Return

Well, it’s been a week of fun and mayhem with Trev and Mikey. Now it’s Monday and time to return to reality. lol It was great seeing both of them. We had a blast! The picture links to an album that includes a few shots I took over the course of our week together.

Pride was fun. The boys arrived the day before. I didn’t snap that many pics as I had forgotten to charge my phone battery the night before and was running low on juice. The boys opted for stadium seating but even then we could only sit still for a couple hours before moving on to the fair. Pride night we went to a Tea dance party at Ruby Skye. I’d never been inside and the place was gorgeous. The music was pretty good as well. [1]Dance music with actual words!  They opted for another later party but Mr Moby was tuckered out and headed home. I’m such a lightweight.

Having not ever been here together before, the boys wanted to do the typical tourist stuff (The things I do for friends. lol j/k). As much as I usually hate doing touristy stuff, I had fun. It was very bearable mostly because we did everything during the week when most folks are working. 

Alcatraz was our first stop during the week of post Pride festivities. I hadn’t been since right after I moved to SF and it was totally different. I guess over the years they’ve changed how the tours go. I thought I was gonna be bored but to my surprise, I wasn’t at all. The gardens were in full bloom and the weather was warm w/o being hot.

Next on our journey was Muir Woods (the big redwood trees). I never get tired of seeing the redwoods. Such massive trees and so few left. We snapped a few pics to show the sheer size of the enormous plants. We took a tour bus group up. The driver driveled on constantly with tedious details but we tuned him out. lol Naturally, we sat in the back of the bus! The weather was warm and sunny so it was a very nice trip. On the way back we stopped off in Sausalito. We took the opportunity to grab a quick bite to eat while the rest of the tour group was sight-seeing. We had fish & chips at a place on the strip. 

The next day was a slow unscripted trip to the Wharf on Pier 39. This place is tourist central and I usually avoid it like the plague. Again, being the middle of the week helped. We did the whole experience and took the cable car from the hood all the way down. I figured it we were gonna be tourists might as well go whole-hog. We saw the seals, checked the shops, had some delicious clam chowder, and just walked the area. We had considered taking the trolley car home but the line was easily an hour wait. No thanks.

Our last big day of planned festivities was a trip up to Napa to visit wine country and partake in some wine-tasting. Again the weather was great albeit a tiny bit on the hot side. Napa is gorgeous this time of year. Our tour included 4 vineyards with a tour and wine-tasting session at each. In a nutshell, the Robert Mondovi Vineyard was the best. The Andretti Vineyard [2]yes, the same as the race car driver was the worst. The staff  were rude, snobbish, and the wines were awful. I do not recommend it at all. The Ménage a Trios Vineyard gets a special mention for having the best wines.  Needless to say, we got a little tipsy. The pic above was taken at the Franciscan, our last stop on the tour before heading home.

We also went out a few nights during the week for cocktails. lol We got totally sloshed at 440 one night. The bartender knew me and kept giving us drinks and shots. Needless to say, we had fun. Of course, we had have some late night pizza slices to soak up all the booze. Lord, I’ll need to invest in some cardio for a couple weeks.

So it was a good vacation. It was good to see the boys and having them here really cheered me up. I didn’t realize how much I missed them. We all promised to not let it go so long next time before we see each other. On a side note, Cooper loved all the extra attention. Sadly, he started peeing on the carpet again. We had a couple come-to-jesus conversations and he is back on the path. Today, it’s back to gym and work. After all, one can only avoid reality for so long. lol

References

References
↑1 Dance music with actual words!
↑2 yes, the same as the race car driver

Vs

I’ve mentioned a few times I am a multi-OS household. My laptop is PC, my smartphone is Android, and my tablet is Apple.

My rant today is about the respective app stores. They are certainly NOT created equal and I am not overly happy with the iOS market. If like me, you use both OS’s you’ll understand what I mean about the ecosystems being very different. On the Apple side, you see less free apps and more paid apps. On the Android side, you have a variety of both but often have a choice of a free (ad-supported) version vs a paid (ad-free) version. Both have their pros and cons.

For me, I prefer the Android ecosystem hands down. Primarily because there are many more demo versions of software I like/use. If I like it, I can pay for the full version. Or at the very least, if I purchase a paid only app, at least I can get a no hassle refund.

