Cycling The Commute

This week marks the fourth month I've had a bicycle in San Francisco. After months of public transit, the occasional cab, and a startling realization of how little I actually move in a day, I headed to Performance Bike in June. I walked out with the second Fuji of my cycling career.

Thanks to the magic of Hipstamatic, here's what it would have looked like in the 1970's —

Early On

Those first few rides were especially difficult. I saved no time at all versus public transit — about 45 minutes for 3.5 miles. I also showed up to the morning meeting with greetings of "Wow, did you swim here?" Fortunately for us all, things have gotten significantly better since then.

Tracking

Recently, with the help of the iPhone Cycling Application Velocio, I've come to expect making it to the office in less than 20 minutes.

The current records are quite a bit better than those 45-minute rides:

• To Office — 16:24
• To Apartment — 14:59

Fun Facts

There are a few things I've picked up cycling in a busy city.

1. Some sidewalks are shared path, meaning that walking and cycling is allowed
2. Some sidewalks will ticket cyclists
3. Pedestrians tend to look right through cyclists while trying to cross the street. When a pedestrian steps in front of you with no time to swerve, you'll both go flying through the air. Really.
4. Sometimes your spokes will break with no visual indication. Sometimes it'll take a week to notice your brakes are rubbing, and it will cost $20 to fix.
5. Riding with the brakes rubbing for a week will shave several minutes off your commute when the problem is fixed.

Northbound: Golden Gate National Recreation Area

When it comes to above-water transit in the Bay Area, the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge have more in common than I first suspected.

• Construction began in 1933
• Steel suspension (Bay Bridge has a span that is not suspension, weirdly)
• Toll only for going into San Francisco

So why does the Golden Gate Bridge get all the love when it comes to tremendous paint schemes, state driver's license fame, and general iconic status? My guess — Golden Gate leads to miles of the most beautiful coastline and protected park property I've seen, while the Bay Bridge leads to, well...Oakland (zing!).

Immediately on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge is a winding mountain road. A road built for scenery with many turnouts, as though the planners knew this path was more about stopping than going. Really, who can blame them for such an assumption?

While that road is friendly initially, a driver quickly finds the point of no return; literally. The winding meets a ridiculously steep grade as one gets closer and closer to the ocean.

After the part that would make any fearless cyclist's day, there are plenty of places to get out and walk around. I'd even say it inspires running to the ocean.

Pier 39 Sea Lions

When I was in elementary school, we took a field trip to the zoo. I remember telling the group I was excited to see the seals, as 8-year-old me imitated the delightful bark. Horrified, a chaperone glared at me and said in a biting tone:

"What would your mother say if she heard that?"

Confused, I thought it best to just wander to another group.

17 years of wandering later, I ended up at Pier 39, where San Francisco is wishing the native sea lions a happy 22nd anniversary.

We're currently in the off-season, where only the sea lions who live here hang out on the docks. The rest of the docks are full at certain times of the year. I'm not sure why they take off, but my guess is they're the sea lion equivalent of traveling consultants.

There were plenty of people out taking pictures. But for every picture taken, there was a mini-dialog of what the sea lions would say if they were people:

• "look at that one, he's all like bro, bro get out of my way"
• "haha, this one's like bro, what bro? napping here, bro"
• "oh my god! that sea lion goes better not ask me to move"
• "check him out, he's like don't even try it"

Puzzled at this seemingly universal desire to personify sea lions, I wondered what their mothers would think as we headed back.

---

note a few more photos await on flickr

Street Artists & Caricatures

Saturday evening seems to always be a booming time for Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. The tourists fill the sidewalks, stopping only for crosswalks and to group around entertainers. We blended right in with the tourists and spotted a caricature artist for $5 a face and went for it.

Try 1

Our first artist was a jokester for sure. An expert at small talk and one truly enjoyed the art of making the subjects of his artwork cringe with nervous laughs in discomfort. The topics of outsourcing, the US's viable industries for employment, and H1-B visas were all discussed. Naturally, computer jokes were also present.

So, if you went on a camping trip in the woods, do you think you'd take your laptop?

The final result? Yikes!

Try 2

Recognizing from the first portrait that taking the long way back home may be a good idea for our health, we stumbled upon another artist. His price was $7/face, 40% more.

This artist's talents were more focused on the canvas than smalltalk, and he knew it. Imitating a creator for some of the session, we were party to some Easter-eve comedy.

We'll just give him some weird, introverted skill like painting, that'll shut him up.

Although we weren't certain he wanted to be there after some comments.

This is cutting into my Miller Time

Amazed at how fast he finished, we commented on the speed as he handed us the finished artwork. His response?

