Hiking @ SF

The day after our SF trip, we went back to go hiking.

We started the day in the Ferry Building in Embarcadero. We walked around the area and had lunch there. Too bad the flee market wasn't going on at the time. But it was a clear day and I was able to take better pictures than the ones I took during my Angel Island trip.

After lunch, we met up with the group in the Cliff House area. The hike started there and we went all the way to Land's End. Its mostly a coastal hike that has a great view of the ocean and the west side of the Golden Gate Bridge. We also saw the Sutro Baths ruins.

It was around sunset when we finished hiking. We then walked down the beach along the Great Highway. My friends threw freesbee, while I took pictures of the sunset.

Afterwards, we met up with a friend in BJ's Brew House in San Mateo for dinner.

Embarcadero Pictures:

Treasure Island, Yerba Buena and the Bay Bridge












Hiking Pictures:





Labyrinth we saw along the hike


Cliff House Area and Sutro Baths:













Sunset Pictures:
In some of these I played around with the camera's exposure settings to get a misty looking shot of the ocean.

SF Trip

I went to SF a couple of weeks ago with my friend.

In Market and Powell we found the tap-dancing guy, those guys painted in silver doing robot moves, and some Native American people performing what seemed like rain dances. It was really warm that weekend and it was really nice in the city.

We went to FLAX art & design store in Market Street. It's a really cool art store with everything an artist would need. The walk from Powell and Market to FLAX exposes you to a diverse scene which includes a nice theater, strip clubs, homeless people, the UN Building, more strip clubs and more homeless people. Not really a place to be walking around with a brand new thousand dollar digital camera.

I taking my new Canon Rebel XT for a spin, and I figured the best place to try it out is from the 6th floor of SF Shopping Centre in Powell and Market. The camera did well in low lighting as I was able to get decent shot in ISO 1600.

Of course a trip to that area is not complete without going the usual places. We went to Blondie's for some yummy Pizza, we went to the Apple store to check out the latest iPod, and went to Virgin Records to check out the lates CDs and movies. We then went to Borders in Union Square to rest out legs and read some magz and check out the latest books. On our way home we ran into a friend who was out for shopping, what a coincidence!

That weekend was when H&M opened its doors in SF. I'm not really familiar with that store but when we passed it at 8:30PM on our way home, they still had lines around the block of people trying to get in. Supposedly, it's big in Manhattan and they have nice clothes at Old Navy prices.

Sacramento Trip

These are old pics taken earlier this month in Sacramento downtown area. They were taken a week after the nurses and teachers kicked Arnold's ass in the special election he pushed for. Unfortunately, the Governator was in the mother of all Red States (China) when I went to Sac.

Capitol Building Pics:






View of Capitol Mall from the Capitol



Cathedral


Around the block from the Capitol was a theater where new immigrants were sworn in. Outside the theater were Democrat and GOP sign-up tables.


Dems


Grand Old Party

Much ado about nothin'

So after months of campaigning, all eight Propositions to amendment the California Constitution went into defeat. Now will somebody ask the Gropernator for our money back. The taxpayers spent $50M to run the election. All in all, $300M was spent by all sides. If I could go back to college, I'd probably want to be a political consultant in California. My job can't be offshored to India, and $300M is spent on a non-election year. Last year, Kerry spent $240M and Bush Jr spent $306M running in 50 states. Somehow the Gropernator was able to make special interest groups spend $300M in just one state. I guess its his way of helping the economy, or at least TV companies that shows political ads. Just as the President started a war because it's good for the economy, or at least good for his friends in Halliburton and other contractors.

(not so...) Intelligent Design

Today is an election day for some parts of the country, including the great state of California. But since I don't vote, I won't complain about the results. I'm always annoyed by people who don't vote, and then compained about what politicians do. If you choose not to vote, then you don't really have the right to complain.

Anyways, I'm probably more interested on whether Matt Santos or Arnold Vinick succeeds Josiah "Jed" Bartlet than whether the Governator terminates the nurses, teachers and firefighter unions.

What caught my eye though in looking at news headlines today is the fact that the Topeka Kansas school district has voted to allow the teaching of Intelligent Design in its schools. Topeka, of course, is famous for the "Brown vs Board of Education" Supreme Court decision where so-called "activist" Supreme Court Justices trumpled over states rights and forced desegragation of schools. They are also famous for banning evolution from schools a few years ago. The ban was lifted when some school board members where replaced by those with brains. Obviously, with the introduction of ID, which is a euphemism for creationism, the board makeup had shifted to the right again.