Chris Bjuland’s blog

Thursday

The heat wave hit San Francisco today.  We got up to 86 degrees in the city.  It was awesome!  Yesterday was 76.  That was awesome, also.  I spent most of the morning and early afternoon in a dark room printing portfolio pages, but about 1:30pm I broke free and ran through the city, enjoying some of that sunshine.

Last week we broke out our jackets because it got cold.  Now it’s warm.  Supposed to be 70 tomorrow.  I’m really confused, but enjoying the weather all around.

This morning on the way to the BART, Elli and I saw a man and woman robbing an ATM.  We think.  They had a wire hook of some kind in the money slot and were fishing around for something.  I called the police and described the perps.  The dispatcher asked me to wait for the officers, which I did, telling her where I was.  Still with my eyes on the perpetrators, who by now had moved onto to shopping at a corner convenience store, I waited.  Very quickly a unit rolled up, looked the suspects up and down as they now crossed the street, and then car turned the corner and drove away.  Huh.  I waited some more, watching as they now tried to break a pay phone.  Still no sight of another police unit.  So I walked the other direction towards school.  About 10 minutes later I got a phone call from the dispatcher, wanting to know where I was.  I explained that I saw the unit drive away, waited, and then left.  She said the officers wanted to speak with me first, before talking with the suspects.  I told her I was at Starbucks eight blocks away.  She asked me to call the officers if I wanted to pursue the case.  It wasn’t my ATM, or pay phone, and I was trying to be a good citizen of the world and start the clean up of the Tenderloin (someone has to make the first effort, might as well be me), but alas, it all came to nill.  I bought a doughnut, and went to class.

Now here we are, enjoying 86 degrees of weather.  The crooks won the battle, but the war still rages.

Monday

I had the day off work today, so I spent the day getting caught up on homework.  The sun in the afternoon is great for shooting still lifes.  I used the morning to work on papers and research projects, and photographed a few objects in the afternoon.

In between, Elli and I went to City Hall to vote (early voting in San Francisco is available three weeks before an election).  San Francisco has the weirdest ballots I’ve ever seen (not just the stuff they have us vote on).  You have to draw a line next to the candidate or issue you are voting for or against.  It’s a sort of a connect the dots, in that your line connects the head and tail of an arrow that points to what you are voting.  No punch cards, no hanging chads, no chads at all.  There was one touch screen, but I didn’t speak up soon enough to use it.  After drawing arrows on three separate sheets of paper, I had to put them all in a giant envelope, seal it, sign it, and hand it to a clerk who would then mail it to a holding and processing center.

This is how I voted:  no (wanted to vote yes, but drew a line in the wrong place, even idiot proof ballots aren’t really idiot proof), no, yes, yes, yes, yes, no, yes, yes, yes, no, yes, yes, yes, no, no, yes, no, yes, yes, no, yes, no, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no, yes, yes, yes, yes.

After voting we went to a French pastry shop and shared a large mocha and a goat cheese/pear tart.  Extra yum all around.  We read a few pages in our book, talked about the city, and then went home for dinner (salmon, peas,  and macaroni & cheese – true blue made from scratch, not from a box).  Elli is such an awesome cook.  I really lucked out in every department when it comes to my wife.  She is simply great all around.

We watched the second episode of Life on Mars during dinner.  It’s a show about a New York cop in 2008 who gets hit by a car and “transported” to 1973, where he’s still on the police force, and has to figure out why or how he’s in 1973.  Lots of great action, music and afros.

Saturday & Sunday

After my afternoon class let out, Elli met me at Borders so that we could review our ballot measures for the upcoming election (our first in California).  We read through the summary book, argued the pros and cons in public, and filled out our “cheat sheet” for the election booth.  Many of the measures are good, but the pork-i-fy them up (just like the real politicians in Washington) which make me say “NO!”.  San Francisco and California law makers (which really means money spenders) really want to tax and spend, tax and spend.  Someday I want to be a part of the arisotcrocay and make the rules and collect all the wealth and go to the fancy parties and do whatever I want.

