Possibly the Best Part of Union Square
July 3rd, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in Just My Fabulousness, Just My Photography, Just My Thoughts
Zemanta for Wordpress
I have been using this awesome plugin for a while now called Zemanta. You have probably noticed all of the helpful links to other sites in my posts. Whenever I mention something like Google or The New York Times, Zemanta makes a link to their site.
If I say something like, I was walking through The Castro District in San Francisco, it will put a link to a wikipedia article about Castro. And if I say, while in Castro Ryan and I saw the movie Wanted starring Angelina Jolie, it will make links to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).
Image by davidanthonyporter via Flickr
Another cool feature is the image embedding. If I said something like, “I was really look forward to seeing the Ansel Adams exhibit”, Zemanta will find a relevant picture. And if I wrote about all of the fires in California from the lightening storm, Zemanta will allow me to embed a snippet of a related news article discussing the fires across California.
It even suggests tags for blog posts!
But it isn’t perfect, write about San Francisco and it will suggest these tags:
- San Francisco
- San Francisco California
Sometimes it will suggest tags that seem to have no relation to the posts. “United Kingdom” pops up a lot. I’m not exactly sure why.
Overall it has to be the most used plugin on my blog. I have used it on every post since its installation on the site and recommend it to anyone else blogging. Linking to other articles, embedding meta-tagged images and posting links to news articles will at the very least increase your chance of being picked up in a relevant search.
Get Zemanta, it will change the way you blog.
All a Twitter
I’ve been using Twitter for a good while now but have been such a slacker in actually using it. While in San Francisco I made a pledge to be more active on Twitter.
For those who don’t know what Twitter is, let me explain.
Twitter, in brief, is a social network based on instant messages to a public audience. You “twit” when you are going to a movie, when you’re stuck at the DMV (as I have been twice in the past week) or when you want company for dinner.
As people discover your tweets, they have the option to follow you. By following you, they will receive all of your updates to Twitter on their email, their phone, their IM or whatever other format they choose.
You can direct “tweets” at something by typing @ before the person’s name. If I wanted to ask Nick Starr out to dinner, I might say, “@NickStarr want to get dinner at Sapporo?” and he could reply “@justex07 yeah, how about 8?”.
I could also put an open invitation for people to join me at a movie by simply twittering, “going to see the 10 o’clock showing of Wanted if anyone wants to join me”. All of your followers will get the message and can reply to you if they plan on joining.
As you begin to acquire get a large number of followers, you essentially make it impossible to be lonely. During South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin last year, people were Twittering about the best Bar-B-Que and ending up with over 40 people joining them at places like Stub’s for dinner!
Strangers uniting in a Web 2.0 world. It’s something else. It’s something great.
With the iPhone 3G coming out and all of the Twitter Apps expected in the iPhone 2.0 App Store, twitting on the go will just get easier and easier.
I am going to be researching good Twitter plugins so I can have my tweets streaming through this blog on the sidebar. If you know of any good ones, please forward them to me through a comment on this post.
If you want to follow me on Twitter, my name is justex07 and you can find me on Twitter here.
From the DMV to Nirvana
Our last day in San Francisco found us back at the Department of Motor Vehicles. But before we ran our last errand in The City, I picked up breakfast for us from Sugar Café. We shared a Cinnamon Pecan Brioche and a Dark & White Chocolate Brioche. They were very tasty. Too tasty. Ryan and I decided that they spelled certain death should we make that a regular breakfast.
Cafe Sugar is a neat little café. It feels like it belongs in Los Angeles with its modern furnishings and a tiny bit pretentious employees. The menu is full what read to be pretty delicious items though with a name like Sugar Café, you would think there would be more sweets on the menu. I guess really though, that’s okay, we eat enough crap as it is.
I hope to enjoy an entire meal there the next time we get out to San Francisco.
This time Ryan was getting his ambulance license. The wait was quite a bit longer this time around.
We had the same, hilarious DMV agent. We threatened to be back and what do you know, we were and we had him. He was really fun, made being at the DMV not so painful.
All the studying paid off as Ryan passed his ambulance test with flying colors. We took the 24 down Divisadero to the Castro where Kevin was waiting. The plan was shopping and then lunch at Nirvana.
