Sunday: Flight back home.

It turns out that flying early on September 11th is pretty good for avoiding lots of people at the airport.  I suspect this is due to people being irrational, and being afraid of things that happened fifteen years ago.  I would suggest that today was one of the safest days to fly, as only horribly stupid terrorists would do a second attack on the same date.  Doing so would only dilute the impact of the first attack, and would cause increased security in the future.  Plus, it's predictable, which is kind of something to avoid.

Then again, even the first attack wasn't really an existential threat, and is more akin of a criminal event that didn't really deserve the large military response used.  

Today also had the difficulty that BART doesn't run until 8am on Sundays, so I needed to get a ride to the airport instead of just to West Oakland.  This was further complicated by Colby feeling sick due to a medical issue, and Julie not feeling comfortable driving on the freeway after nearly two years of not doing so.  This led to the final decision that the only way to sort this out with the minimal amount of hassle was to call Uber.

Uber is identical to pretty much all taxi services I've used in the past forever, with the additions of a tracking function in the app and a disregard for basic employee protections.  I was led to believe that it provided better customer service.  The fact that I know my driver was named David, moved here from Italy, and was starting in San Francisco after working in Sacramento indicates that that's not true, as I don't really want to talk to my drivers.  Given the expense load placed on drivers (admittedly a two year old article, but I can't imagine things have improved, especially given the cut in fares), and the fact that even with these subsidies from their employees, the company isn't profitable (given that excluding taxes and interest is just a way of pretending those aren't real expenses), I don't see how this is sustainable.

Is it useful when a bunch of things go wrong making it otherwise difficult to get to the airport?  Yes.  Is it something I would ever want to use on a regular basis?  No.

In any case, I made it to the airport, and was able to go through the metal detector scan instead of the useless back scatter machines, allowing me to skip through with minimal hassle.  Because I plan out lots of pre-flight airport time, even the complication in getting there didn't have much impact.

I got a pastrami sandwich while waiting for my flight.  I put sad stickers because it's always unpleasant to leave after vacation.

And I had a reasonable seat on the plane.  Because of the low number of passengers, I was able to have an empty seat next to me.

I did sleep a bit on the flight, but I'm still tired.  The other odd thing was that when I got to the taxi line to get a ride home, I watched as a limo pulled up to the curb.  This makes it the third time I've gotten a ride home in a limo in the past year.

I didn't know which stickers to use for a limo, so I went with "generic party" and "what someone dealing with that generic party would look like."

 And then home, and then lunch:

I kind of felt like pizza, and this is something I could have leftovers to bring back for dinner.  I almost drove out to Koko Marina to see Kubo, but I didn't think I was up to watching a movie after being on a plane for so long.

 I also suspect I got a bit too much sun yesterday, as my face kind of has the tight dry pulling feeling of a sunburn.  I don't think it's super bad, but yet another reason to avoid the day star.

• Pokemon.
• I'm tempted to get one of these now.  I saw that there were some complaints, but simply being able to do simple actions without needing to get my phone out would be useful.
• A disguise.
• Krabby.
• Poke-food.
• Superheroines.
• She-Hulk.
• Wonder Woman.
• Patsy Walker, Hellcat.
• Batgirl.
• Other stuff.
• Hillary typefaces 1.
• Hillary typefaces 2.
• Helpful dog.
• Pizza.

Saturday: last day here.

Last Korean BBQ.

Last Five Guys.

Friday: plans change.

The original plan for the day was to do lunch in downtown with Julie, and them spend the afternoon at a museum.  However, she wasn't feeling well, so the day changed into a laptop-at-home day.  This wasn't bad, as I was able to get some stuff done that will help next week. Still isn't finished, largely due to the fact that I can't get the stupid c library to give me useful debug information.

Lunch was a sushi burrito place.  These never seem to work as good as they think.

I didn't take a picture of the pizza at dinner, but I did get one of the moon.

And what's this?

I caught an Electric Soldier Porygon!

Supplemental notes, since I didn't bring my work notebook.

Testing of the site dependence code appears to be working, as of r39683.  It seems to find the correct local copy on find, and replicate and touch follow instructions as well.  I haven't tested the C interface, as I didn't want to write a program to call three functions today.  This should be done, and checked into the source tree, as the fact that we don't have a test program is kind of ridiculous.

Also, I'm still out of Pokeballs.  I had like 100 each of regular and great balls a few days ago.

Wait, did I do dinner?

Nope. I nearly forgot about it.  A bit more than a year ago, we tried Chicha Bistro.  It was not a good dinner experience, largely because the service was inattentive at best.  Julie claimed that they've since been bought, and as such were under new management.  To hedge a bit, we did take out.  Unfortunately, being told the appetizer listed online was seasonal, and that there are no beef dishes available because it wasn't delivered isn't super reassuring.

So I went with the seafood version.

 It was better than last time, but not having to deal with the server explains a lot of that.  It wasn't terrible food, but not getting what you wanted press a damper on things.

What else puts a damper on things?

Fire trucks.

 Somebody lit their dinner on fire.

The moon was out.

 I was able to get a few pokeballs from the nearby Pokestops, which I immediately used.

All clear. It wasn't that big of a deal.

Thursday: This probably isn't all of today's stuff, but I need to start getting through links, otherwise I'm going to have a link backlog until October.

Speaking of October, I should look to see if there's a Drawlloween this year.  It doesn't really feel like it's been a full year since then.  As of right now, this is the only calendar I can find, and it's overly detailed with all sorts of scenario crap I don't care about.  I just want "draw a spooky owl," or even better, "owl," as the prompt.

