July 6, 2007

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 10:35 am

I just got into work. My interview in San Francisco is officially scheduled for the 18th and so I'm going to be in San Francisco that whole week. I absolutely must meet up with those of you in the area during that time, since otherwise I will be completely bored since I suck at the whole "vacation" thing.

QotD: What do you like to do on your time off?

I have a tendency to just hang around, watch DVDs, play video games, work on personal programming projects, that sort of thing.

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 10:40 am

what is this time off you speak of?

nah, seriously. These days I've been TRYING to be lazy just because I"ve been working so much. Typically I've been practicing in a band as well as work but two members quit and I've just been bein' lazy.

I listen to music and get drunk and get drunk listening to music. Be it at home or at a venue.

EmbersOfAutumn · Post by **EmbersOfAutumn** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 11:14 am

QotD: Video Games. Short and sweet.

I used to play about 4 hours a day as a child, and I've cut way back in my "responsible" days now, never get more than 2 or so hours on a good day.

Actually, I called in sick a few months ago (honestly I was really really sore from the previous day) so I could finish up Final Fantasy XII.

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:15 pm

QOTD -- lately, evidently, my down-time has not included and music-making merriment.

However, music is USUALLY something that occupies much of my down time. Other fun stuff:
1. Sewing
2. Crafty stuff in general
3. Mooooovies. (Making them and watching them)
4. Bike rides
5. Eating and Drinking (Foofy snacks / good wine preferably -- Jeez, I'm such a yuppie)
6. Lazing around and reading fun stuff.
7. Biking from garage sale to garage sale looking for useless/broken crap that I MUST HAVE. Musical instruments and film/photographic equipment are the penultimate scoring points for this game.

When I'm on vacation, I spend most of my time pursuing item #5, and trying to get lost/find the cool secret stuff to do in that area. I also have been known to lug a super-8 camera and Tri-X film around with me shooting stuff.

Billy's Little Trip · Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:23 pm

We've been getting into the high 90s here
The weather is beautiful
Poor King Arthur, it's around 120 in AZ
Our new litter of puppies are just starting to open their eyes
SO damn cute
They are pure bread chihuahuas
One is a tea cup and way smaller than the rest
I had a dream that I was working on a song that sounded so good
But when I woke up, made coffee, etc, I forgot it by the time I got to my guitar

QOTD:
Just sitting around on the computer is cool for a bit, but honestly, I can only take so much of that. I don't like video games, I don't like reading and I have a hard time watching a movie more than once, although there are exceptions to all of the above.
I like to go somewhere like the beach or the mountains. I like to take out my wave runners, or surf in the summer, or snowboard in the winter. I always need to be doing something active or I go stir crazy. I like to physically wear myself out because it helps me relax....if that makes sense.

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:27 pm

anti-m wrote:QOTD -- lately, evidently, my down-time has not included and music-making merriment.

4. Bike rides
5. Eating and Drinking (Foofy snacks / good wine preferably -- Jeez, I'm such a yuppie)
6. Lazing around and reading fun stuff.

These are also things I do quite a bit of. I ride my bike for exercise and to enjoy weather. Of course we all have to eat and drink to survive, I just happen to enjoy it more than the average person. Couldn't be confused with a yuppie or wine connoisseur though. Lately I've been lazier than normal whenever possible. I used to read a load more books but I read alot of news online these days. I'm still trying to finish a Stephen King book and one more to go in the series after that.

Billy's Little Trip · Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:34 pm

anti-m wrote: 1. Sewing

Ooops, I misread your #1

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:47 pm

It's hot, finally, in NYC. My stay is not comfortable for many reasons, but I did get to schedule not one but TWO date nights with my wife, including evening tours of Clinton Hill and Bedford Stuyvesant, spa massage, and dinners.

QofD: I like to travel on my time off. The past year has seen Ireland, Whistler B.C., Chichen Itza and Cancun, and Philadelphia. We go to CT or VT most weekends otherwise, and Aug 8th takes us back to Ireland (too beautiful) to tour the northwest. There's little free time other than vacations.

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 1:50 pm

roymond wrote:QofD: I like to travel on my time off. The past year has seen Ireland, Whistler B.C., Chichen Itza and Cancun, and Philadelphia. We go to CT or VT most weekends otherwise, and Aug 8th takes us back to Ireland (too beautiful) to tour the northwest. There's little free time other than vacations.

