Brian L. Colbert

Archive for the ‘personal’ Category

Did anyone pickup the flyer that was distributed on Muni buses today.  The transport workers union distributed it in response to the charges that Muni worker were receiving bonuses.  I was not persuaded by the union’s position, but it was interesting that it chose to pass out flyers selected bus routes.

I’m not a big ice cream (other than red bean), but I the eggnog ice at the original Swensens here in San Francisco.

Been busy lately.

Wrote up a contract last week which was mentally challenging and fulfilling  at the same time.

Had a great San Francisco Weekend.  Grabbed some food at the  Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Saturday and then went back for an early dinner at Slanted Door.  Finished up the evening at the Top of the Mark, which has really great views.  Unfortunately the sound system was bad so it felt like my ears where going to explode every five minutes.

Sunday was spent out in Napa, a quick stop in Tiburon to visit, lunch at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher and then wandering back to SF, hitting some wineries along the way.

Monday was back to the grind, capped off by a great meal at Lark Creek Steak House.  The pork chop was great, but their biscuits are simply transcendent.

On Wednesday, around midday I was heading on BART over to the East Bay to check out this month’s Infusion.  I entered BART at the Civic Center stop, which is a loooong football throw from City Hall in beautiful San Francisco.

As I sat in the middle of the platform reading Holman Jenkin’s  column on the “Backdating Molehill.”  a couple (of sorts) sauntered past me.  They were either having relationship issues or he was a potential stalker.  Turns out it was a latter.  About five minutes later, I saw the young man shouting loudly at another man at another BART.  They were about 10 feet away from me and the young man was screaming, “Don’t try to run up on me.”  I was unfamiliar with the phrase, “run up on me,” but I quickly deduced that that young hoodlum, hooligan, ruffian, man thought that the other guy was trying to pick him up. It was also clear that that young man was completely out of his mind.  After a few minutes of shouting he began to madly flail and hit the other guy, screaming, “Don’t try to run up on me,” the entire time.

As I sat there, I wondered if I was watching a bizarre reenactment of Dan’s rather’s surreal, “What’s the frequency Kenneth,” experience.  As I sat humming they lyrics to,” What’s the Frequecy Kenneth by REM, a less contemplative BART passenger defused the situation.

Then to my surprise the man approached me, wildly gesticulating and screaming, “did you see him try to run up on me.  Taken aback, I relied up the time worn strategy of a warrior born in Fairfield County, CT … I hid behind my Wall Street Journal!!

And it worked.   It must have been the editorial page that scared him off.  Somewhere Robert Bartley is smiling.

I live in the heart of San Francisco and don’t own a car.  So, I’m always walking and frequently taking Muni for longer jaunts around the city.  Muni is crazy, I mean seriously crazy. There usually seems be seems a screaming lunatic with a slight air of menace on every bus that crossing Market street.    I tell people about this situation and tend they stare at me like I’m crazy, particularly people that don’t live in SF.  How could a place with Fisherman’s Wharf, Union Square and Michael Mina  have a bus system that frequently seems to be a toxic brew of Rollerball, Ultimate Fighting and an insane asylum.  So I’m pained that I missed the recent hearing on Muni.

I don’t regularly ride the “worst” bus lines mentioned in the article, so I can’t imagine what the bedlam quotient is  on those particular lines.  But, I have seen this video taken on Muni.

Last week I was wandering down from Nob Hill to downtown San Francisco.  About a block from City Hall there was a particularly crazy, “crazy guy.”  He had a metal pole and seemed to be harassing a dog and its owner.  A few blocks later I passed by a nifty mural on Market.  I even stopped to give the fist of power to the artist.  Unfortunately, a few hours later the artist was attacked while working on the mural.  I don’t understand the lack of will to bring some order and semblance of safety to that part of the city.

On another note have you checked out SavantMD.com yet
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Yesterday was absolutely beautiful in San Francisco,  I hopped over to Japantown and picked up some Pocky.  Pocky is a throughly addictive and totally fun to say Japanese snack.  To have Pocky is to love Pocky.  I also picked up few random cheap bits of fun from Ichiban Kan.

Today was a much more deary day in SF.  It was cloudy all day and even tried to rain for about 30 seconds, but no matter.  As long as it’s not snowing.

SFNewTech can be hit or miss.  Tonight’s was a hit.  Budakai and Plurchase have two great pieces of software.  During the Budakia demo, there was a moment when everyone, me included went, “Cool.” During the question and answer session, all the heavy tech questions were handle with style and ease.   Budakai rocks.

Plurchase was also very cool, in a different way.  I’m not that into shopping and I can’t imagine shopping online with my friends, but I’m not norm.  Famililik was interesting, and YourVersion is an interesting real-time discovery play. Zoompool lost me, but I’m not that keen on riding with strangers, even if Zoompool is checking to make sure the people you don’t ride with have felonies.

I started reading Design as Art by Bruno Munari this morning, to the enchanting sounds of a car alarm.  The english preface already contains a brief discussion of Mondrian and Kandinsky so I suspect that I’ll enjoy the rest of the book.

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, a bit over a month.  My blog blew up, my ISP was unsurprising unhelpful and so I stopped for a bit.  But the blog is back, with a new theme and new thoughts.

The building I live in has it’s own energy. Much than the highrise I lived in NYC where I didn’t know anyone, or the tenement on the Lower East Side where a ferret got loose in the building.

In the past few months, one of my neighbors tried to burn the place down, the guy upstairs called the police because he was having a bad acid trip, the building is trying to evict somebody, a tenant got into a fight about 2 am outside the front gate and the city taped a notice of the building’s shortcomings next to the front gate a couple of days ago.  For a fading pink structure (yes pink), that’s a lot of action.

And then tonight, the 102-year woman that lives two floors above passed away.  I’ve been here for over a year and I never saw here and now I never will.  But her passing left me with a bit of sadness.

On Saturday, I mentioned on twitter that I was at Dragonfly Cakes for a party, but I didn’t have the time or space to explain what is Dragonfly Cakes.  

Dragonfly Cakes makes the best damn Petits Fours I’ve ever had, anywhere.  It takes every bit of my (limited) self-control not to walk off with a couple of handfuls when I’m at a party with Dragonfly’s petit fours.  My favorites are the lemon (simply to die four) and the ravishing raspberry.  I’ll happily admit that I’m friends with the owner Brooks Coulson Nguyen (the party was for Annabelle, Brooks and her husband Du’s baby girl), but if you’re not willing to go on record for a product that you believe in what’s the point.  So check out the site and then go savor some Petit Fours.  I’ll be wondering how I can convince Brooks to whip up a special run of red bean Petit Fours!!