i want to share a gift from my parents with you. this is a picture my dad took of me sleeping on the floor. it was taken in october of 1976, so i was a year and a half old. today i turn thirty-five.

in the bay area, there are many public transit agencies and systems, and they all have their own payment systems. translink is supposed to the solution to this. you buy a RFID translink card, put stored value (“e-cash”), put electronic transit passes on it, and then use the one card on all systems.

i purchased a translink card at my neighborhood walgreens, and after registering it online, several days later it was fully functioning. i used it on bart, on muni, and on caltrain with little problem.

then on friday, january 29th, i tried using my card at the 24th Mission BART station and the card reader said ‘see station agent’. i tried multiple readers and got the same error. i eventually went to the station agent, who said my card wasn’t working and to call translink. i was running late, so i purchased a BART ticket and used it to get to my destination. later i called translink, who asked that i try holding the card to the reader for 5-6 seconds. i tried this with no luck.

i talked to translink again and determined the fastest way to get service back was to purchase a new card. i bought a card for $5 and called them back to have my card registered and the e-cash balance transferred. i then logged into my account on the translink website and didn’t see the card and couldn’t register its serial number. so i called back and they reset my account, so i could login and see the new card. i tried purchasing a fast pass on the website but that transaction failed, with a message asking me to call translink for resolution. i called in again and was asked to log out and log back in and re-try the transaction. i did so, and was able to purchase the pass and had translink verify the transaction went through while i had them on the phone. then i was told it would take up to 3 business days for the pass to go through.

i waited a few days and then tried my card again, with no success. at this point i am getting really fed up wth the whole thing. while adding value to my real bart ticket i missed my intended train and ended up being late. later i called translink and was told that there was no balance transfer yet, but that they would do that now and everything should be ok in the morning (after midnight).

today i tried my card today and again it did not work. when i came home later i called translink back. i was asked to call back in front of an add-value machine. at this point, i got on first-name basis with the support rep. i let them know how fed up i was getting, and that i just wanted them to tell me where to go and what to do, to get this resolved.

i walked quickly to 24th/mission, took bart to civic center, and called back in front of one of their machines. the girl i talked to was not available but i did not want to wait. i explained my predicament to this other person, and they only offered to mail me a new card. she said it would be quick since they were local, so i offered to drive to their office. not open to the public, great.

i asked if the new card would have my e-cache balance and my muni fast pass. the answer was yes. we’ll see about that.

so in summary, my original card stopped working with no explanation. i bought a brand new card, which has never worked, and it took translink several days beyond the normal processing time to get everything transferred and it still doesn’t work. and now i am waiting for a third card, to be sent to me in the mail.

here are some pointers i’ve learned along the way:

1. if your card stops working, call them immediately and have them send you a replacement card with everything transferred over.

2. if you talk to their support folks, do not let them end the call until you are completely satisfied. i literally called them 5 times, each time getting one specific task done, hanging up, and having to call them back.

3. have a back-up plan. a bart ticket with plenty of value on it. correct change for a muni bus.

4. if your card breaks, budget at least a week to get back into using the system.

if i receive this third card and it does not work, i vow to drive to their office in concord and insist on speaking to a customer service manager. i will also be writing up a letter to them concerning this pathetic follow-through.

zbigniew pik was a foreign exchange student from poland, who attended our highschool in indiana. we recently re-connected on facebook. he told me he bought a bunch of broken-and-repaired cameras and accessories in sweden. he sold a lot of it but had a few items left. he saw that i was shooting with a pentax 6×7 and had a waist level viewer for it. he sent it to me in a padded envelope — the one pictured above.

when i received it, i saw a lot of the address had been eliminated due to some sort of moisture on the sticker. it still found its way to me, thanks to human oversight in package delivery. when i opened it, i was surprised by seeing the WLF, and laughed. one of the few pentax accessories i don’t have yet. my system is one step towards being comprehensive.

i love seeing packages from foreign countries. what struck me most about this one was the stamp, which seems like nylon or some sort of fabric. it’s iridescent and very detailed — beautiful.

thanks pike, for the great gift.

i started my day with breakfast with a group of photographer friends, wandered through the fair with them with our cameras. i rendezvoused with my friends reese and frank, and later met up the party folks.

folsom is quite an eye-opener for the uninitiated. there is a lot of public nudity, bondage and leather, and spanking going on. it’s interesting in that private fantasy and behaviors are on display. you see a lot of extreme preferences.