After our Borders Law Seminar, we walked down the street to DSW to find shoes for Elli, to the Apple Store for me (to see the new generation of ugly computers, many of them missing a Firewire port (if you don’t know, you don’t need to ask about it, but it is a sore point for me.  Firewire connections were the best, and are still generations above USB (which stands for Universally Slow Backups), snore).  From there to Old Navy where Elli, in a fit of rare lucidity, bought two sweater dresses and three pairs of pants).  Elli hates shopping (except for dog stuff), so it was amazing she even went to a store at all, let alone two.

Since the mall was next door to Old Navy, we went inside to check movie times, bought tickets to see Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and then had pre-movie dinner at ‘wichcraft.  The dinner was great, and the movie was funny (a sort of “Superbad” style adventure, without all the cussing), and we got home late.

Shortly after we got home, I started coughing, Elli fell asleep, and I stayed up half the night waiting for the cough medicine to kick in and do it’s thing.  Not sure what time I fell asleep, but it wasn’t enough before I had to get up and head to Berkely for my Star Wars minis game.  Neither sickness nor tiredness will keep me from the game store.  Sadly, the store (and all stores in the city) are sold out of Monsterapolocypse, so I didn’t get the chance to pick up any game pieces.

After game time, Elli meet me at Civic Center and we hit the tail end of the Farmer’s Market for our weekly fruit and vegetables.  Elli wanted to go to Chris Elbow afterwards, so we walked the five blocks to enjoy some chocolate.  On our way home, I stopped and bought a donut (a maple iced, filled long john.  Double yum goodness).

Now we are cleaning up the apartment, putting dinner in the oven and getting ready to watch the first episode of Life on Mars, a new cop drama on ABC set in the 70s.

Friday

I have two weeks off from work, because the school I work at is closed for a “Fall Break”, which is really, really nice.  Elli is not off of work, unfortunately, so I still try to walk her to the BART before heading back to the apartment to spend way more time on my grad school homework that I probably need to be spending.  Sometimes it sucks to be an overachiever.  But I’m trying to push my photography in a new and different way.  Fortunately, it is paying off, as my new style gets more consistent and controllable.

I made lunch for Elli when she got off work today, and I spent the afternoon trying to get everything done for my Saturday class so that I’m not rushing around trying to finish everything 20 minutes before class.  Not that I’ve ever done that before…

Right now I’m at the Taylor lab printing an assignment for tomorrow, and Elli is at home knitting a blanket and watching internet TV.  As I am the only one in the lab right now, I’ve got the Jpop (Japanese pop music) tunes cranked and get all the printers to myself (even though I’m only printing on one, I COULD print on the others if I wanted.  No one could stop me!).

The downside of being off of work is that I won’t want to go back.  If only that paycheck would keep coming without me actually being there…

My mom wrote to me to tell me she’s getting a new kitten.  I wish I could be there to see it.  Elli needs a need dog, but we don’t live near a park, so it’s not the right time…  But we both miss Jennie everyday.

Thursday

Elli’s Maryland friend (who goes to my school, different department) Meredith came over for dinner.  Elli made black bean soup and corn bread (yum!).  We spent the evening lounging around talking about all the strange and bizarre things that go on in San Francisco, and I think we were all shocked at what weird perversions about in the city.  Fortunately we don’t visit those parts of town (extreme Castro), so there is little chance of having to watch people do gross stuff in public.

Meredith gave us the dish on her school department and we talked about the Academy for a bit.  There might be some truth to the matter in that the school exists more for the faculty than the students.  I wasn’t aware that our school president collects antique cars (allegedly with school funds) and stores them in a campus building.  I’m hoping she lets me check one out for the afternoon if there is any truth to the matter of me paying for her hobby.  Of course, I really just like gossip.  I’ve run out of Sarah Palin dirt, moved on to McCain, and am now waiting for “The Truth” about Obama to hit the press (whatever “The Truth” is).

