On Saturday night I went with Valerie to the movies. We couldn’t really agree on which movie to see, as she wanted to see Sex in the City, and I really wasn’t up for that at all. I went to see Wanted instead, which by the way was awesome. We decided we’d meet up afterwards to go see Get Smart, as the AMC really isn’t too good at making sure you only see one movie.

So, Wanted features similar effects to the Matrix, but it just looks awesome. The story is a little far fetched and spoils it a little, but visually it’s fantastic. Definitely worth going to see.

When I met Valerie afterwards to see the late showing of Get Smart, we couldn’t find the theatre we were looking for. We spent about 20 minutes looking around and just as we’re about to give up … blackout!

The whole cinema gets a powercut and it’s pitch black. Of course, it’s America, so there’s a lot of screaming and everyone get’s their cellphones out. Some cheeky people try asking for free popcorn as the emergency lights come on. After about 10 minutes of confusion, the staff make the decision to evacuate the building. So, free passes are issued which are good for one movie and, of course, I picked mine up without a hint of remorse.

We went back to the movies last night to see Get Smart, hoping to see Wall-e afterwards. Get Smart was funny, but nothing spectacular. It’s Steve Carell so it’s obviously going to be funny. I was too tired after the movie to sit through another 2 hours of film so we went home in the end. Maybe another time for Wall-e.

Pride 08

This past Sunday was SF Pride, celebrating LGBT San Francisco. As usual, Market Street was closed off to allow the parade to go past and 500,000 came out (no pun intended) to see it. It started off with the tradition of ‘Dykes on Bikes’, and there were a lot of people dressed up in wedding clothes, reflecting the recent change in the law that legalizes gay marriage in the state of California (one of only 2 that allow it).

The weather was fairly crap, mostly due to the wildfires that have been raging all over the state causing smoke and smog to gravitate through the city. Luckily, some strong winds have appeared and blown most of the smoke away.

I was only able to stay for about 1 hour at the parade as I had to go to work, but there was plenty to see before I left. The mayor even made and appearance as he waved to his minions from his convertible. My camera battery died, so I have no pictures as yet.

Cindy Lauper was singing at Civic Center after the parade, which I suppose was no big thing to miss. There was a religious group had gathered to make it very clear that the parade was a complete abomination, which is cool that they were representing their views but it seemed very poorly done, and turned me away more than anything. It really was like a ‘let he that is without sin cast the first stone’ scenario. It almost seemed as if this church were associating themselves with the whole ‘God Hates Fags’ campaign. The fact of the matter is that I’m guilty of many things myself, homosexuality is maybe not one of them, but it puts me in no position to judge or preach. Matthew 7:3-5 and all that.

On a lighter note, work was boring as usual.

Our Yosemite trip last weekend was awesome, we went hiking and went up to Glacier Point, which has one of the most amazing views in the world. I said I would blog about it, but I can’t really be bothered now to be honest. If it’s not fresh in my mind, then there’s no point. Here’s a cute picture though.

And one from Glacier Point:

Sometimes I wish I had an SLR to get better photos.

Anyway, what have I been up to since then. Well, this past weekend I was off work on Friday and Saturday. It was unusually warm both days, Friday it was so bad that I had to leave my room. I was working on some web design projects and got very little done due to the heat. I had windows open, doors open…just too warm to stay inside, so I went swimming in Fisherman’s Wharf. Unfortunately it was even warmer outside, so I stayed in the shade most of the day. I met up with Valerie after work and we went to North Beach for some authentic Italian pesto pizza and gelato. Pesto is a herb, by the way. Valerie thinks it’s a type of meat.

Saturday was just as warm. Myself and the girlfriend went up to the wharf again for a bit of swimming and lazing around. We had planned on visiting the Exploratorium but figured it was too nice a day to stay inside. I slapped on the suncream but I still managed to get myself burned. It was 36°C, waaaay too warm.

On the way back, we stopped by the French Music Festival. It wasn’t exactly crowded, proving that the Irish are more popular in SF (cf. St Patrick’s Day parade). We stayed to see Tete, or Monsieur Tete as I like to call him. He wore a hat, and was decent, but nothing special.

Finally we stopped in the Hilton to use their hot tub and pool before going back home. I found it difficult to get to sleep because of the temperature, so I left the window open and slept on top of the bed. Stupid weather, it was about 15°C in the morning, and I woke up with the sniffles. It’s crap to have sunburn while sick not acclimatised to the new weather. Spent most of last night in bed

I went to Yosemite with Cathryn, Ducky and Valerie last weekend. I actually wrote an entire post about it, but for the third time Wordpress has not saved my post after pressing save, so I lost the entire thing. I’ll write about it later.

Anyway, photos are up on Flickr for now, so check them out.

A few months ago, Subway introduced a special $5 price for all their footlong subs (except of course those premium subs that are really just a gimmick anyway). I am here to tell you that upon experience of this offer, it simply is not worth the hassle my friends.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been to some decent subways and the experience has been fine. My local Subway, at the Caltrain station, has been my regular lunch stop at work approximately 3 times per week since this offer began.

