CalTrain held a contest a few months ago for love poems involving CalTrain. Of course, I've never been on a CalTrain before but that didn't stop me from entering... I didn't win, but my haiku will be included on the promo posters!

Oh, Baby Bullet-
Why do you need scheduling?
Love strikes anytime.

Halloween completely sucked in my neighborhood last night. The ongoing problem of outsiders flooding into the area in minivans to pillage as much candy as possible has finally reached the tipping point. For the first couple of years I lived in Alameda, I was pretty excited and amused by the quantity of trick-or-treaters we got at the door, and began to look forward to the annual onslaught. But, this year, more than half my neighbors didn't hand out candy, none of the trick-or-treaters were actually from my own neighborhood, and most of them came back for seconds, if not thirds or fourths.

I'd like to be wrong, but it seems Halloween in my neighborhood has become a holiday for financial windfalls for greedy, low-income parents. Instead of letting kids dress up and go out trick-or-treating for the fun of it, there is now a highly organized, multi-generational candy-gathering cartel which comes through, hoovers up all the available candy, takes it from their kids, and then goes and sells it at flea markets for a couple of extra bucks.

I truly dislike begrudging anyone who really needs the income, but halloween is first and foremost a holiday for KIDS to have FUN and get CAVITIES. Second, it's a chance for me to have fun handing out candy and enjoying some cute and creative costumes. Unfortunately, around my house, the fun is gone. There were few non-store-bought costumes, little evidence of any effort to be creative at all, and far too many older kids being snotty about being denied thirds and fourths, or any candy altogether when they showed up costume-free. The little kids seemed robotic, uninterested, and only said trick-or-treat when prompted by a parent.

I tend to doubt that I will bother preparing anything for Halloween next year. Joe was just as pissed off as I was about it, and told me how he had heard people comlaining about the problem beforehand around local stores. We had some friends over who reacted to it the same way, too. Fortunately, our friends brought over two completely adorable babies, so instead of handing out candy to ingrates, we shut off the lights and split the candy between them. Such a disappointment out of an event that used to be a real pleasure.

My neighbor friend died today, not entirely unexpectedly, yet far more quickly than anticipated. Her name is Patricia Williams, but I always knew her as Dawn. She rented one of the small apartments out back of my place, and lived alone. I'd see her when she was out having a smoke or waiting for East Bay Paratransit to take her to a doctor's appointment. Or else I would see her with her friend Matthew, doing things together, going out for walks. She struck up friendships with my cats, chatting with them through the windows while I was at work, and had two of her own. Her son and I shared the same birthday, and this year she was thoughtful enough to give me a card. She was not my closest friend, but she was someone I felt very fondly towards, and always look forward to seeing and chatting. Because I knew she didn't have a large group of friends, I made a point of being helpful and offering whatever assistance I could provide. I was more than happy to do what I could to make sure someone else didn't feel so alone. I just hope she knows that she will be remembered and that people cared about her and appreciated her when she was here. Farewell.

We get free Nutella delivered to our doors.

Part of my job these days is to think about user experience: what can be done to make the experience as easy as possible and how can barriers be removed. This line of thought is not one that has taken hold down at the MUNI mothership. Today, on my lunch-break, I went up to Market St. to fetch some RAM from a store. Since it was nice out, I walked there. But, with my lunch-hour slipping away, I decided to catch MUNI back to the office. Big mistake.

I entered the Montgomery station and looked for the change machines to break my $5. Guess what? MUNI doesn't have any change machines. BART does, but they only change $10s and $20s, not $5s. So I went to the agent window and tried to buy a ticket. Nope, wasn't gonna happen. The harpy behind the glass told me that if I wanted change, I would have to leave the station, find a store and buy something or beg for change from them, and return to the station.

Whatever. I needed some lunch to take back to the office anyway, so I went upstairs and went to Specialty's and got a turkey sandwich and some change and went back to the station. When I tried to give the booth-harpy a dollar and two quarters, she dismissed me yet again, and told me that MUNI didn't accept paper money at all, and I would have to go use the BART ticket machine to make change for a dollar.

WHAT THE FUCK????

It would have been a lot simpler if the harpy just said what was clearly evident: "FUCK OFF. MUNI DON'T NEED NO STEENKENG PASSENGERS!" So... I finally get into the station and go wait for the right train. But it seems all the trains do not stop in the same place within the station. Some stop at the front, some stop at the back. No signs about it, it's just up to you to notice where any train you might want to be on is stopping. Luckily I figured this out just before the N train I wanted to be on closed its doors.

End of story, right? No... after going two stops, at the Folsom St. stop, about four from the end, the train driver comes on the PA to announce that we must all get off the train, he is turning around early. Not to worry, another train is right behind.... So we all de-train, wait for the next one and get on, hoping that would be the end of it. Unfortunately, one last insult- we pulled out of the Folsom St. station and then had to stop and wait for five minutes while the train we were previously on turned around and switched tracks.

I used MUNI a hell of a lot more when I actually lived in SF, and never really experienced the full-on hatred it engendered today. I really felt as if there was a new MUNI campaign to actively enrage and discourage MUNI riders. I hear daily complaints from co-workers about their hellish commutes on MUNI. After my experiences today, it's clear that MUNI is teetering on the brink of destruction. Between cut routes, diminished service, and raised fares, cabs are a much more attractive option for getting around SF. I don't expect the world from MUNI, but I do expect to be able to enter a station and get on a goddamned train when I am holding more than sufficient cash in my pocket to pay the fare.

Shot from a path on the beach of Alameda with my cellphone and stitched together in Photoshop.

My house made it into Amazon.com's new A9 searchable image database! Just search for Kamakura in my zip code, and move down the block to the right.

I'm sad today, after finding out that the 35^th murder of the year in San Francisco was a boy I knew from my neighborhood in the Lower Haight. When I worked at Bean There, Raymon would come in from time to time with his friends for a hot chocolate, or a bagel or whatever else. Even then, at the age of 12, it was clear he was a bright and friendly kid with lots of potential. There were lots of other kids in the neighborhood, usually causing trouble wherever they went; Ray was not one of them. We had a few conversations while he hung out at the coffee shop, and after I moved to the East Bay, I never really thought of him again.

Until this weekend-- when I had the news on in the background and heard that there was a killing in the Haight right near where I used to live. When I looked at the TV and saw his picture, I recognized his face immediately, and my heart sank. Like any 17 year-old, he had his whole life ahead of him, but unlike many of his peers, he really had a chance to do something with his life. Now that chance is gone, and we are poorer for it.