Blog of Wade Making Connexions

San Francisco

2 years, the time I lived in San Francisco, in reflection, seems like just the right amount of time to start to know a place. Although a small city, it’s hugely active, dynamic, and is as happening as it’s preceding reputation.

Keeping in mind the myriad of other guide to SF, I thought I’d take a different route. If you’re around for a short holiday, I’d like to suggest a few things outside of the tourist traps.

Golden Gate Bridge
 

Things to do:-

• Catch Muni 33 to Golden Gate Park — probably the best bus ride in the entire city, it cuts across the city, gives an amazing view, and ends up at the park
• Eat a super burrito @ Taqueria Cancun — Taquerias are a big deal, everyone has their favorite. Cancun in the Mission is multi award winning. (Over time I’ve eaten the whole menu here)
• Check out Archive.org’s Open Friday Lunch — One of the best kept secrets in the city. Archive.org has an open door policy on Fridays. A chance to learn what the internet’s archive is getting up to.
• Go hiking in Muir Woods — A short bus ride over the golden gate bridge, this national park has some of the oldest trees in the world.
• Head to Noise Bridge, check out an open, hacker space. Free Wifi, Workshops, Desks, Darkrooms, Noise Bridge is a great community.
• Check out Berkeley, try go on Sunday and enjoy a donation lunch @ Wat Mongkolratanaram
• Grab a coffee(or two) @ Four Barrel Coffee, wander Valencia, enjoy @ Dolores Park
• Spend some time @ the SF SPCA. The SF SPCA does amazing work. It’s a lovely building, beautifully fitted with cute animals, a lot starving for human interaction.
• If into climbing, check out Mission Cliffs. If into swimming check out Mission or Garfield Pools ($5)
• For some killer, humble Indian Alhamra can’t be beat.
• Sundays in Spring/Summer/Fall there’s usually something on worth checking out. Sunday Streets, Pride, Folsom Street, Love Evolution, are some events that I’ve been to and enjoyed.
• If you’re still looking for things to do, check out meetup.com and craigslist for all kinds of local events

There’s a lot more to do and see in the city. I enjoy geeking and eating out, with a good bit of exercise also. This list reflects that. *Photo by Kayvee

Present Writing, Musing

I sit here now reflective of how much support I’ve received over the years. To be writing in WordPress, on a laptop, to understand HTML, how web servers work, humbling. It’s easy to focus on one part of life, escaping the cosmic picture.

Self Focus. Building networks is/are great. It helps. It enables other to help themselves in the same way that I have been taught and continue to learn off others. We do not do this alone.

There’s lots I could have, should have linked to over this time, but I’ve been too busy—Self Occupied. I pushed away current events to focus on the bigger picture of helping others. Easy to say to take a leaf out of my own book.

The realization’s been coming for a while, a root canal broke through. Awoken me to human existence, interconnectedness, and the not need or fascination, but the reality of sharing.

The gaps of silence have been a learning period. Sometimes there is too much of silence—it has a place, but only to some end. Impossible is just a word. There is huge inequality and suffering in the world, I believe we are working on this. The internet plays a role, as have all the forms of infrastructure and communication networks before it. I look to a happy world, and a bright future.

I understand that I must look after myself, but also to not self-isolate. Playing hero isn’t hero at all, it’s a little silly, and potentially life risking.

I’m not thinking reinvention, that’d be running away. The ecosystem of life, our balance and relation that’s where I’m coming from/to. No agile touch, management speak. Meditation helps me, as does Yoga.

We all have specializations and skills. We all have experiences and life stories to learn from each other. To be closed it to reduce the world.

A stake in time. A slower pace of life. What’s really important is not Class A networks aka 16,777,216 host nodes. They are needed, but what’s more important is water, food, shelter, health, and for things like Internets, Electricity.

All resources end. I feel my goal/our goal is to be here, understand we are fortunate and from here be ourselves. The future in this regard isn’t magical, it’s always from now. It is exciting to be alive, the online/offline world has changed, in my eyes, so much over the past few years. 3D Movies couldn’t have existed. Technology. It’s a story, talking about our lives and emotions, which is the purpose…a journey. To allow us, to reflect and pause.

In this way, open-ness is a form of creation. Web, Social, Art, Music work for me. We all have our things. I’ve been putting mine off and away. Time to live, time to be. I feel/find the lessons of my life are powerful in the moment, but often only later do I understand what it is that I’ve actually learnt, but then what? Right?

I’m humbled to be alive in 2010, thankful to have had so many amazing experiences, and am looking forward to wholly entering and experiencing many more to come.

Treasure Island Wireless - SF.Gov + Nodecity

Over the past few months I’ve been tweeting about Treasure Island. Not the one from the movie, but an island in San Francisco.

What I’ve been doing over there is helping SF.Gov’s Department of Technology deploy a Cisco Wireless Mesh.

Instead of blabbing on about it, I’ve put together a 5 minute 27 second video, below.

Treasure Island Wireless - SF.Gov + Nodecity from Nodecity on Vimeo.

Threads of Interest, Shared for You

Here’s a few tips, quotes, mindsets, ideas, concepts I’ve been recently reading. These have all struck me strongly for one reason or another, thus they’ve ended up here—Shared for You.

My So Called Freelance Life

Suggesting an hourly rate or flat project fee without knowing the nature, complexity, and scope of the work is financial suicide. You can, however, offer up a price range. Link

Unity of Circle, through the triangle to the manifest form of the square.
 

Sacred Geometry

If we divide the full height of the human body into the harmonic divisions of the square root of 2, calling the total height unity, we locate the vital center corresponding to what the Japanese call hara (belly), a subtle physical center, just below the navel. The figure will measure 2–√2   from the soles of the feet to the navel center, and √2  –1 from the navel center to the top of the head. In Zen practice this center is associated with a meditational technique of rooting, involving an intensification of the powers of physical self-control and self-transmutation. Tantric teaching in India, on the other hand, seeks to elevate this serpent or root so that it lends its energy to the higher, transformative glandular centers. Link

Simplexity

There have long been plenty of reasons—to believe that urban centers are shaped by laws more powerful than mere municipal planning ordinances. There’s the odd cellularity of a city glimpsed from an airplane window at night, a splatter of light resembling nothing so much as a brain cell, with the axons and dendrites of highways connecting it to the other cells—other cities—nearby. Link

Escape from Cubicle Nation

Each of us has natural, organic preferences for how we feel the most alive, relaxed, happy, and passionate at work. These can include things like; Physical work environment, Type of business, Business culture, Communication styles of managers/clients/co-workers, Size of business, Type of work content, Skills and talents used in work. Link

Bullying Bosses: A Survivor’s Guide

Potential allies might include people who live their lives naturally aware that we’re all bound together in our human interdependence. They might be active in community, church, or school affairs. On the job, they’re the ones most inclined to work with others on a project, a team, or for a cause and so they might also be willing to work with the Warrior. Unfortunately, most people aren’t like that. Link