I picked up a little gift for Micheal and Ryan got a couple of things for some co-workers.
Lunch at Nirvana was awesome. Mike and Kevin used to bring me there all the time, well, at least three times haha. I had the Tofu Panini on Focaccia while Ryan had the Mano Mango Noodles. They have quite a few vegetarian dishes, highly recommend it.
Kevin drove us to our Hotel 480 where we were staying to pick up our bags and then off to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to catch our flight out of San Francisco.
We used the excuse that we were on vacation one last time as Ryan got a Kona Mocha Chip ice cream and while I sipped on my Dark Chocolate Frappe from Pete’s Coffee. I sure do miss Pete’s, they make the best cappuccino.
So here we are, waiting for the boarding for our plane to begin. I’m hoping to get some work done on the flight so I’m not so rushed when I get home to finish this project.
On a Mission (in the Mission)
June 30th, 2008 | 2 Comments | Posted in Just My Fabulousness, Just My Life, Just My Politics, Just My Rant
Our last day in San Francisco was a busy day. Ryan had a lot of paperwork to get processed and needed a few LiveScans for a job application and ambulance license so we marched down Powell to the Bart station.
Wow, I guess I forgot all about the Pride Parade. Thousands of people met us at the Bart station, completely hiding it from our field of vision. We hung out, watched a few floats go by, reveled in the fun, friendly good times and took a few pictures.
As with any gay event, not everyone there was there to celebrate equality. Some religious zealots where protesting the parade, the weekend, the gay marriages in California and just whatever popped into their heads.
They blamed the fires on the gays. They blamed the terrorist attacks in 2001 on the gays. They blamed the salmonella on the gays. They blamed the storms on the gays. Apparently it’s our fault. Sorry guys. Our bad.
The kicker was when he said, “If you guys are such a loving, kind and friendly people, why do you need all of these police officers? It’s because you cause hate and destruction that they are here” and then went onto something about paying good Californian’s tax dollars for us to celebrate our heresy…
I guess what he was missing was this. The police are there not to protect us from ourselves but from people like him. Pride is about as safest I have ever felt in a city, day or night. The only thing one gay guy wants to do to another gay guy is fuck him (excuse my vulgarity and obvious exaggeration).
Well anyway, we finally made it to the UPS Store for Ryan’s LiveScan only to find it had closed for Pride. Haha, a UPS closed for Pride, how awesome. We took a seat at Squat & Gobble for lunch while we figured out a Plan B.
Squat & Gobble is the perfect little brunch place. I always think of Landon when I go there. I’m pretty sure you would love it Landon, reminds me of The Café in Washington DC only… better. It was delicious. While there we found another LiveScan place, hopped on a bus and back to the Mission we go.
LiveScan went easy enough, then back to the hotel. I’m leaving Ryan here to go to Pride for a bit. Catch you guys later!
Pride + Ninah = Shopalicious
Pride went much differently this year. Instead of the long nights full of drinking, dancing and partying, it was long days full of running around San Francisco with friends, shopping and eating out.
Ninah came into the city today to hang out with Ryan and I. We met at Dósa, a mostly vegetarian, restaurant specializing in Southern Indian cuisine. Think the namesake (Dósa) and samosas and the like.
We found the restaurant on Yelp!, as we find most of the places we dine when out on the town and not in Columbia. Yelp!, if you don’t know, is a social network built upon user reviews of restaurants, hotels, bars, doctors and pretty much anything service oriented. It really should be your first stop, if not one stop shop, for getting around a new city.
The food was fantastic, if not a little spicier than we had anticipated. I don’t see how any even mildly affluent person in India could possibly be dehydrated. I think I drank half a gallon of water. But oh, it was worth it. If you’re vegetarian, there were at least two other vegetarian restaurants just next door or down a block from Dosa in the Mission.
After Dósa we headed to the second largest shopping centre in America. We hit all the usual spots, picked up a few things at Express, at H&M, Fredrick’s of Hollywood and a few others, then headed to the Apple store to have my laptop looked at. The battery has been giving me trouble (turns out it was user error). While I played at Apple, Ninah and Ryan went to Armani Exchange and then we headed to the hotel for a well deserved rest.
