Max Pictures’ Blather

…off to work we go. I actually got out the front door on time this morning (prodded slightly by Miss T) and headed to the Davis station, in the dark, to board the Bay Area-bound Train 525, in the dark. Fortunately, at this time of year I arrived in the Bay Area after the sun […]

…running late. Had a leisurely start this morning. The sky was already turning light by the time I got to the station. Still, I’m barely awake. *yawn* It’s going to be a long day.

…in Berkeley. One of my coworkers, chocolateCat, recently celebrated a birthday. Our art director, la bel artiste, used this to turn last Tuesday afternoon into a special, gelato-based occasion. An email invitation was sent out: “Let’s go down to the gelato place at 3:45,” it read. “Also, I think someone recently had a birthday. Anyway, […]

…stopped at a bridge. The Capitol Corridor crosses the Carquinez Strait at a Union Pacific railroad drawbridge between Benicia and Martinez. Occasionally—say 1-in-10 trips—the bridge is raised to allow cargo ships (car carriers to and from Benicia and oil tankers for Pittsburg) to pass through. When the bridge is up, train traffic is held up […]

…at Valley Life Sciences Building (VLSB). Now that Cal has started up again for Fall, finding a vacant spot to sit and muse can be challenging during campus high traffic hours (10 a.m.–2 p.m.). I tried out the courtyard at VLSB last week—it was pleasant enough, but table seating is extremely limited. I think there […]

…at Target®. For Halloween. Do you know Domokun? (If not, here’s a brief article about him on Wikipedia.) For the purposes of this post, the most important thing to know about Domokun is that he’s from Japan. Last week Autoteknik tipped us off (via iPhone photo, natch) that Domokun had “officially” landed in the U.S.—at […]

…last Monday a.m. I like being on campus in the morning. It’s typically cooler, so I can trudge up the (slight) rise in elevation to the University’s grounds without breaking (much of) a sweat. Also, the students don’t start appearing until well after 9, so you can move about without having to navigate throngs of […]

…on Amtrak Capitol Corridor 525. Every now and again in the morning I snap out of my Capitol Corridor-induced stupor and manage to look out one of our spotty train windows. And, in some of those few times that I’m squinting out at the landscape-cityscape-industrialfacilityscape, an interesting view flashes by. Interesting to me, anyway. The […]

…a “medical emergency.” The Mercury News called it a “body found on tracks.” Those of us trying to get to Richmond via BART to catch our Capitol Corridor connection called it “missing our train and catching the next one.” Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of cramming into an AC Transit bus with maybe 60 […]

…but no autos. I rode by the Davis Auto Washette on the way back from this weekend’s late night yogurt jaunt. Although the washette was brightly lit, no one was there exchanging quarters for do-it-yourself automotive cleanliness. I could have washed my bicycle, I suppose.