February 11, 2004

 Because I am the way I am, my first day off Blogger has inspired me to do a Blogger-style post.  This was my day, as snapped with my digital camara, and scrawled in my notebook during breaks at RAN. 

Approx 8:30am.  This is what Fremont has to offer.

  View from my BART window.  How is it that I can stand to leave this stunning landscape? 

Surprisingly, nobody else is attempting to leave Fremont. 

Ah, yes.  The sprawl.

Waiting for the fare.

Begin blog:

Hello from my desk at RAN.  I can take the odd moment to write all this down because 1) they are relaxed about such things here, 2) short breaks help me think, and 3) I am unpaid.  So here goes.

9:30am  A reason why cities are nice:  On my three-block walk from BART to RAN, I passed no less that seven esspressso-purchasing opportunities.  And only one of them was a Starbucks.

10:22am   If any of you are ever in the market for a sensitive, over-educated sissy-boy, go work at a non-profit.

10:28am   There is a protest happening on the street below.  We can hear the protestors from here, but I can't make out what they are saying.  But! Cops have lined the streets, and are milling around.  Tres exciting!  Several people here at the office have opened their windows, and the I can hear the din from down below.  It makes nice background noise, up here on the 4th floor.  Comforting city-sounds.

11:54am   This place makes me feel conservative, but that might just be because I've spent a good part of the morning reading the PETA activists handbook (for tips.)

11:56am  There is a long-time volunteer here (the most senior guy in the office, I am to understand) who is having a bad day psychotic episode.  His psychiatrist is coming to take him away, and he's not too happy about it.  He doesn't seem dangerous or anything.  More like a depressed sensitive guy who can't cope with the injustice of the world, or something like that.  One of the other regular volunteers assures me that this is not an everyday occurrence.

12:00pm   Apparently, the protest is at the Pacific Stock Exchange building, which is just down the block.  I still don't know what is being protested.

12:34pm   Upon closer inspection, it appears to be a communications workers union, upset about health care.

  12:41pm  Had some cash on me, so I decided to splurge for lunch.  I picked up a copy of WIRED at the newsstand, because I am a dork and because I haven't read it in ages.  And then I found a nice little lunch joint, located, ironically enough, in the courtyard of the CITIBANK building.
 

Mmmmm, Thai chicken crepes. 

  Because I am in real city, I can eat my lunch next to art.
 

She is the sun woman, or something like that.

 Nations conquered?

Layers of Buildings:                        

1:04pm  Memo to myself:  Stacy's Books on Market has a nice restroom on the second floor, at the top of the stairs

  Meanwhile, back at work...

 Environmentalists like to hippie up their technology.

3:05pm  The protestors have left, so I examine the cool building. 

Art Deco statues celebrating the laborer, in front of the stock exchange building.

And now, legend has it Google tells me the Trading floor has been shut down, and the building is going to be home to a health club. 

 Fin.