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July 31, 2004
Pictures!
What? Don't I have enough pictures on this site? If this page doesn't already take a half hour to load over your modem try looking at these pictures.
Posted by Simon at 10:26 AM | Comments (1)
July 29, 2004
Greetings from SantaCruzin'
The new site banner is not entirely original. It's inspired by this now collector art-deco card. This original San Francisco version recently starred in Steve's keynote address at WWDC. If you send me your snail mail address, I'll send you this as a real postcard in the mail :) You do remember the lost tradition of postcard writing don't you?
Posted by Simon at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2004
How much fun?
Yeah. I had fun over the last two weeks... Today was a rainy windy day in Sydney. What better time to explore iMovie. Here are some videos that I put together; inspired by Apple's promotional videos from WWDC... You'll have to watch the first one carefully.
WWDC video [4.4MB] (pictures only from San Francisco)
WWDC slideshow [6.1MB] (San Francisco and Santa Cruz)
Posted by Simon at 05:58 PM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2004
I left my heart in...
My two week WWDC jaunt and exchange prelude comes to end today, as I have my flight home to Sydney, so after Greyhounding it back up to San Francisco I spent my day taking it easy and enjoying some really sunny weather (for a change)... above is where Haight and Ashbury cross; hippie haven. I even managed to re-visit Alamo square and try my luck at capturing the whole vista without the fog!
Last night before I left Santa Cruz I went to see Fahrenheit 9-11. I really wanted to experience this documentary with a American audience. Bare in mind though this is Santa Cruz, you won't find too many Bush faithful here. I so I joined the long line in front of the restored, art-deco Del Mar cinema. On the right is the palace of fine arts near the San Francisco Park Presidio, which I visited earlier and a jazz group performing at Mocca, near Union Square in downtown San Francisco.
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Posted by Simon at 10:08 AM | Comments (1)
July 10, 2004
Keep Santa Cruz Weird
Yesterday jsam and his partner, met up with me in Cruzin'. They showed me round their favorite eat spots; Shogun and Saturn Cafe. Julia gave me the low-down on the area, being both Slugger alumni and growing up in Cuzin' herself. Afterwards, we hopped into Jsam's ultra-cool metalic blue (second gen) VW bug (which starred a cameo role at WWDC 04' and in a previous years' QuickTime Stoopid movie) and headed up to the UCSC arboretum which has he largest collection of Australian flora outside Australia!
Just walk into the Santa Cruz bookstore on Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz and you can pick up for yourself a bumper sticker or t-shirt brandishing the slogan "Keep Santa Cruz Weird". It seems to have had the right effect. As an outsider who just arrived the uniqueness of this place is pretty clear. It's an escape from Silicon Valley and San Francisco for many, the beach broadwalk, above is particularly popular when they have their nostalgic 65 cent ride nights. Don't get me wrong though, the Santa Cruz locals are friendly, and are happy to help a disoriented Aussie find his way...
Up at the UCSC campus though, there are a few different breeds of locals...
This is where I think I'll be spending most of my time, the yet unopened Baskin School of Engineering. Probably the largest building on campus, and the largest engineering school I have seen. Quite an impressive building.
Posted by Simon at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)
July 09, 2004
Peace, free love n'Internet
At last, here I am. Santa Cruz... In fact I'm here, at Lulu's cafe which offers free love erm... wifi Internet. After all this is northern California!
I'd show you some pictures from the day I arrived, when I headed down to the Santa Cruz beach and boardwalk which was so fantastic it was surreal... but I didn't have much time before I had to run and check into the hostel. The hostel is best described as palatial, not at all like what I thought. The bedrooms are, as expected basic.
Yesterday was overcast and foggy, so foggy that when I visited UCSC I could literally not see further than 20 meters. Here are some pictures of the beautiful and gigantic campus which is inside a redwood forrest... can someone help me find the library?
In Sydney, we clear and then landscape to make our buildings fit in with their surroundings... at UCSC it's real. Somehow these buildings just fit right amongst the redwoods. This is the entrance to Stevenson college which will be my home for a while.
Posted by Simon at 03:39 AM | Comments (0)
July 06, 2004
A night to remember...
Yesterday, the fourth of July... what an experience. To cut a long story short... met two really friendly girls (one works as a advertising manager for GAP clothing and the other works as a research assistant at UCLA) and they invited me to a 4th party! So I got to spend the night watching the fireworks across the whole of San Francisco from the rooftop of a downtown loft-style apartment building that was a friend's place. In the one party I met "folks" from all over the US! The apartment on it own is worth mentioning. Spacious and the typical bachelor pad; hardwood floors, bare brick walls, high ceilings, pool table, abstract art and a G5 Mac! over three floors! Sorry no pictures, I didn't want to take my dorky digi-cam, you'll just have to take my word for it. I hope they email me :-) I also discovered that it is indeed possible to fit 8 people in a San Francisco taxi!
I also got to walk across the Golden Gate... finally.
I didn't get a wink of sleep though, I discovered why hosteling can really sux. I had to share a room with some guy who snores real loud! As a result my eyes are now bloodshot and a I've got a whopping headache. This morning, after giving up on sleeping I went really early to Alamo square (the row of terraces above). Now I'm on Haight Street, and I'm off to explore hippy San Fran!
Posted by Simon at 06:52 AM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2004
Happy fourth of July!
Okay who hid the bridge?
It seems everybody celebrates the fourth of July in a different way... I'm celebrating it by enjoying the nice music and beer at the Fillmore Jazz festival. Again, like everything here, it's big. Spanning 12 blocks, it is a Paddington market atmosphere with any type of Jazz you care for, all day for both the 3 and 4 of July.
Posted by Simon at 04:07 AM | Comments (0)
July 03, 2004
No Gates...
There are no Gates at 1 Infinite loop, but are there any Jobs?
Last night was the annual Apple campus beer bash! Just because these guys work as geeks for a Silicon Valley company doesn't mean they don't know how to have fun! This was the best night out I had yet, the kernel developers even double as street magicians giving some pretty convincing performances.
The Apple campus is huge, literally the size of a typically university campus in Sydney, there isn't a comparison to anything like it back home. They even have their own paranoid security force that stop you from taking pictures of the two Academy Awards (awarded to the QuickTime team) that are on display in the 1 Infinite loop lobby, along with everything else. These are the few photos I managed to sneak out...
Posted by Simon at 07:11 AM | Comments (0)
Lombard Street
What Abbey Road is to London, Lombard Street is to flower-power San Francisco, and cruzin' around yesterday I discovered this cable car drop
Lombard Street, so steep you need to wind down it...
Posted by Simon at 03:19 AM | Comments (0)
July 01, 2004
Apple Pride Parade
"No. I'm not visiting San Francisco for the Pride Parade..." It seems that it's assumed that if you are in San Francisco this week you are here for the gay pride parade. So many locals have ask me this over the last few days. While it could be thought that WWDC is an expression of "I'm a mac geek and proud of it" I'm gonna assume we're not talking about the same thing. Which got me thinking... any coincidence?
In any case, this parade is somewhat larger I think...
Posted by Simon at 03:04 AM | Comments (0)