Lani and I had a nice day yesterday, despite the fact that she slept until 11 o'clock and ruined my original plans for the day.

We stopped in Oakland at the farmer's market and picked up various food items. While there we learned that the neighborhood is getting a Trader Joe's (which I abhor for its false hippie-like piety but Lani loves). We ran into Kato, my former personal trainer. Since I've got to pot over the last couple years that was like running into an old girlfriend who has gone onto success while you're still just a loser. This man really is an amazing physical speciment. Also, got a flyer from an impeach Bush/Cheney group promoting a showing of some anti-Bush movie at the Grand Lake. First of all, it was good to see the theater owners finally taking a clear stand on the president since until now they've been ambiguous (for those who don't know the area and the theater's very political marquee, this is sarcastic). But I also wonder what they really hope to accomplish at this point in the president's administration. They've got, at minimum, months and months of grassroots work to do to inspire a serious impeachment drive, then many more months of political showmanship to get it going and then by the time it actually happens (in their soft-focused fantasy world where it actually might) the president is nearly out of office anyway). If they must focus their hatred for Bush and Cheney shouldn't they be focused on high publicity (but still doomed to failure) lawsuits against the man to have ready for filing the day he is once again a private citizen?

After that we took our foodstuffs to China Camp State Park, which is just outside of San Rafael (which, for those outside the area unfamiliar with California's mixed feelings on how Spanish should be pronounced, is actually pronounced "chi-me-chah-nga." Weirdos. Anyway, we went there for the simple reason that we'd never been there before.

As far as the historical "attraction" of the park goes, it is underwhelming. The waterfront here was once a large Chinese shrimping community. A community driven out of business by racist protectionist laws against dried shrimp exports and traditional gathering techniques. Later, a single family lived their being somewhat traditional and then at some point the state got the land and maintains the small camp and some descendent of that one family still lives there.

Here's China Camp from the far end of its pier:



There are work buildings to the left, not in frame, but this pretty much shows how exciting it is. There is one building with some displays giving a very fractured history and showing proper outrage over how California treated its Chinese population late in the 19th century (the Bay Area is, generally, very fond of showing this outrage). Left unmentioned is the fact that the method of shrimping they used (static nets) is very harmful ecologically and it was probably good that it was outlawed.

Anyway, it is nice to know it is there but we need never visit again. The state park itself is much larger than just this camp and based on the cars parked along the road as we drove through is something of a key area for mountain biking. We didn't do any hiking or biking but rather had a nice picnic with the foods we bought at the farmer's market.



Then we drove down to Sausalito and walked around a bit. We've also never been there (though we have been to nearby Tiburon a few times). Typical tourist town shopping strip but pretty enough to look at.

Then we drove home and Lani beautified my eyebrows while we watched Scrubs reruns.

Tags: my photography

Went to the San Francisco zoo yesterday (with a stop at Treasure Island) and managed to not take a single noteworthy photo. Oh well, way it goes.

However, I did get an interesting response when I asked a ring-tailed lemur to look into the camera. Apparently it is fed up with the papparazzi.

But I like it. Your life is incomplete if you haven't been flipped off by a lesser primate and so it replaces the creepy orange from Bonfante Gardens.

Tags: my photography

My Christmas present to everybody (since you're all not posting anyway) is a photopost without a cut tag!

About a month ago, troymccluresf posted this entry where he took a picture of Mt. Diablo (second tallest "mountain"*) in the Bay Area from Embarcadero in San Francisco. The peak of the mountain is about 25 miles away and it was an unusually clear day.

Yesterday, I was looking for a hike to do and passed a mention of Mt. Diablo and realized that in almost a decade living here we had never gone up there. The weather was supposed to be clear so I figured we might as well. No hiking but a nice drive.

So, here is that picture from Jeff kind of turned back on itself. Unfortunately the day was much hazier and I couldn't get anything discernible of the exact spot his picture was from so here is a picture of another part of San Francisco and the Bay. Click on the picture to see various landmarks identified. The picture is still crappy because I had to bump up the contrast a lot to get the detail out of the haze.



Because of the haze there really wasn't much to photograh from the top of Mt. Diablo (though it was still worth the drive for the view). The really interesting stop turne out to be about 1500' below the peak at a stop called Rock City. This is a large sandstone deposit with great views of the East Bay.

Many of the outcroppings are readily accessible providing good oppoturnities for looking out over the world and feeling like you're the king of all creation.



But like I said they are relatively accessible and not particularly dangerous, as the presence of these little girls implies. A good visit if you're fear of heights isn't totally preclusive of such things.