I'm also just realizing that my tag only has 28 entries, despite there being 31 days in last year's October.  I guess I'm going to have to search and retag stuff at some point.

Next up: In-and-Out burger.  To hear people talk about this place, it would seem to be the greatest food innovation in the history of the world.  When I lived in Santa Barbara for three months in the beginning of (I think, this is pre-blog, so I have to rely on "actual memories") 2008, I stayed in a room of a condo.  The lady who owned it went off on a 5-10 minute rant one day about how I-a-O was the greatest thing ever, and how I needed to try the burger "animal style."  Looking that up now, I'm glad I ignored her.  Gee, more gross thousand island dressing!  Great!

Anyway, I-a-O:

It's a burger.

I went with "double double, plain but for mustard, ketchup, and onion."  I believe the mustard died on the way back to its home planet.  Still, not a bad burger.  It had a good amount of grease, which is really the best way to make a burger not suck.  A lot of the fancy burgers I get at places like The Counter and Honolulu Burger tend to go with a too-lean mix, which after cooking has lost a lot of moisture and flavor.

I like the onion here in the middle.  It's a thin slice, but it puts the onion flavor out, without overpowering the rest of the burger.  This is a good idea.

The other good thing is that the fries don't become gloppy inedible garbage when they get cold.  Julie will want me to add that the fries aren't that great to start with, which is a fair evaluation.  They start off about a 70%, and after cooling drop to a 55-60%.  That's still something you can finish with some ketchup without feeling like you're eating crisco slathered cardboard.

So In-and-Out:  People should stop forming cults.

Links:

• Pokemon.
• Kitty.
• Charmander is ready for Halloween.
• Spider-Man.
• This is a good use of Pokestops.  By drawing people into places that would otherwise be neglected, they can do good things.
• Not Pokemon, but not super serious.
• Pandas.
• This is where dinosaurs went.
• This is a good book.  I liked reading it.
• This is the best Connie cosplay I've seen.
• I would like more rewritten mythology like this.  Cassandra gets one of the worst deals ever.
• Fuck you, Apple.
• Fuck you, Uber.
• Variety of seriousness in these links.
• So BART is going to fix the old trains so they screech less by grinding the wheels to match the way the new wheels are made?  Why did it take then 40+ years to realize this was a problem?
• This is fucking ridiculous.  "Sure, the puppy shit all over the plate, but should we really be expecting it to make a cake in this cake competition?"
• Good.
• This is horrible.  There should be no situation in which US companies/flagged ships ignore US labor laws.  The fact that this is happening in Honolulu is even worse.

Wednesday B: from the phone.

Today was new couch day.

Which means getting rid of the old one, then adding Twitter stickers.

 The couch was supposed to arrive between 1 and 5. It arrived at 5:45.

Finally.

 It's a good couch, but I'll have to do pictures in the daylight.

Dinner the standard Mint Leaf garlic noodles.

Wednesday A: from the tablet.

I did not know they made Lego pretzels.

It's sad when you have to try and cheat to not win the kid game.

Some links.

Because I culled the list, and still have more than a hundred saved RSS items over my regular static level of ~85.

• Pokemon.
• Poor Magikarp.
• Snorlax is even better in the newest generation.
• Pokemon Avengers.
• Aminals.
• Cats are jerks.
• Borbs.
• Japanese dog.
• Squirrels.
• Other Stuff.
• Arbitration is a scam.
• Ice King.
• Sir Patrick Stewart.
• Princess Kaguya.

Tuesday: I caught a Magmar.

I caught a Magmar.

Monday: Labor Day

Labor day means eating cool food and shopping for furniture.

Kalbi "sandwich" with the most delicious umami fries.

From Koja Kitchen. Which is what the sandwiches are called. This is delicious stuff.

 Then there were Pokemon gym battles. Neither Julie nor I really understand how to battle, but as a team, we can take down unattended gyms.

It's me!

And Julie!

Another gym.

My Slowbro.

Julie's Pinsir.

 Someone left an unattended gym empty. 

Hah! Sniped it!

 Then ice cream.

Sandwich.

From Cookiebar.

 No pictures from dinner. But another gym.

Venomoth!

Pidgeot!

There is a Pokestop here.

Sunday: maybe double BBQ was a bit excessive.

Today was Korean BBQ day.

Korean BBQ.

Korean BBQ.

 Then shopping.

Target has pokeballs.

Also Cards Against Humanity.

Someone was buying (or at least carrying) one of those giant bears at Costco.

 Then was Pokemon Go time, which involved a lot of walking. My trainer had nearly gained a level today.

This was followed by more BBQ.

Famous Dave probably isn't famous for BBQ.  The sausage wasn't bad, but the ribs were dry and hard. This isn't that hard of a recipe.

There is a cat in this picture, but I couldn't get it to show up.

Screenshots, so I can clear them out.

BART is decent to play Pokemon Go from the airport to Balboa park. I found this along the way.

Google doesn't understand that I can't take the same flight two days in a row.

I took this to show another trash party, but then Koffing showed up.

Saturday: Monterey aquarium.

There was Dublin Dr Pepper.

It was a bit cloudy on the drive.

Jellyfish.

Jellyfish and silhouettes.

A turtle.

Sharks and ducks are friends.

Steampunk octopus.

Tuna.

Monterey does the tourist trap thing a lot.

 Then there was hiking.

In the forest.

The oppressive, maddening forest.