On the Apple side, there are far fewer demo or free apps. That wouldn’t bother me so much if they offered a convenient refund option like Android. While Apple does have a refund option, it is overly cumbersome and not always guaranteed. I’ve been thru 5 refund requests now and only 2 were refunded. On Android, I have 15 mins to test a paid app, if I don’t like it or it doesn’t function properly I can uninstall for a full refund. It’s all automatic, no grief, no hassle.

I can also dispel the myth that paid apps on Apple are better quality than many of the same “free” apps on Android. While it may sometimes be true, it is certainly not a guarantee. Four of the five apps mentioned above were because of functionality problems. While Apple has the advantage on the consistency of hardware specifications being the same, all apps are not created equal. I’ve found plenty that don’t work as advertised or are just poorly designed. Add that into the refund policy above, and you begin to see some mounting frustration. At least on the Android side, I have an easier time trying apps until I find one that works and/or that I like.

It is no secret I am a bigger fan of Android as an OS but Apple is still the leader in hardware and design when it comes to tablets. The iPad is beautifully designed, fully functional, versatile, and has an exceptional battery life. I love mine and am very happy with it overall. [1]Considering it was free, I ain’t bitching that hard! lol That said, Android hardware developers are fast catching up and I’d bet money within a year, you’ll see Android based tablets that are on par with the iPad. Either way, I wish Apple would climb down off their high-horse just a bit and take some cues from Android on how to make their user experience more enjoyable.

References

References
↑1 Considering it was free, I ain’t bitching that hard! lol

Bounce

Ok, gents. I’m getting several registered accounts on my blog with email bounces. I appreciate everyone who has signed up for subscriptions but you need to either use a valid email account or one that isn’t full.

I don’t like deleting accounts but if it continues I will have no choice. I’ll try to contact you, if I can, prior to deletion but I can’t micro-manage le blog so I am asking for your help. Please, puh-lease update your account if your emails invalid or you use an account where it might be full.

Thanks a bunch! 🙂

Hewwo Wowld

My name is Cooper and I am 2 yeaws owd today. Daddy said I couwd log on to his bwog and tawk to you cause I am an aduwt now. [1]in dog years

My daddies wescued me back in Novembew of 2011 and bwought me home to wive with them. I have been so happy since then. I was mawnouwished from not being fed vewy weww by my pwevious ownew. Now I get pwenty of food evewy day and tweats when I am good. When I am bad, I get put in my cage to think about what I have done. That does not happen vewy often though.

My daddy Moby tewws me evewy day how much he wuvs me. He takes me fow wawks, wets me pway in da doggie pawks, and takes me evewywhewe in da neighbowhood. He scwatches my bewwy and gives me wubs when I am begging.

My daddy gets sad sometimes though. He tewws me he misses someone named Spike. Spike must have been a weawwy good doggie for my daddy to miss him so much. He died and went to doggie heaven. I wish I had got to meet him but daddy shows me his pictuwes all da time.

Anyway, daddy says I have a big weekend coming up. He says something about “two big homo’s coming to stay for awhile“. I don’t know what dat means but I hope I get wots of tweats!

Dogs rule!

References

References
↑1 in dog years

Reunion

Two of my long-time friends are arriving in SF on Saturday for GHHD #1 [1]Gay High Holy Day aka Pride and for a week long visit. Having never been in SF all together, I am ecstatic! I just hope the poor city, and Apple guy, survives! I’m sure Cooper will be happy with all the extra attention regardless.

We’ll do Pride this weekend and one of the many dance parties planned as well. Other than 440, I haven’t really been out and ages. Afterwards, I’m sure we’ll be doing all the touristy things I normally abhor. Having been a bit of a homebody as of late, I doubt I’ll mind though. It will be good to see them and enjoy some time together. We were last together in Houston a couple years ago briefly for one of Trevan’s big birthday celebrations. Trevan recently uprooted from Houston and moved himself to Austin for a job that was too good to pass up. Mikey is still in Dallas and I’m way out here.

I honestly can’t think of a better way to spend Pride weekend than with two of my good friends. It didn’t even have to be a holiday weekend for all I care. But since it is, we’ll tear it up and enjoy ourselves. With finances being tight and the distance, I don’t get to see them near as much as I used to. The only thing that would make it better is if they would bring me some Whataburger!

*

Whatever you are doing this Pride weekend, whether you celebrate or not, I hope you have a fun and safe time. Take joy in the good things in your life and take a moment to celebrate that in whatever way you see fit.

