For Better or Worse at the Berkeley Rep
I went to see the Berkeley Rep's play "For Better of Worse" last night.
Well, it didn't suck, but it wasn't great either. The production, as always at the Berkeley Rep, was fantastic. Great sets, great sound, great lighting. The acting was quite good, especially Geoff Hoyle (Geoff is best known as a frequent partner with Bill Irwin, and as a founding member of the Pickle Family Circus). The play itself, though, lacked. There were moments where it was actually quite funny, but they were few and far between. I wouldn't recommend this play to people that aren't hardcore drama geeks.
Sitting dow for drinks at Downtown was the highlight of the night for all of us, I think.
Running down the Embarcadero
Last night, after work, I went for a run down the Embarcadero, from the Ferry building, down past SBC Park, around McCovey Cove, and then back. It was about 3.5 miles. What a great run! Lots of room, so no fear of running down pedestrians and great views of the Bay, the bridge, ships, and sailboats.
If you work downtown and go to a gym to run on the treadmills, stop! Run this route instead. You'll thank yourself.
You can see close to the route I took from Google Maps. The only thing different is that I went south just before SBC Park and ran around the backside. Once I crossed the channel, I turned east and ran to the end of the point.
At the point is a statue of Willie McCovey himself and a small ball park for kids that they call the Junior Giants. One of the other really interesting things is, along the path, a history, in stone monuments, of all the players that have played for the SF Giants. Take a look at the Giants page on McCovey Point.
Great set of headphones
This morning I got into the office before anyone, even the mysterious ghost that makes the morning coffee. I sat down at my computer, fired up Launchcast, and the first song was "Run Like Hell" by Pink Floyd. The intro has a lot of crowd noise that really sets the atmosphere for the song. It's been so long since I've heard it, I had completely forgotten about. The only reason I heard it today was because of my new headphones.
I picked up a pair of KOSS UR40 headphones, and I have to tell you, they are really, really good.
Not only do they sound great, but they keep out the random office noise, which helps me to concentrate.
Two negatives - not wireless (come on, when are bluetooth headphones going to be easier to find!), and they are a bit bigger than I prefer for taking back and forth between the office and home.
Here's what I want from my next set of headphone - good sound quality, wireless with bluetooth, and designed for people on the go.
Bluetooth Headphones
I love bluetooth. What's not to love? Short range wireless is amazing. But what I want now is a bluetooth headset. I don't want a bluetooth dongle, or a bluetooth MP3 player, or an IPAQ, I just want the headset. The only one's I've been able to find are from
Air2U Inc.. They look great. The only problem is finding a retail source - you see, they are in Taiwan. I sent them an email, and hopefully I'll find out more soon.
Show your excitement
This morning, while riding BART, I watched a man, in his 30's, his short beard starting to grey, but still young enough to carry a messenger bag instead of a briefcase, hurry down the stairs and into the train car just before the doors closed. He stepped through the doors and just for a moment, you could see it - he was proud, verging on elated. But then he looked to the floor and hid his feelings behind his now composed features. He didn't want anyone to see his joy.
It made me realize how often we do that in life. Something goes well, or someone compliments us and we diminish it by saying "It was nothing" or other words or actions to that effect. We're so afraid of people thinking we look foolish, that we throw away a moment of joy or excitement.
Don't do it. Next time you race for the train and just make it, relish that feeling. You don't have to do something monumental (like run a marathon, or donate a kidney) to be happy. Enjoy the little things, the moments that bring brightness t our day.
Good Advice from the TV Caption Service
Yesterday I was on the treadmill (rain again) at the gym. They have these enormous TV sets hung from the ceiling so you can watch while you exercise. I didn't bring my headphones, so instead of listening to CNN discuss the Terri Schiavo case, I was reading the live captions. No big deal, probably everyone has done something like that before. The interesting thing was when the ads came on, though. Instead of being captioned, which they often are, there was one caption that didn't move off the screen. It said, simply, "You probably don't really need this". Brilliant. Every ad should have that disclaimer.
Who knew? Dedication pays off!
I swam 1,400 yards today. It was in a pool, not open water, but it's making me a little less anxious about my upcoming triathlon. So, it's paying off in that way, but that's not he only way.
