Blog Master G

I’ve been to Hooters twice in my life. The first time was with my brother Peter several years ago in Tucson, AZ — a desolate desert town where you’d expect to find a tacky joint where hot, scantily-clad chicks serve you buffalo wings. The second time was December 30, 2002 with Jen, James, and Tracy at Crossgates Mall in Albany, NY, another place where Hooters seems a natural fit (the same mall that will arrest you for promoting peace rather than war).

When I read yesterday that Hooters is coming to San Francisco, I had mixed emotions about it. On one hand, I thought, “Woohoo! Easy access.” I’m a straight, 26-year-old man (the Hooters target market is men ages 25 through 54), so of course my initial reaction was to celebrate a Hooters in my city (the first in Northern California). On the other hand, Hooters, as it proclaims in its motto (“Delightfully Tacky Yet Unrefined”), represents all that is tacky and tasteless about America.

San Francisco is a city with character — even its red light district sits tastefully alongside fine Italian dining in North Beach. It is a bohemian city through and through that defies the norm in many ways. San Francisco is not like most of America; people live here and visit here to experience something different — a restaurant (House of Nan King, Farallon, Tommy’s Joynt, AsiaSF, Boulevard), a landmark (Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, Alcatraz, Lombard Street, Haight-Ashbury), an event (Gay Pride Parade, Folsom Street Fair, Bay to Breakers, Halloween in the Castro) — something that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the country and is uniquely San Francisco.

Hooters will not bring anything unique to San Francisco, and its concept will certainly not be a shock to anyone who lives here. As Rob Morse reveals in his column today, the saddest part about this news is not that Hooters is coming to town; it’s that the Alioto-Lazio Fish Company is at risk of leaving town. Alioto-Lazio is a true staple of the Wharf that embodies San Francisco character, and “has been run by three generations of women.”

Like other San Franciscans, I don’t often visit the Wharf, so if there’s going to be a new Hooters in our unique city, at least it will be at home among the tourists from Tucson and Albany. And I think I’ll wait for my next trip to a city more suited for Hooters before I go there again.

Attentive readers will notice something different about my blog today: Structural URL archives. Was dat, you say? Previously, my archives defaulted to the format “/life/archives/000066.php” (I’m not going to remove these files from my server since there are many search engine and self-pointing links to these individual archives, so this style link format will continue to work — and hey, I did tout them as “permalinks,” after all). But as of today, all archives (past, present, and future) will take the form “/life/2003/05/20/beer_books.php.” What difference does it make, you ask? Good question.

Firstly, I’ve been wanting to do that for quite some time since it’s more intuitive and just makes sense; it’s a better, less cluttered system of organization, I think, and is future-thinking (I just didn’t future-think back when I first set up my blog, or I would’ve done it then). Secondly, it should give my blog content higher precedence in search results if the URL associated with each entry actually reflects the content of that entry. Thirdly, programmers like Dave Winer will begin to release powerful, Google-based Weblog search tools that leverage the intelligent, date-sensitive archive structure of blogs that are organized correctly. (Yes, I might go so far as to argue that my previous method of archiving was incorrect and that I have now converted to the correct method of archiving — at least in the world of blogs where our tools enable this automated process…of course, were I to extend that thinking to the rest of my site’s content (/index.php?id=58), I’d be srewed; but hey, at least I use “marketing redirects” (/about) for all the content areas of my site.) Lastly, it just looks better and conveys meaning; you will know what this story is about before even clicking on the link:

nslog.com/archives/2003/03/13/starting_a_blog_with_movabletype.php

Make sense? I feel more organized already.

Now this is hardcore Web hosting: Aktiom Colocation gives you root access to a Linux box with 2 GB RAID-10 Disk Space and 30 GB Tier-1 ISP Traffic for 60 bucks per month. I like. Now that’s serious.

(Making note of it here for future reference.)

I really like this Wired piece on Blog Space. It describes the influence of blogs in shaping the Web — its transformation from a collection of hyperlinked documents to an ever-growing representation of the minds of the people who create Web content.

“Your mind becomes a part of the space as well. Your own personal site becomes an extension of your memory, as in Vannevar Bush’s vision of the Memex, but your memories also become part of the Web’s collective intelligence.”

Very true.

[via Six Log]

If you’re in a committed relationship, I’m sure you can attest oh how true this is (be sure to read in the order below):

• Boys’ Night Out Application
• Girls’ Night Out Application

(Thanks to my Better Half for sending these along.)

Beer and books: The staples of San Francisco. In case you haven’t already heard, we here in the fine city by the Bay drink and read more than any other city in the country. Well done, my fellow San Franciscans. I’m proud to call this city home.

Rob Morse puts it best:

“Our image of ourselves as literate wastrels is confirmed. Eat your heart out, New York and L.A. You trail far behind in the traditional authorial arts of fortifying the mind and weakening the liver.”