We found a sushi joint that looked good and headed up to the Tenderloin. Ninah and I shared a few sushi dishes while Ryan went totally vegetarian. Once again our meal was a little spicier than we had expected so much so that I couldn’t handle the seaweed salad sushi.
We used the heat from our sushi as an excuse to pop into a 24/hour donut joint for dessert. We each only had one donut, wow were they good!
We walked up the block to the hole in the wall Seth and I used to frequent called The Cinch, donuts in tow.
It was the hot tranny mess that I remembered. Fabulously messy. There was a drag show on that night, even better.
We hung around for one number and then decided to check out of there and get Ninah to her lesbian-mobile (aka Suburu).
Ninah brought us back here and now it’s time for bed. Goodnight!
Porn Stars and House Parties
The night began and ended at the same place. Nick Starr called us up and told us to meet him in the Castro at a particular address. Knowing the area a bit, I realized quite quickly that we weren’t going to a club, no businesses exist past 600 Castro…
Ryan and I make it down Castro and are searching for the address Nick txt’d me when someone calls from a window inviting us into the house.
It turns out it is the very house where we are supposed to be meeting Nick. We glide up the stairs and into the house meeting some wonderfully friendly and fabulous people. Of the first we met was Skye, pictured to the left. Skye (with an E) work for Southwest Airlines and lives in San Francisco. He was a whole lot of fun.
Ryan and I helped ourselves to the free booze in the kitchen keeping them strong and keeping them coming!
The person who welcomed us into his home was Adam. He is pictured below sitting with Brent Corrigan (aka Sean Paul Lockhart), who is my favorite porn star… Seriously, he is beautiful. Also, a wonderfully fun and friendly person. We talked about his new, legitimate, movie and other random things. He’s smart, capabile, funny and adorable (read, hot).
Sean Paul Lockhart or Brent Corrigan ( brought in a few of his porn star friends, which are always welcomed, but really didn’t help the party… Let me explain. Everyone there was pretty darn hot, some of them were sinfully so. It was enough to make you insta-anorexic-workout-addict. Damn girl.
Speaking of porn stars, these two guys certainly have a future in the business, if only they weren’t so camera shy, or rather, so damn bitchy. Cool it boys, and why don’t you get a room? I swear the couch had a wet spot once they finally peeled themselves off. Cute/hot but the attitude has got to go.
So we hung out, drank, chatted, had a fabulous time. I didn’t take many pictures though, felt kinda weird doing it in someone else’s home and with all the porn actors, it felt like maybe I was taking pictures of them and not of the fun times? Hmm, not sure. Adam took a ton of pictures, wish I had his memory card haha.
The highlight of the evening had to be meeting these two guys. Tyler and Sean. Tyler is a graphic designer and Sean is a graphical user interface creater… GUI-C. They have been together for three years through the whole long distance thing and now live in San Francisco together.
Basically they are just awesome guys and when/if Ryan and I move here, we will have to hang out with these two guys. After about an hour of talking with each other, we were fast friends. I’m pretty sure living in San Francisco and having friends like these two… we’d be living life famously.
After a while we decided it was time for the obligatory Myspace photo.
The party ended at 2:30 and Ryan and I found ourselves walking home around 3:00 until I caught us a cab for the rest of the cold, long walk home.
I hate that I didn’t take more pictures. All the people there were so nice and fun, we had Marc (with a C) and his friend, and another Sean and a Mark and three Johns (Jons?) and… the list goes on. It sure was a fun fun night.
Santa Rosa + Sushi + Friends - Place to Stay = Memories
We made it to San Francisco a couple of hours late, something to do with excessive traffic on the runway at SFO. So that kinda sucked but I got some work done with the extra time so I guess it wasn’t so bad.
Oh, but there is a problem. The car rental place closes at 6pm. Our plane landed at 4:15, we got our luggage at 4:45, we got on the Bart at 5:00 and we have a 50 minute ride to our stop and then a seven block, up hill walk to Avis with a 50lb suitecase and two carryons. If we don’t make it, we are screwed.
We make it. (meh, not in the mood to create rising action, straight to the dénouement)
Get the GPS, not dealing with getting lost at this point, not matter how well I know the city. Head to Santa Rosa. We meet up with Kayla and Jeana for some awesome Sushi. Awesome sushi. Of course, why wouldn’t it be awesome? It’s California sushi.