Yeah, I like to visit a different american city each summer!

drë · Post by **drë** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 2:51 pm

anti-m wrote: 7. Biking from garage sale to garage sale looking for useless/broken crap that I MUST HAVE. Musical instruments and film/photographic equipment are the penultimate scoring points for this game.

Wow that actually sounds like allot of fun. Gay. But fun.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 2:52 pm

Question: When normal people travel and visit cities, what the hell do they do while there? I am completely uncreative and have no idea what normal people do on vacation but just wandering around and doing all the things that I could be doing where I live doesn't appeal to me.

Usually when I travel I like to hang out with people but that's shitty when going solo and all your local friends work during the day.

This is not a hypothetical question. I really don't know what I'll be doing in San Francsico aside from Monday afternoon (interview with tiny company in Santa Clara) and all day Wednesday (interview with gigantic megacorporation in San Francisco).

drë · Post by **drë** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 2:55 pm

fluffy wrote:Question: When normal people travel ....

How much creativity do you need to use <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c2co ... co&spell=1" target="_New">Google </a>?

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 3:02 pm

I've already been to Alcatraz, and all the other suggestions I find are variations on "go shopping!"

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 3:18 pm

fluffy wrote:I've already been to Alcatraz, and all the other suggestions I find are variations on "go shopping!"

Check out the musee mechanique, fo sho'. (Although I've not been since they evidently moved it.)

The wave organ is also very cool. I think there's also a great comics museum there, although I've not been there myself. I hear the Exploratorium (sp?) is nifty too.

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 3:21 pm

dre wrote:
anti-m wrote: 7. Biking from garage sale to garage sale looking for useless/broken crap that I MUST HAVE. Musical instruments and film/photographic equipment are the penultimate scoring points for this game.

Wow that actually sounds like allot of fun. Gay. But fun.

Hah! Gay but fun may be my primary M.O. in life! I think that phrase may actually be emblazoned on the Portland flag.

Biking from garage sale to garage sale is the best way to check 'em out during the "season." You can case the place out more easily from a bike-by... and thereby avoid what I like to call the "dirty baby clothes" sales.

Ooooh. I gave blood today. I'm feeling a little wooooooozy.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 3:26 pm

anti-m wrote:
fluffy wrote:I've already been to Alcatraz, and all the other suggestions I find are variations on "go shopping!"
Check out the musee mechanique, fo sho'. (Although I've not been since they evidently moved it.)

The wave organ is also very cool. I think there's also a great comics museum there, although I've not been there myself. I hear the Exploratorium (sp?) is nifty too.

Oh crap, of course, the comics museum is something I've been wanting to see for a while, ever since <a href="http://narbonic.com/">Shaenon Garrity</a> namedropped it several times.

Those are the sorts of museums I can get behind. When I think of museums I tend to think of, like, art galleries, and those get boring fast.

Thanks!

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:17 pm

fluffy wrote:I've already been to Alcatraz, and all the other suggestions I find are variations on "go shopping!"

Some things about "normal people" or "normal travel":

- shopping when traveling can be fun. I absolutely HATE shopping when I have to but when I travel and come across cool stuff (ok, usually not in the US) it actually is fun. Most of my shirts, slacks and jackets are from out of country. My wife used to only wear Marks and Spenser undies. Became a bit of a joke when friends went to London to have them pick up a set.

- travel is a destination in and of itself. Just being somewhere new. Some people say we travel a lot, and parents of other 7 year olds are like "how do you let him miss so much school?" School? He's 7! He's going to miss a class about sight words and silent "g"s...so what? Instead he's walking in front of some ancient pyramid or swimming in an amazing sea. How can he learn about that in school? Travel always trumps school within reason.

- early morning breakfast at diners or cafes is always cool. Meet new people, in places where they're more relaxed and still have night hair sticking up and what not. Plus it often involves coffee.

- how long are you in SF? Yosemite is a day trip. Rent a car at 5:00 from Union Square (ok, where ever) have some swedish pancakes at Sears and drive east, son. Take a dive into the pool below Bridal Veil Falls and freak out the tour bus crowd. Then hike up on the heights for amazing views behind half dome. I used to do this on Sundays and return to the airport for a red-eye back to NYC. Felt like a whole mini vacation. Well worth it.