Here are the Top 10:

BOOKS AND BOOZE
San Franciscans spent the most on alcohol and reading materials in the
Labor Department’s ranking of selected cities for 2000-2001.
ALCOHOL READING
San Francisco $744 $266
Denver $625 $137
Honolulu $554 $163
Portland $514 $226
Seattle $468 $170
New York $450 $195
Wash. D.C. $434 $205
Chicago $431 $158
Los Angeles $412 $148
Philadelphia $373 $144
Source: Department of Labor
Chronicle Graphic

Is it any wonder that all the great writers fancied themselves masters of the spirits? It also begins to make sense why so many of my Irish forefathers immigrated to San Francisco and settled in the damp, foggy neighborhood (reminiscent of the motherland) that I now call home.

Here’s to you, San Francisco. Cheers!

As I wrote last week, The Go Game was tons of fun. The official game photos and stats are now available. Below is all the info on our team:

Game: Alumni Saturday
Date: Saturday, May 10, 2003
Team Name: Team VD
Score: 592 (80.5%)
Judgable: 203
Non-Judgable: 389
Place: 5/10
Rank: 57/142 (I’m guessing this is overall for all games played to date)
Video 1: How to Save a Mental Health Institute
Video 2: Reservoir Beavers

Wow. Mozilla Firebird is blazingly fast. I normally use IE6 for all my browsing, but with this latest release of Mozilla (I’m typing this in Firebird release 0.6), I can easily see myself becoming a regular Mozilla user. Back in the day (1995 through 1999 or so), I was a hardcore Netscape fan, but have been using IE for at least the past 3 or 4 years. For me, speed is a very important requirement. How fast does the application load? How fast does it download Web pages? How good is the caching and page loading speed when navigating back through Web pages? The Firebird browser, as does its automobile namesake, hauls ass.

Along with speed, I also love that a Google search box is built in. And you don’t even have to click to get to it; simply press control-K (on Windows) and you’re there. The “tab browsing” feature is pretty awesome — it allows you to open a link in a separate tab within the same browser instance, loading the content in the background; the page or site is there waiting when you’re ready for it. Very intuitive experience, without cluttering up your screen with loads of browser windows. Here’s a great overview of why you should use Firebird.

So far, the only reasons I can see for not using Firebird are the following:

1. My handy little Movable Type HTML shortcuts in my editing window don’t work with it. (But I always hand code anyway, so that’s not too big a deal.)
2. The “MT It” feature that’s available via IE by right-clicking in any browser window isn’t available for Mozilla.
3. Opening a new browser from within the active window does not replicate the current window’s content, but takes you to your home page. (This is a feature I really like in IE.)
4. My keyboard forward and back keys don’t work in Firebird.
5. Yahoo Companion is an IE-only tool (that I use primarily for its Bookmarks feature, which allows me access to my bookmarks from any machine).
6. I really like the Google Toolbar‘s PageRank display feature, which is not part of Firebird’s built-in & streamlined Google search box.

These minor annoyances aside, there is a one simple reason that makes using Firebird worthwhile: Popup blocking.

So far, it works great. Kick ass. And hats off to the Mozilla team for developing this sleek application that loads in a heartbeat.

[MovableType | Slashdot | MacWorld]

I feel under the weather today. This is ironic considering it’s the hottest day we’ve had in quite some time — especially here at my office in Marin (77 degrees F), where it’s typically at least 10 degrees hotter than SF. I don’t know if it’s allergies or all the partying from the weekend catching up with me. Either way, I hope it passes soon. I feel both hot and cold. After returning from some lunch errands (picking up $110 of dog goodies at the pet store and some grub from Safeway), I felt hot and sniffly. My legs were sweaty and my eyes were runny. I got plenty of sleep last night, but maybe my body still needs more.

We have plans to hit trivia at Mad Dog in the Fog tonight, so I hope to feel better later on.

So much to write about from this weekend, so little time. A quick recap…I hope to write and post more later.

Friday: Dinner at Park Chow, drinks at Ebisu, Toxic Avenger from Le Video. Saturday: Matrix Reloaded in Emeryville, Ocean Beach picnic area, dinner and drinks at Nirvana. Sunday: champagne brunch at Ben & Jess’, Bay to Breakers, new plant, photo shoot in Golden Gate Park Arboretum, Naan ‘n Curry, South Park, Six Feet Under, sleep for 9 hours.

Ben, James, Enoch, Gabe enjoy some early morning beers on Hayes Street at Bay to Breakers 2003

Jess, Ben, Jen, James, Shannon, Enoch strike a pose on Fell St. in the Panhandle

A viking ship sails past Alamo Square; view from Ben & Jess’ pad

Update: Complete Bay to Breakers recap and photos.