After dinner I give Ryan a tour of Santa Rosa. Where I worked, where I went to school, where I lived, where I hung out, it was way too exciting for me. The house where Seth and I lived was totally renovated and looks amazing.
So then we are off to the river house, where I lived when I first moved to California and where I ended my stint in California and where I will likely pick back up, my life in California. It was late, we were tired… I go to the door, insert my key, pull the handle, it opens.
Then, without hesitation, it slams itself closed.
I try again. It closes again.
We hear a voice speaking through the crack in the door, “Hello? Who is this?”. I reply, he opens the door a crack, tells us he needs to get dressed and asks if we can go through the back.
Get dressed? Ok? Back door, sure. We have what I can only guess was a rabid Australian Cattle Dog mixed-up-mutt threatening our lives with his backing, snarling and dripping canines. Vincent, the man who answered the door, the owner of the dog and the contractor on the house, insists the creature is harmless, and frantically lets us into the house. He shows us all the work he has done… blah blah, we certainly can’t stay there. I guess Vincent has taken to living there. Hmmm.
We make some calls, no one has a place for us and we end back, after touring through Healdsburg, back in Santa Rosa and we sleep in our car.
Thanks Home Depot parking lot. Meh, it wasn’t so bad, we woke up early, got some breakfast, met up with Callie and my old Starbucks customers and friends. And then it’s off to San Francisco.
Drop off the car, unload our luggage at the hotel, and then I go to lunch with my cousin Patrick at this great little place called Mario’s Cigar Shop. Fantastic paninis.
Despite sleeping in a rental car our first night in California, we had a blast.
Am I Really That Busy?
It’s weird. I have had so many people comment to me about why we haven’t hung out this summer very much or at all, and almost everyone has claimed that it was I who was too busy that caused the problem.
I don’t believe they are just trying to pass on blame to me, I feel they really do think that I am busy all the time, but honestly, I’m not. I’m only getting 11-15 hours of work a week and that’s pretty much all there is with me. I have been waking up early, 6:46am this morning, and going out to run errands, making up errands just to get my mind off the fact that I have nothing to do.
I had all of these great plans and they all seem to be falling through. New York to do photography never went far, my contact never made contact… Monaco is still on hold waiting for the photographer there and the landlord to figure out if it will work out for me to do it.
My days have been pretty darn productive, dentist appointments, getting two quotes to get my car fixed, set up my new apartment’s phone service, DSL service, electricity and gas… I have taken trips to Booneville a few times, to Jefferson City and to the Lake since school was released… Pretty soon I leave for Austin and Houston. I will be getting Lasik (hopefully) and moving my stuff down here to my new apartment.
I will be officially in my new apartment on the 17th of June and then I will be gone June 22-25 in Indianapolis. Then I get back in town and… back to the airport for my trip to Washington DC where I will be hanging out from June 27 to July 9. I hope to pick up some shifts at Starbucks while I am out there, make some money. Then I’m in Columbia setting up my apartment until late July and until early August visiting California for my birthday.
I am going to be just incredibly busy travelling but my time here in Columbia is pretty mundane and lonely. So if anyone wants to hang out, give me a call cause… life sucks when you are alone.
I have had a few fun times in the past week. Just the other day I went out to Jefferson City and hung out at my friend Scott’s house. We just sat around, talked, had a good time. His friend Amy was over, I love her! She is hilarious. They were doing work around his house before I got there, doing some beautiful landscaping. He showed me the before and after pics of his place, looks just amazing.
We made dinner… well actually, they made dinner and I watched. It was very tasty, chicken wrapped in bacon and around cream cheese with green beans and roasted potatoes. I had a few, strong, vanilla vodka’s and diet, awesome, maybe a new favorite of mine! Then we all cuddled up on the couches and watched National Lampoon’s Family Vacation.
It was a good time. I hope to hang out with Scott a lot more.
In other news, check out my old apartment in San Francisco now apart of Google Maps Street View!
I lived there!!! Lord how I miss that apartment and Seth.
Tags: Car, Friends, Fun, Memories, San Francisco, Scott, Seth, Ugh, Work
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