I’m not sure how much of this story on McCain is true, but if any of it is, he’s not the person I want making decisions for me.  http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23316912/makebelieve_maverick/print

Monday

Elli and I rented a car today so that we could explore the Marin Headlands and also so that we could visit Target and pick up some supplies (and for me it was a chance to do something Kansas City and Normal, meaning I got to drive and go to my favorite mega-store).  We packed our jackets, some books and a camera and headed out bright and early at 9:00 am.

Driving is a skill you don’t forget, but driving in San Francisco is something that no one should have to do except as punishment.  Everyone honks, drives through yellow (red) lights, and honks again.  Thankfully we brought a GPS with us, so it was just a matter of trusting it to get us where we needed to go and I could avoid the crazies driving next to me.

Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge.  We parked the car, admired the view, took a picture of ourselves, and decided not to walk across the bridge.  We drove to the Marin Headlands from the Bridge.

The Headlands are the “country in the city”.  Beautiful hills, grass, and trees.  (We don’t see many trees in the city).  We found a spot to park, walked around, watched the raptors and other birds, and listened to the soothing sounds of the ocean.  It’s one of the greatest sounds in the world.

Our rumbling stomachs started to get the better of us, so it was off to nearby Sausalito for a noon time breakfast.  We ate at an Italian bakery, sitting outside and watching the harbor (across the road).  I ate a breakfast panini, and Elli ate a quiche, and she had bread and butter and the best marmalade in the world with her breakfast.  Fortunately some of it made it’s way to my stomach.

After eating we walked around the town looking in the art galleries and walking along the harbor.  A few hours later we got back in the car to seek out Target.

Target in California is exactly the same as Target in Kansas City, but it was nice to be somewhere familiar.  We stocked up on some items, but Elli talked me out of the “4 bags for 8 dollars” Halloween candy.  She knew I’d eat all four bags before we ever got home again.  I do love me some candy.

On the way back to San Francisco, we decided to take a detour and go to Muir Beach to watch the waves and walk on the beach.  Three miles of windy roads led us to the beach (thank you GPS) and I spent the time photographing rocks and starfish and sea weed, and Elli also.  There are a ton of houses on the hill overlooking the beach.  I wonder how we can get one of those?  Is it to late to pick up a bad mortgage so the government will end up paying for my house?

We dropped off the car a few hours later and picked up Thai food on our walk back to our apartment.  It was a great end to a great day.  Raven and Tracer (our cats) met us at the door, demanding attention and dinner.  We all ate and fell asleep soon afterwards.

Sunday

Monsterpocalypse

I went to Gamescape today for some Heroclix action and discovered a brand new game while I was there.  It’s called Monsterpocalypse and is a game based on giant monster movies.  Players take control of a giant monster (or robot) and a crew of support pieces and proceed to demolish the town and fight the other monsters.  It looks like a blast to me.  Of course, it’s “collectible” meaning that when you buy a game pack it is a random assortment of pieces and not necessarily the pieces you want.  On the plus side, there seemed to be a lot of interest in the game among the people at the store today, so there is always the possibility of trading away your extras.  But I really hate the whole collectible games trend (which isn’t going away).  It’s a huge cash cow for game makers, and a wallet draining prospect for gamers.  Gone are the days of buying a game with the board, the cards, and the pieces all in one convenient box.  Now it’s $400+ to collect ‘em all.  Ugh.

Monsterpocalypse

The bad news is that this game comes out right before the new Star Wars minis set gets released (around Halloween), Photoshop CS4 comes out next month, and the following month is the new Canon 21 MP camera that I want.  Everyone wants my hard earned dollar, which doesn’t go as far on the West Coast as it did in the Midwest.  Choices, choices, choices…

If anyone out there wants to become my wealthy art patron supporter, please email me and I’ll sign you up for the photo of the month club where you’ll get original art for your castle walls and digital wallpapers for you iPhone.  All donations are welcome, large or small.

In other news, the Blue Angels did their final show today and I got to watch the last half from the roof of our building.  Always an amazing sight when they fly over your head.  I’m sure it’s an incredible rush to be flying the F/A-18.  I am glad they don’t carry bombs that might get accidentally dropped where I’m standing.