References

References
↑1 Gay High Holy Day aka Pride

Current

I’ve been using Google Currents a lot lately for my news addiction. I quite like it. It works much like a desktop application in that the formatting is much smoother. It is very easy on the eyes as it has a very simple clean interface. It works on Android or Apple [1]being a mutli-OS househould has it’s challenges at times. and on phones or tablets.

The one down side is there is currently not way to sort or file your feeds into folders or groups. Everything gets it’s own little tab on the splash screen. While that is nice for a few sites, when you have well over 100 news/blog feeds like I do, that gets cluttered pretty quickly. It also makes getting from feed to feed cumbersome. You can add sites from their predefined list, any rss feed of choice, or you can sync with your existing Google RSS feed.

If you’re looking for a mobile RSS reader, I highly recommend it albeit the caveat above. Best of all, it’s free with no ads!

References

References
↑1 being a mutli-OS househould has it’s challenges at times.

Ya Know…

…you live in San Francisco when:

the homeless have specific requests on the amount of money or type of food they want.

someone says, ‘let’s go to the beach‘ and you grab a hoodie.

you see a naked guy walking down the st and no one even blinks.

your bingo host is a drag queen named Bob.

your pastor is a drag queen named Bob.

you can give directions to anywhere in the City w/o mentioning a freeway.

every hill is a different neighborhood.

you feel like you need a passport to drive over a bridge.

Medic!

I’ve had to put my EMT skills to use quite a bit lately. Over the last couple months I’ve run into situations where my help was needed. A few times a the gym and a couple times just random occurrences.

It’s a good thing since I currently can’t afford to miss a day of work to ride on the ambulance. I used to try and ride at least once a month. Right now money is tight so I gotsta work. It’s funny how you just slip into that mode, so to speak. One guy sees me all the time at the gym and we’ve exchanged ‘hellos’ a couple times. He had a near-syncope (fainting) and needed to be evaluated.

My little brother thinks I’m Marcus Welby MD now. Every time he has an issue or needs to see a doctor he calls me to confirm everything. I’ve told him several times my training is limited but it still seems to make him feel better. Sadly, he was diagnosed with kidney stones recently. He was in so much pain he was blowing up my phone every day complaining. I’m like, ‘what do you want me to do? You drink soda like crazy, you eat horribly. It is no wonder you got kidney stones.‘ He is supposed to go back this week to get treated. Hopefully, they’ll get everything. I can only imagine the pain. OY!

‘stro

I was walking home from the gym the other day and snapped this shot. I didn’t put any real thought behind it. It was just a quick pic of the gaborhood. It was a typical overcast day in SF.

Apple guy and I had had a conversation about his pending move back to Texas and I was reminded of my first time here. While he is very happy to be moving back, I couldn’t imagine ever moving back to Texas, by choice. He doesn’t hate it here but I think because he never quite gained a strong financial foothold, he has become frustrated. There are also many things about the South that I guess he misses. I don’t necessarily think his views are overly objective but that is irrelevant. Finding a place to truly call home can be a strong drive in one’s life, I can speak from experience. I wish him all the best.

*

It was about 13 years ago that I got my first visit to the motherland, aka the Castro. lol It truly was love at first sight. I can remember arriving here in wide-eyed wonder, not knowing what to expect. There was a moment on my 2nd or 3rd trip here where I was just walking down the street and it hit me, “I want to live here!” Jump forward about 2 years and I made the leap permanently. It was nothing for me back then to just pick up and move somewhere. Hell, I didn’t have much so it was easy. Fast forward again to present day and I’m still in love with beautiful SF. Make no mistake it has it’s issues. It certainly isn’t for everyone and can be very hard if you don’t have a stabile financial situation. I was told many times I’d grow to hate it, become jaded, callous, and uncaring, or end up strung out on drugs. None of which has happened. The only down side is my dreams of home ownership here are on hold because of my current financial crisis. Ironically, said crisis had nothing to do with SF itself.

I bounced around a lot in my life before landing in SF. I think I was looking for a place to fit in. I never felt truly at home anywhere else. Having landed here and formed roots, I’m glad it happened and have not regrets. I know that I’ll eventually get out of my current financial hole. Maybe then I can focus on home-ownership again. If not, it won’t kill me. Either way, I’m home.