i was out with two cameras, both loaded with arista premium. the 24×36 frames are from a canon ae-1 program shooting at iso 400. the wide frames are from a widelux f7, shooting at iso 200. all film developed in rodinal 1+50.

this was the scene last tuesday, as a few thousand citizens rallied at san francisco city hall in response to the court upholding proposition 8. i was on the steps during the initial speeches, just a few steps below the press photographers. i was there primarily to be a part of the crowd and to support the movement, but at times i felt like an embedded photojournalist.

it still feels strange to be to be chanting in protest, and surreal that i found myself again marching down the middle of market street in a huge crowd. this is going to keep up until same-sex couples regain the right to marry in california.

both shots shot on ilford pan f+ 50, developed in rodinal 1+50 for 15 minutes. shot with a widelux f7.

i was driving down to san jose yesterday after work when i noticed my throat was real sore. i looked in the rear view mirror and, sure enough, my throat was super red. i had gotten a little worse through the night until it was time for bed, when i decided i should just stay home.

i haven’t been sick in a long while. i did take the opportunity to walk to the market to get some granola and yogurt, to recreate one of my favorite morning meals. walking back with my ingredients, i reminisced about my mom making fresh yogurt at home. i’d mix in some wheat germ and honey.

ryan and i have both been very busy lately with the new condo. figuring out where things go, making small repairs and touch-ups. replacing and adjusting bulbs and fixtures. trying to find some time here and there to relax. i guess i’ll get some relaxation in today.

i took this shot with our canon powershot g3. light is 50 joules through a large softbox, camera left. i like having a living room that’s plenty large enough to do stuff like this.

At work, I’m standing in a short line in front of a cafeteria food station while the cooks are dancing around, making noise signals from one station to another, and burning items and messing up orders. I recently had something prepared incorrectly while I was the only one in line.

I went to a mall food court today for lunch, where I placed my order as one customer of many in a line that moved sequentially. They managed to somehow mess up the order of the dishes and I had to tell them whose plate belonged to which customer. I paid for my food but was still waiting for one last item. The girl behind the counter asked me IN SPANISH what I was waiting for.

Later today, hoping to get a predictable service, I went to a Starbucks in which the barista incorrectly prepared a Carmel Macchiato. I’m no barista, but I’ve had the drink enough times that I know how it is made. Shouldn’t someone employed by Starbucks know the procedure better than a customer? After all, I haven’t read the training manual. (Didn’t they just retrain 135,000 employees?) About three years ago I challenged a Starbucks employee who misconstructed a drink. They dug up an employee manual to confirm the procedure — and I was correct.

Maybe it’s not me. I feel that somehow (and lately), everybody is just not caring. I mean, is it difficult to warm a hamburger bun on a grill without completely charring it? Is it difficult to keep plates of food in order? What about following well known, published directions?

I know it is not my job to police, educate, and train the masses at large. But when I am dealing with stresses of my own and need some predictable, reliable services, where can I turn to? You do your job, and I’ll do mine.

well, it’s happening again two years later. our landlord is selling the property we’re in.

i already know what it feels like to have a bunch of random people walk through your place with their dirty shoes and their attitudes. . . .

but this time, our landlord didn’t give us the schedule in advance. i had to look it up myself, only to find our place will be open for 6 days out of the next 11, including even open houses.

:(

i’m sore, badly sunburned, and mentally exhausted. but i’ve had an interesting and productive weekend.

so i’m helping build this hen house.. well, it’s more of a chicken condo.

saturday, boman and i poured over books (including ones specifically covering the care and raising of urban chickens), and collaborated on the design of a hen house. a full featured structure, it will include two nesting boxes with easy access, a roosting bar, plenty of room for storage, and multiple windows and doors. doors for humans and chickens.

on sunday, we purchased all our materials and rented the necessary equipment. interestingly, spent roughly 1/7 the price of a pre-made chicken coop. before it got dark, we mananged to build a level floor, a back wall, and framed in the other three walls. we also did some preliminary yard work to prepare a flat area for the house to sit on.

we got some great ideas and help from the folks at discount builders in the mission district – that’s where we ended up buying our build materials. we rented an air compressor and two nail guns from action rental. one of the guns jammed badly, but with some careful disassembly, we managed to unjam it. that burned a good few hours of daylight.. but hey. these things happen.

so there you have it. us two computer nerds managed to start from a book and some ideas, to a framed structure large enough to stand up and move around in.

i’ve posted pictures in the urban chickens set in my flickr account. there are also pictures of the chickens from saturday breakfast.