Thursday

Blue Angels over San Francisco by Chris Bjuland, Oct 2008

This week is Fleet Week in San Francisco.  And no, that isn’t some gay tranny crossdressing alternative sexuality parade (those were last week in the Castro district, according to the newspapers).  It’s the week long celebration of the military industrial complex and the worship of things that bring death and destruction around the world.  And like most people who have a fascination with military might, I stared into the sky hoping to get a glimpse of the Blue Angels in practice flight.  The tall buildings of downtown San Francisco make watching the sky almost impossible, the Elli got to see quite a bit on the city edges where she works.

Sitting in our apartment that afternoon, we took the rattling windows and loud noises with an air of delight as we peeked out the windows looking for the artifical birds.  We eventually saw them, and Elli thought it would be cool to watch them from the roof of our building.  So I grabbed my camera, and we climbed to the 7th floor where I was positive we would be met with a locked rooftop access door.  Elli, on the other hand felt confident we could escape onto the roof with little problem.  (She’s the optimist, I’m the pessimist, in case you didn’t know already).

And like Moses parting the Red Sea, Elli produced a not-quite-shut roof top door and we were above the city streets.  It’s a much different view of San Francisco from 8 floors up, rather than street level.

I took a few dozen images of the planes buzzing overhead.  I didn’t have a long enough lens for the level of detail I wanted, but it was neat to see the Blue Angels flying overhead without all the buildings getting in the way.

This weekend they, and many others, will be preforming over by Golden Gate Bridge.  We’ll probably save the $150.00 admission fee to the park and watch for free from the rooftop, although I probably pay it next year for a front row seat.  The free beer might make the images more in focus as well.

Sunday

I spent the morning and afternoon in Berkley playing the Star Wars miniature game at Games of Berkley.  I played my usual combo of Vader and a bunch of Stormtroopers.  I added Vader’s apprentice to the team for both games to mix things up.  Most of my game pieces are still in Kansas City, but I’m having fun with the pieces I do have in San Francisco.

Came home to go shopping at the Farmer’s Market with Elli, then home for lunch and house cleaning.  I got to clean out the closet that I had junked up while Elli did some sweeping and kitchen cleaning.  The closet took longer than I planned, but I had really junked it up with school papers and such.  I’m not the most organized guy in the world.  It’s all better now, with everything in a place, and easy access to the iron and other things we use most often.

After that I headed to Borders to spend money on a few Billy Collins books for Elli.  He’s a famous poet, and his stuff his good (even I like it, and I don’t like poetry).  Picked up a vampire book for myself, because it is the season for such reads.

It’s October, and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but autumn in California (where there are no trees anywhere near my apartment) is kind of a let down.  The weather is warm, no leaves to turn pretty colors, and no drizzly rain to set the mood on the dark streets.  On the plus side, the weather is warm and there is no drizzy rain.  Yet.  The rain is on it’s way, I’ve been told.

I wonder if we should try dressing the cats up for Halloween and then they can trick-or-treat around the apartment?  We tried to put a cat hat on Raven once.  She wasn’t impressed.  Tracer shook the hat off her head and tried to eat it.  I guess I answered my own question.

Elli and I closed out the evening with some reading.  I’m finishing up Cthulhu 2000, a collection of H.P. Lovecraft inspired stories, but none are actually written my Lovecraft.  Elli is reading a book about a ghost who can be seen by someone for the first time in a hundred years.

Saturday

After my Saturday class, Elli and I met up with our friends Steve and Emily (whom we had previously gone to Angel Island with) and went out for sushi at Sanraku on Sutter Street.  We ordered shrimp tempura rolls, spicy tuna rolls, california rolls, and eel rolls, as well as miso, tea and sake.  Steve and I geeked out about cameras and Photoshop and Final Cut Pro.

Baby Eden was there to entertain us all and make us laugh.  She was more interested in the chopsticks than anything else.

After sushi we all headed to Borders so Steve could use the baby changing table.  But alas, Borders is not dad friendly, and there was no changing table.  Shame on Borders.