Unfortunately, like oxygen and hydrogen, sandstone and idiots react quickly and thoroughly. This reminds me of our visit to Carlsbad Caverns where I learned that grafitti older than 80 years is considered historic and protected while anything younger is removed if possible.



But at least some people are more creative than others in their defacement. I'm assuming the following is fake since there was no signage or attempt at protection. Not to mention that exposed sandstone like this wouldn't hold a picture for hundreds of years let alone thousands.



Finally, to end, another Christmas present! A picture of me!

Tags: my photography

For the first time in quite a while I woke up yesterday in the mood to take some pictures. So, I looked up a tide table on the Web, woke Lani up early and kicked her out of bed and decided we would go out to the tidepools at James V. Fitzgerald Marine Preserve.

This is a great, mostly overlooked spot for Bay Area people to check out some time, especially if you have kids (and can be easily bundled in with a day at Half Moon Bay or something). At a good low tide there are acres of tidepools that are easily accessed and plentiful, if somewhat prosaic, sea creatures. Lots of anenomes, hermit crabs, sea stars, mussels, little fish, etc. Even abalone and sea urchins. With so much space, even if there are other people around it is easy enoug to isolate yourself a bit.

As a bonus, the beach is also a year-round haul-out spot for harbor seals so you'll generally find them sleeping on the beaches (or, if they've been disturbed by the people, farther out on harder to reach rocks). The area is a marine preserve and everything is protected by law (particularly the seals, if you get close enough that you scare them into the water, you've broken the law) and you can't take anything home with you.

So, before heading out I checked the bettery on my camera and it said it was fully charged but I was suspicious so I checked my back-up battery too. Of course, when we get out there after a few pictures the battery starts displaying as low and I can't find the spare anywhere. Somehow I left it at home. So I didn't get to take as many pictures as I'd have hoped (and if you're reading this post in its entirety I'm sure you'll think it is too many).

Also of course, I either misread the tide table or it had bad information since I thought low tide would be at 12:00 but it was actually at 2:00 so we weren't quite there at its best. Combine that with the fact that the tide wouldn't be particularly low anyway and high surf and the pools weren't nearly so exposed as I'd hoped. But we still had a pleasant couple hours out there.

After that we continued up 1 towards San Francisco eventually intending to see The Queen somewhere in the City. On the drive it occured to me that we had never been to the Cliff House (we've driven past it many times but never stopped) so I headed there. I don't know why everybody always says "you have to go to the Cliff House" since it is just a restaurant. I assume what they mean is "you have to go to the Sutro Baths" which was cool. It is need that they let you actually walk around on the ruins and lawyers haven't forced them off limits.

Then we ate at Louis' next to the Cliff House (a diner that has been there since 1937 and the menu appears to have been locked in stone at that time). Basic diner food, nothing particular to recommend it but it wasn't bad or anything. $14 for basic fish and chips is too much, though.

Then we drove downtown and saw The Queen at Embarcadero Cinemas. The movie is definitely well acted (though I don't quite buy into the best actress buzz for Helen Mirren) but the big problem is that it is a story I don't really care about. The fame of Princess Diana was, to me, a slightly more dignified version of the fame that Paris Hilton has. Yes, she was doubtless a better person than Hilton but both were famous simply for being famous. And to a large extent I found the outpouring of "global grief" for Princess Diana to be as tacky, outrageous, and inexplicable as I would if a similar thing were to happen with Princess Diana.

So while watching the movie, that was part of the problem. I was at odds with the sentiment. I find the continued existence of the monarchy to be a weird form of political religion (either be a monarchy or be a republic but why pretend to be both?) so I don't invest much in the tradition and dignity of the institution. However, if the institution does exist, I find myself much more in the Queen's view of how Diana's death should be handled. Anyway, well acted but in the end it didn't give me any reason to care more about the events than I did when they were really happening. I remember quite clearly the day she died since it was a long evening of me whining to Lani that I wanted to go out as we had planned and her wanting to watch CNN all night.

So anyway, this is three weekends in a row we were in San Francisco and three fun Saturday's in a row.

( And now the tidepool pictures )

Tags: my photography

You have new Picture Mail!
Originally uploaded by obfusciatrist.

What is this?

Tags: my photography

You have new Picture Mail!
Originally uploaded by obfusciatrist.

Grover is ready for his defilement. Bend over Grover!

Tags: my photography

Since it is the first known case of me having a personally taken photograph of a semi-famous dead person, here is a picture I took of Corey Lidle back in 2001.

Tags: my photography

You have new Picture Mail!
Originally uploaded by obfusciatrist.

Tags: my photography

You have new Picture Mail!
Originally uploaded by obfusciatrist.

Tags: my photography

You have new Picture Mail!
Originally uploaded by obfusciatrist.

Tags: my photography