My brother was s serious swimmer in high school. I wasn't. I was telling him via IM today how good my swimming is getting. He's envious - he wants to swim more. Anytime you can make you sibling envious about your way of life, it's good.
My schedule is so much better now that I've committed to this exercise program. I get up at six, have a good breakfast, BART down to the gym, workout, and head to work clear and refreshed. I also get to start my mornings with my wife.
The last thing is probably the most important, though. My actions are having clear positive effects. It's not hard, really. Decide what you want to add to your life, make some changes, and work it into your life. Dedicating yourself to good actions pays off.
I love how the web can help me write better
Although you probably can't tell it from this blog, I write for a living. Every writer though, professional or not, has certain issues that trip them up. This is especially true of things you don't use a lot.
For me, the majority of my writing is for online documentation. Online documentation should be composed of simple sentences. People scan and skim online help, they don't read it, so complex sentences cause people to miss valuable information.
Because of that, I rarely use semicolons or colons. I'm out of practice. Today I'm writing a document analysing the structure of the online help documents at salesforce.com. I had a long sentence that I thought was perfect for a semicolon.
Most tables are part of the body content; the exceptions, in our case, are access and edition tables, which are closely associated with headings.
I wasn't sure, though. So, I typed "semicolon usage" into Google and shazam! up came Semicolon Usage which reassured me that I was using the semicolon properly.
Granted, I could have used my handbook, but I'm sitting at a great little cafe in Berkeley called Le Bateau Ivre (the drunken boat), and it's a ten minute bike ride back to my handbook. I'd rather rewrite the sentence than do that, but thanks to some kind soul and Northwest Vista College, I don't have to do that.
Although my blog gets hardly any visits, I'm sure one of my 5 (on a good day) readers will send me an email saying, "Nope, that's the wrong way to use a semicolon". That's what you get for posting something like this, right? I actually welcome comments like that, but if you are the one that sends that email, please tell me how to fix it, don't just tell me that it's wrong.
An nifty electric bike
While going out for a cup of coffee and a yummy boston cream pie at Crixa, the best dessert place in the East Bay, I saw two eGo electic bikes. I've seen them parked there before, but today they had rain shields on with the URL - http://www.egovehicles.com. Since I'm in the market for a scooter or an electric bike, I thought I'd take a look at the website.
They look great. They get 25 miles between charges, don't have to be registered in California, and, while not cheap, don't cost as much as a Vespa. They don't look like they can seat two people, though, so I guess I have to keep looking.
WalMart in Socorro – Not the end of the world, but close
For many years I lived in Socorro, NM, while attending, when I could afford it, college at the New Mexico School of Mines (now known as New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology).
It was a wonderful and a horrible town. But it was unique. Soon it won't be. In January of this year (2005), WalMart opened a super store two blocks away from one of the houses I lived in when I was in Socorro.
My brother lives in a little town in South Dakota called Watertown. A super WalMart is opening there, too.
In two years you won't be able to tell the difference between Watertown and Socorro. Both will lose their community grocery stores. Both will lose many other small businesses because they won't be able to compete with WalMart. Will it make it easier to live there? Sure. But why would you want to live in a little town in the middle of nowhere that is just like everywhere else? Why not move to Albuquerque or Fargo?
Once, while I was still living there, Socorro turned down WalMart's request to open a store there. The board decided that it would irrepairably change the nature of the town. They were, I believe, right.
I left Socorro because I needed to grow into someone I couldn't be there. There are times I miss it. I miss not being able to buy groceries without having to say hello to a dozen people. I miss people stopping to give me a ride when my bike got a flat. It's true I couldn't buy anything other than blue jeans without driving 20 minutes away, but I didn't mind. When did I need to wear anything but jeans? The essence of Socorro will be lost now. It's not WalMart's fault, anymore than it's Hollywood's fault that we all speak with a southern California accent anymore. It is sad, though. The urbanization of the western world was an inevitable aspect of the industrial revolution. This is just another step in the process.
I predict, though, that in 15 years, WalMart will be, just like K-Mart is now, struggling. People in rural areas that depended on WalMart will move to urban areas that have better jobs and shopping than WalMart can provide. WalMart, like so many rural malls, will collapse onto itself. Little towns won't recover, though. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Let's let nature take back those remote places.