I kept saying "You will make and glue tiles!" to Steph during our walking yesterday. This morning, I found a referer in my web server log to this message board posting that sheds light on the nature of the Toynbee Tile that we saw on Sunday.

I suppose I knew it had to be a "copycat" tile, if only because that area of Geary was resurfaced, as best as I can tell, in 2004. The "original" tiles from the 80's have to be scarce, if any even exist anymore. I'm vaguely disappointed, in a way, but also vaguely pleased and happy. I feel like I should learn how to make and glue tiles... *smile*

We found a camera case and a 512MB SD memory card near the Golden Gate Bridge. We went thru the photos on the card last night, and I think there's enough information in one of the pictures that we should be able to contact the original owners and get the pictures back to them. I like doing nice things-- I hope it works out.

We saw what appeared to be a Toynbee Tile today. We were walking west across Geary from Union Square (looking for something to eat and to catch the MUNI 38 line to pick up the 28 north of Golden Gate Park) when we saw this. I can't remember where we saw it, and, stupidly, I didn't shoot a picture of the street sign or anything. I know that I was crossing from the north side of Geary to the south side when I saw this (meaning that it's oriented in the street with "up" being to the south) and that we were on the eastern side of the intersection when we crossed. It's in the first 7 blocks of Geary west of Union Square, because it's in my photo stream prior to photos outside of Mel's Drive-in at the corner of Geary and Van Ness.

Here's what we saw:

None of the Toynbee Tile lists that I looked at reference any San Francisco tiles. I'm too tired tonight to bother emailing anybody about this. For now, I'll just let the lazyweb mull over this one. Perhaps tomorrow I'll walk down Geary and see where it is (or, at the very least, look "drive" down Geary with Gooooogle Street View and see if I can see it).

We made it to SF on Wednesday (20071017) in one piece. Flying Skybus was nothing if not interesting. The flight attendants remind me more of servers at popular mall outlot restaurants than flight attendants. The first-come first-served seating arrangement is a little strange, too, but Stephanie and I did get to sit together.

I was introduced to Todd Lappin of Telstar Logistics by way of his article in MAKE Magazine on urban camouflage, and I've been watching his Flickr stream and reading his blog ever since. Occasionally I've spoken to Stephanie about things I've seen in the photos or on the blog, and forwarded some links from time-to-time, so the name Telstar Logistics is familiar to her.

This morning, we were sitting in Eppler's Bakery on Mission Street, splitting a massive cinnamon roll and drinking coffee when Steph says "Hey, that stroller that just went by has a Telstar Logistics sticker on it." I nearly choked on my coffee, and after the initial shock wore off, I sat in awed silence for a moment.

Mr. Lappin, your branding efforts rock. It took less than the first 24 hours of this trip to SF for your logo to been seen and identified. That, sir, rocks.

We had a great day, and walked about 12 miles. I took some nice pictures with the new camera that Steph generously bought me (it's so nice to be shooting with an SLR again after all these years on point-and-shoots), and we got to start using our 7-day MUNI 'Passports'. We're gonna use the hell out of 'em tomorrow.

Steph is snoring, so it's off to bed for me, too. Can you guys in the Bush St. and Grant Ave. area keep it down a bit? We're trying to sleep here...

I'm flying out of CMH on 20071017, and I'm flying Skybus Airlines for the first time. My air travel expectations, pre- and post-20010911 have always been something like: I'll be lucky if I actually get to fly and luckier still if my checked bags show up. I've always assumed that I'm going to get bumped from my flight, somehow. My bags will be lost (while containing, no doubt, irreplaceable items of great sentimental value), and I'll be stuck sleeping in some stupid airport.

Arriving late at ATL inbound from ORL (where the flight was delayed for no particular reason that was explained to us lowly passengers-- erm-- paying Customers) and missing my connection to DAY did nothing to improve my opinion of air travel. Having my 11 y/o sister in tow made it even less fun. Finding out at 1 o'clock in the morning, after waiting in 2 long lines for over 3 hours, that we weren't going to get to fly until 6 o'clock was even less fun. Having to be back from our "discounted" hotel room by 4 o'clock to clear security in time to catch the next available flight back to DAY was just icing on the cake.

If I'd been alone, I'd have probably slept in the terminal, but that wasn't an option with my kid sister there. That wouldn't have made it any better-- just cheaper. As it stands, I put the airline industry, in terms of the corporate adherence to the ethic of 'shit on your Customer' just above, say, wireless telephone network operators.

To my mind, if I want to be sure that I'm somewhere at a specific point in time, I'd drive, and leave plenty of time for traffic. Air travel, I assume, is unreliable and likely to leave me stranded somewhere. With the crazy security theatre antics that abound today, I'm even more jumpy than usual. Added to the very real and significant fear that I have of being mistreated by my airline itself is the possibility that I could get arrested, fined, cavity-searched, shipped to an off-shore prison, or made into an un-person by the TSA. Great fun.

So, with all that in mind, I'm reading the Skybus Help Center page for baggage, and I come across this tiny gem of humor.

Ain't that a kick in the pants? I wonder if anybody else has ever noticed this. Using our friend Gooooogle, I can find no other pages containing the phrase motorized garden gnomes.

I'm really not sure what to make of "Christmas crackers", either.

Skybus seems to have a certain air of smartassedness about them. We'll see how they actually do in getting me to where I need to go.