll to dress her up:

That's not a casket by the way, it's a princess frog display case. :^)

Here I am sharing a final tender moment with Lily in the park before handing her off to her new adoptive family:

Good luck Lily, and thanks for the memories! :^)

Sure, I'll take credit for this fantastic idea. ;^)  The Friday Night Skaters knew for a while that we're are at least somewhat welcome at the Rouge Night Club on Broadway and Polk, roughly at the halfway point on the Friday Skate.  But for whatever reason it never really caught on as a rest stop despite my pointed questionings to the contrary.  So, last night I recruited enthusiastically and convinced my cohorts Princess Nine, Hip Hops and Valkyries to make a surgical strike on Rouge's bar before skating through the Broadway Tunnel.

The second we skated in I knew this mission was going to be a success.  The place is gaudy and red-velvet foofy... or "like being in a bad rap video" as one Yelp review put it.  It was full of Russian Hill types wearing makeup, designer labels, and shoes without wheels.  We received a small "wooo wooo skaters!" cheer from the patrons upon entry.

I rolled up to the bar and ordered three cran-vodkas and a Coors Light.  The bill?  $12!  O-yeah. That's cheaper than most places in the TL.

The girls weren't alone for long before the prowling douchebags made their moves:

Prost!

I definitely foresee this becoming a regular stop on The Skate.

In SF you have fog haters and fog lovers.  I'm a lover because it looks cool and is great air conditioning.  Granted, I live near it more so than in it which is good because it's one of those things that's usually best experienced from afar.

Everyone's seen Mt. Sutro look like this:

But not everyone has seen the reverse view.  When the Pacific fog rolls over the hill, this is what the view of SF looks like from inside that evanescing blanket of former seawater:

Here's the nighttime view.  It's really cool to hang out and watch various parts of the skyline appear and disappear as the random patches of fog blow eastward.  Market Street is the bright line, and you can see a car's headlights and taillights on a nearby hairpin turn:

Full res pics can be found here.

Well that was a cool unplanned vacation!  With only a week's notice, Sun asked me to present at the OpenSPARC workshop in Bandung, Indonesia.  I thought about it for about two seconds before saying "yes" and looking for flights. :^)

The trip was a total blast.  The Indonesian people were probably the best part overall -- almost everyone I met was super friendly and genuine, even if they also did want some of my money.  The highlight of the trip was definitely climbing Indonesia's most active and supposedly hardest-to-climb volcano, Gunung Merapi.  I started hiking at 2 AM in order to be on the summit for sunrise.  I may never wake up at 1:30 AM again, but it was oh so worth it. :^)

Check out my travel journal with detailed accounts of my daily activities and thoughts, the pictures at Larry the Llama, and my video here:

It's a bit long -- if you want to skip ahead, "Motorcycle Rides" starts at about 4:50, "Live Music" at 7:40, and "Countryside" at 12:00.

Because I'm an SF elitist I think there's nothing worse than being forcefully extracted from my 7 by 7 mile cocoon.   But on some occasions it's great to get out into the real world, inferior as it is.  It turns out that yesterday was an ideal day to make just such a getaway -- the fog machine was on its iciest setting, keeping temps hovering in the low 50s and shattering the old record for lowest high temp for May 24.  So, no better time to hop on the Bart with my bike and get off in Concord for a 15 mile ride to one of Northern California's most unique bars, The Warehouse Cafe in Port Costa.

Back in the old west it was a real pain in the ass to build bridges, so people had to find other ways to cross bodies of water.  Port Costa came into existence because it was part of the transcontinental railroad and served as a water crossing point.  Up until about 1930, trains would stop just across the Carquinez Straight in Benicia, roll on to huge-ass ferries, and cross the river to Port Costa where they would then continue on to Oakland.  That created a community of dock workers and laborers which means that Port Costa had a huge demand for two things: liquor and whores.  That explains the Warehouse Cafe.  But just across the street is the bordello where even today you can get the 69'er Special which includes a night in a room named after a former hooker featuring a "worn out bed", "furniture that is reminiscent of white trash grandparents", and a greasy dinner for only $69.

But my main interest is the Cafe.  They have a purported 400 kinds of beer in the walk-in fridge that you can choose from.  Every time I go I've gotten something I've never even heard of.  Often there's a reason for a beer's rarity (e.g. "tastes like metal shavings") but some of the bottles are quite tolerable.  The walls of the bar are covered in kitsch, and there's an odd oddity shop.  The locals you meet there are super friendly (don't be intimidated by the leather biker jackets and handlebar mustaches) and a pleasure to chat with.

If you haven't been go check it out, and let me know because if it's somehow a bad weather day in SF and there's nothing else going on I'll join you. ;^)

Here are the pics.

I have to give props to a guy that I've seen at a few of SF's Sunday Streets (there are only four left this summer, so no more slacking, slackers!).  In my opinion, this is the coolest bike I've ever seen -- way better than the conference bike or even Deep's FlashDance bike.  Sure enough, that's a real acoustic piano mounted on the reverse tricycle frame, complete with hammers and strings and everything.  Sound is decent, and remarkably loud.  The bike is steered by applying forward pressure with either your left or right hands.  I think it has an old skool braking mechanism where you pedal backwards to slow down.  I would love to ride that thing down some of my favorite hills like Clipper or 17th street!  My guess is that the odds are very low that he will let me borrow it for such a purpose. :^)  The crash would probably sound really cool.