mixed bag
- First thing is that my friend Allison got mugged for her iPod two nights ago. She got a knife to her throat and actually got cut by said knife. It was superficial but still required 13 stitches. It was such a terrible, awful, surprising and infuriating event that I have had a hard time reconciling it. Completely aside from how I feel about it, I can only imagine--feebly, with (thankfully) no similar experience to compare it to--how upsetting and terrible the experience must have been for her. She’s doing well, she was really level headed about it, which is great and good to hear, but as I think about it more, the more angry I get that she was put into this position and furious that whomever did this to her felt, somehow, that this was a course of action that acceptable to take. Apparently this was a much more violent than “normal” iPod thefts and the cops were pretty angry about it...they had six squad cars looking for the guy. I hope they get him. I hope they accidentally beat the crap out of him. I hope he gets booked for aggravated assault and robbery and I hope he gets the crap kicked out of him in jail, too. Basically. More on this later, I hope.
- The other night I was walking by the hotel bar and overheard some big nerd saying, “Can you imagine going back in time and talking to Andy Hertzfeld about all this?” It was pretty funny...Andy was a huge contributor to the Apple OS (he made stuff like the scroll bars); you can read about him here. It was funny because as a kid I was a huge fan of his, and remember my first MacWorld (must have been 85 or 86) when I saw him and was like, “wow, that’s Andy Hertzfeld! Cool!” So, I guess I am a big nerd too. Back in the day, MacWorld was much more of a hobbyists show, where you could meet all the people who were making cool applications and hardware for the mac, where everyone was just totally chill and it wasn’t super corporate.
- Speaking of much more important things, I am starting up on my acting classes on Wednesday. Can’t wait. Though I just got called back for a commercial, I didn’t book it, and I have been itching to start working again. My manager and I are working on some things that could result in more work, so at least it’s going forward, but still--it’s been lame and I feel like I am the biggest reason I am not working. It’s embarrassing.
- Reading lots of cool comics lately. I highly recommend Kurt Busiek’s Superman: Secret Identity. Man, what a great book. Really well written and the Stuart Immomen’s art is gorgeous.
- Went by Isotope and hung out with James and crew for a bit. If you are in the Bay Area and are the last bit interested in comics and graphic novels, you owe it to yourself to drop by his amazing store.
- Last night went to the Apple Campus WWDC Bash and danced my ass off to BT, this Apple-friendly DJ that has appeared in their promotional videos. He was DJing/playing on top of the terraced platform in the middle of R&D, and I went up on the first level of the terrace and got a bunch of people up there...it was pretty funny and reminded me of many, many other nights of getting on stage and dancing and freaking out. BT’s music is pretty techno heavy, but it was a’ight. Needed more vocals and less dreamy builds. Man, I get so tired of those builds. I think it’s safe to say that most people hated the music, but the beer was good.
- Planning on spending the rest of the day getting lunch and tooling around SF until I meed up with some folks at Zeitgeist. Then I’ll go to my parents, do laundry, get dinner, pack and think about either going out or staying at home. I am flying out tomorrow and I am assuming I will need to get there many, many hours early to deal with the full spectrum security dance. So weak. I hear Zak had to deal with this stuff yesterday; looking forward to hearing how it went..
All in all, it’s nice to be back in San Francisco. It’s very odd to have basically lived downtown for a few days. It’s nice, but man, the homeless population is growing, they are getting older (and younger) and they are more aggressive than ever. I go through a variety of mixed emotions (much like when I was going to ACT for their summer program): I get angry that they are homeless, I get angry they are so aggressive, I get embarrassed for the tourists, I get embarrassed and irked that I am getting embarrassed for the tourists, I get irritated for overthinking the topic, then I get angry that so many people are coming to my home with such positive hopes and expectations, only to have to deal with crackheads screaming at them as they walk down the block. ARGH. I mean, this place is awesome. It’s gorgeous. But the problems on the street are significant. I can see how people might visit and never come back. I can see how people will look at how much it costs to live here, look at some of the lamer aspects of living here and just decide that it’s not worth it to raise a family here. I loved growing up here. When I was younger, I always assumed I would raise my kids here. Now it seems impossible. Now, it seems like lots of families are leaving San Francisco for cleaner, safer and less expensive places. (Six part series about the crisis the SF Public Education system is facing.)
Okay, time to go to lunch.
Friday, August 11, 2006