Yah, about as fast as I could drink a quart of beer.

And so went the great 2012 $24 caricature experiment. A recurring thing? Perhaps.

---

Weird Fact If you've never gotten a caricature before (I hadn't), it's unbelievable how many people will stop to look at what's being done.

St. Patrick's Day in San Francisco

Yesterday, wearing festive blue, I stumbled into San Francisco's St. Patrick's Day Parade. It wouldn't be fair to call me a connoisseur of floats or color guard, but the majesty of a few exhibits simply had to be shared.

Naturally, the Sprinkler Fitters Union was well-represented.

The Union of Glaziers were looking festive with their For Official Use Only Navy truck.

BART was also represented in a Thomas-the-Tank-Engine way. In an unfortunate bit of subliminal advertising, the BART was ahead of me and I still caught up to it on foot.

Proud Iron Workers dawned San Francisco's icon on their float: The Golden Gate Bridge, completed a mere 74 years ago.

Finally, Hangar 1 Vodka responsibly demonstrated the ill-effects of alcohol on decision-making by using this ground-only SUV for their blimp tour.

---

Note There's more on Flickr

Small World

I've been lucky enough to spend 4+ months in some major cities over the past few years. During this time, I've had some déjà vu when meeting new people.

Let's review, in classic dialogue format.

Chicago

Me	...no, I'm actually from Detroit originally.
Person A	Hey! Me too. Go Blue!
Person B	Wow! Did you guys say you're from Detroit? So am I.
	6 more people join in as the conversation turns to Michigan vs Michigan State.

Los Angeles

Me	...no, I grew up near Detroit.
Teammate	Really? I'm from Huntington Woods!

Little Rock

Me	...no, I'm actually from Detroit originally.
Teammate	What! Do you know Eminem? Have you ever been to 8 Mile?

San Francisco

Barber	...and people think the tenderloin neighborhood is dangerous, but I'm from Detroit, so...
Me	Weird... Me too.

Let's Form a Hypothesis

11-08-09 by idovermani on Flickr

Certainly were I member of the scientist group pictured above, we'd be forming hypotheses about any of the following:

• Every US city is 90% Michigan-based
• Eminem has overtaken Henry Ford as the most famous Detroiter
• Detroit is the planet's toughest city
• Detroiters tell more people where they're from than persons of other cities

---

Naturally, there is a photoset.

Well, That's a New One

Last week I was late for our morning meeting.

Ordinarily this wouldn't be any big thing, I'd just take a look at why I was late and figure out how to prevent that from happening again. What was notable, is that to prevent this from happening again, I'd have to take earthquakes into account for each morning commute.

Somewhat comically, I was in a subway tunnel when the small 3.5 magnitude earthquake halted my train last Thursday.

The actual rattling of the earth couldn't be felt over normal train vibration, but it did apparently kick a switch on the tracks. We sat there in silence for what felt like forever. Finally, we began to inch forward into the next station as the conductor informed us that we must remain calm — a small earthquake means that they'll need clearance to proceed manually.

"Well, that's a new one," I thought, as I headed up the stairs in search of a cab.

de Young

Last weekend das girlfriend and I invested in a trip to the de Young Museum in San Francisco. They were having a special exhibition on Masters of Venice. Being the fine Italian painting connoisseur that I am, it was naturally at this exhibit that I learned Leonard da Vinci wasn't from Venice.

The paintings themselves ranged from Eh, I think I could do that to Whoa. Is that a photo? Which is probably roughly where my explanation of the artistry should end.

Less than thrilled was Ginger when encountering the still life portion of the museum. It seemed that her reaction to the subject of bread could be a work of art all its own, so naturally I pulled out my camera.

Ginger vs The Slice

Ginger vs Bread Stack

---

Fun Fact One of the permanent exhibits features Canadian art that's hundreds of years old. I never knew how popular cribbage was until spotting upwards of 40 boards.

Pattern Recognition

In the opinion of some, good programmers can identify patterns almost as soon as they arise.

Not too long ago, I wrote about a tea factory adventure in Boulder, CO. The self-jabbing humor of the area remarked that it was 25 square miles, surrounded by reality. I rather enjoyed the setting.

Fast forward a few weeks to the start of Project 3 (codename: project tres) and I'm now in San Francisco for the first time.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the walkability, especially for January. It was on one of said walks, just off the dock, that I encountered something familiar.

Ordinarily I'm not one to go inquiring for Jefferson Airplane's take on things, not that there's anything wrong with that, but they are from San Francisco and would seem to know as well as anyone.