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:18 pm

here are some san francisco suggestions fluffy:

......hang out in golden gate park. it's free and always entertaining. head over to hippy hill and check out the drummers.

......go to ocean beach. hike up past the cliff house to sutro baths, then hike the fire road out through the golden gate national recreation area. takes you along the cliffs that wind around to baker beach. great views of the GG bridge.

.....check out the farmers market at the ferry building. the ferry building itself is a foodies woody.

.....take the ferry to sausalito and back. each way is about a half hour and it's a great ride on the bay. walk around sausalito and then catch the ferry back an hour later.

....check out pawn shops on mission street for vintage music gear.

.....head over to the stern grove music festival on sunday. it's free and awesome.

.....go to coit tower and check out the wild parrots of telegraph hill.

......go to north beach and have espresso at cafe trieste and be sure to check out city lights book store, where you might find old beat legend lawrence ferlinghetti upstairs in his loft office.

......hang out in junk shops in chinatown. i love chinatown. my favorite part of the city.

.....stay the hell away from the ball park. the all star game is in town.

hey, i hear it's been pretty hot out there lately. it's been beautiful sunny 70's for me the past few days here in the cruz. in fact, it's chilly out right now. sometimes, that thing called the fog isn't such a bad thing after all.

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:22 pm

roymond wrote: - how long are you in SF? Yosemite is a day trip. Rent a car at 5:00 from Union Square (ok, where ever) have some swedish pancakes at Sears and drive east, son. Take a dive into the pool below Bridal Veil Falls and freak out the tour bus crowd. Then hike up on the heights for amazing views behind half dome. I used to do this on Sundays and return to the airport for a red-eye back to NYC. Felt like a whole mini vacation. Well worth it.

actually, a long (and very HOT) day trip. about 3.5 hours each way from the city with no traffic. in fact, i always drive to yosemite at night in the summer as it's such a damned hot drive. of course, if you have air conditioning...

but it's a hell of a long drive for one day. minimum 7 hours driving alone.

but like roy says, yosemite is a very special place. it's just better when it's not so hot and crowded.

Heather. Redmon. · Post by **Heather. Redmon.** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:29 pm

When I'm not working or taking care of the kids, I'm probably one of the most boring people in the word. I like to watch HGTV, especially House Hunters and Designed to Sell and play Free Cell on my computer. BORING!!

The clicking is therapeutic. I'm totally addicted to Free Cell.

If I had the time and motivation, I'd love to take up photography again. There are so many things and buildings I want to photograph in downtown Minneapolis. I miss my old manual camera with black and white film that I used to develop and print myself. Oh digital, look what you've done.

I'm so glad it's Friday. That day off in the middle of the week really fucked my shit up. Sorry I'm cussing, that's just how I really talk. It's not just gratuitous swears in our songs, it's for real. Yeah, Thursday felt like a combination of Monday and Friday, and today I had no idea what was going on! Work is weird and uncomfortable now that I'm in "stand by" mode, waiting to find out who got the supervisor job.

Phil probably doesn't want me talking about this, and I don't know why I'm bringing it up, but it was so great and such a surprise... When I got home from work, the baby was napping and the dude was playing Simpsons Game on the Play Station. Phil grabbed me by the arm and took me upstairs. He pushed the bed in front of the door as a barricade and we had a few stolen moments (to put it lightly) together.

I don't know why I just told people I've never really met in person about that, but it really was the highlight of my week.

Anyway, carry on...

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:33 pm

heather, good luck with the job!

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:34 pm

Yeah, Yosemite is a long drive. Bring good tunes. But start early and leave at sun down and it's like you've been to another planet. I did this four or five times with consistent results. After SF Live Seattle I did a similar day trip to Mount St Helens on my way out. I admit I'm not normal.

- Mission Dolores Park often has a youth jazz band that practices and performs there. Street kids led by some way cool inspired trumpet player. They are really quite good. Sundays as well, if I recall. Plus the Castro, blocks away, can be lots of fun, with a good Bollywood theater (and other theaters if you like).