I blame this mostly on the staff. They’re all foreign workers, which I have absolutely no problem with. I do, however, expect that if you work at an establishment where the customer is going to give you specific parameters for creating their valued lunchtime meal, you should at least be able to understand English. Honestly, some of the people’s level of English comprehension is worse than those voice recognition telephone switchboards (”did you say ‘Technical Support’?”). Their training must be painful, assuming that is that they actually receive training.

Subway staff have 5 preset questions, and anything that can’t be answered in one of these 5 questions causes a lot of confusion. Plus, even if you answer the question, don’t expect them to remember your answer.

“Footlong Tuna on Honey Oat bread please”, I say.
“You want cheese?”, the response.
“Swiss, please”, I reply
“What type of bread”, the heavily accented girl asks.
“Um, Honey Oat…” I reply, annoyed somewhat that this is the second time I’ve answered this in 10 seconds.
“Toasted?”, she asks in truncated question format.
“No, not toasted”. This is actually where they get you - if you ask for it toasted, you get slapped with a hot food tax.
“What type of cheese?”

It’s a vicious circle.

By the time I’ve reached the end of the production line, I’ve got my sandwich, with lettuce because they guy has already assumed that I want it, and when I tell I don’t want it, he questions my judgement in sandwich fillers.

“You said lettuce, right?”
“No lettuce, I said!” comes my reply. Still he proceeds to wrap it up. Moron.

Ok, so it’s $5 dollars but the amount of work involved is enormous. I used to go to Subway almost every day and the guy there knew me, and what I wanted so it was quick and painless. Fortunately for him, he thinks independently and has found a real job. Sorry to offend any ’sandwich artists’.

Weekends are a different matter entirely. That’s trainee time.

2 people in front of me in the line. It takes 20 minutes to get my sub made. It’s still wrong, and he charges me the tax for a toasted sub. I point out his mistake, he doesn’t understand. Typical.

I checked out Quizno’s once, who are Subway’s main rivals. They take too long though, and are much more expensive. I hate Subway more though.

So this past week has been my 52nd week in San Francisco, 1 year as of June 6th. And how do I feel? Well I can’t believe it’s been a year, it doesn’t feel that long at all, but at the same time I know this place so well it’s like I’ve known it for years.

And if I’m being honest I’m quite looking forward to getting home. Quite a few of my friends have left to go back home already, so every day it’s getting harder to find people to do things with. By the time I leave there’ll be very few of my friends left so it gets quite lonely, but could be a good chance to meet new people. I’m most looking forward to going home to see old friends, family and lower monthly rent! Some days I feel like I definitely don’t want to leave, and others I miss things from home.

Speaking of friends, Cathryn and Ducky are coming to visit San Francisco this week. Will be nice to see them.

And just before I go, I’d like to make a mention of an awesome musician I came across a few months ago. His name is Goh Nakamura, he’s from SF and is an acoustic artist. I’ve had his songs stuck in my head for weeks now, so you should definitely check him out. This one song of his on Youtube (Embarcadero Blues) has over 1 million views. I would also recommend another song called El Camino which he recorded while busking. Finally, I absolutely love his cover of Just Like Heaven by The Cure. I’ve played it over an over, it’s great. He’s playing here soon so I think I will have to go see him and say hello.

So I was in Borders the other day, mainly to enjoy a magazine with a large hot Cocoa Trio (because I really hate Starbucks’ version, although it turns out Starbucks owns Seattle’s Best Coffee in Borders). I enjoy this past-time because the Cocoa Trio is flippin’ expensive, but at least I can read the entire magazine without paying for it. I see this as a good compromise - expensive beverage, cheap education. Anyway, on with the story.

I come across the new edition of Billboard magazine. I’m very surprised to see Third Day on the front cover, and after a few seconds notice that Brad’s not on there. Ah, he must’ve been somewhere else the day of the photoshoot, I think. But in the subsequent pages of the article he’s not featured anywhere. I didn’t really have the time to read the article, but I followed up on it later that night and found that he actually left the band way back in February.

How come I didn’t hear about that? I wouldn’t go as a far as saying Third Day are one of my favourite bands but they are certainly a band I continue to listen to and would buy their CD’s, so I’m quite surprised I didn’t hear about it sooner.

What’s even more interesting is the circumstances under which he left. The news article from the Third Day site stated:

“We appreciate Brad’s many contributions to the band’s career to date, including his work on our forthcoming album, but the time has come for us to follow our separate paths.”

ThirdDay.com

Ok, so if Brad decided to quit then the language would have been more like “Brad had decided that it is time for him to go his separate way”. The language tends to imply that this was a band decision, so I wonder if there’s any bad blood between them? Apparently he’s leaving to pursue a solo career, but the news article doesn’t mention that. I may just be over analyzing, and I’m sure it’s something that these guys prayed about a lot, but I would just love to know what happened and why an announcement wasn’t made before. And besides, his guitar solo face was the most entertaining part of their show.

I snapped this pic a few years ago at one of their gigs in Belfast: