26mix gets my ok. This bar/club/gameroom has a little something for everyone. With an everpresent informal feel, you have your choice of sitting/standing at the bar, sitting in the nearby lounge area where its not too loud to have a conversation, dancing on the dance floor where a DJ throws down the phat beats, or playing a game of pool or two in the back where in addition to the two tables there are some classics (Centipede, Galaga, and a sitdown Pacman).
‹#›Brunch time. Too tired to go very far I think I'll see what is fresh this morning at Boulange de Cole Valley.
‹#›First, there is open wifi! Second, I just happened to notice that the four women at the table next to me are talking about DJing and raves. I'm still working on catching up on all my HTML and CSS related email, but nevertheless, I couldn't help but overhear conversations about email lists (no, not W3C email lists), CDs, raves etc. I look over and two of them look very familiar, a third, almost familiar, but I can only see her from the side. Turns out I just happened to be sitting right next to a few of the core residents of SisterSF, including Amber (who I last saw a year and a half ago at Activate Fridays at Light). Next to Amber was Melyss who I've seen/heard spin several times at Mayonnaise at Skylark. The third person I thought I recognized looks like Forest, who I've only seen before in the movie Groove. I waited until they were finished and then asked Amber if they were from SisterSF (which of course they were), and asked her to keep up the good work.
"What did you say your name was? Tantek? That sounds familiar - are you on my list?"
"Yes, that's me - I'm on the list."
So if you're free tomorrow night, and up for some techno/breaks/house, check out SisterSF at their 26mix monthly (10pm Amber, 11.30 Kimmy, 12.40 DJ Aura). And as I wrote about earlier, this Sunday is the SFRaves 10 year anniversary where Amber is spinning from 4-5pm.
‹#›It's about time I get something to eat today. I've heard good things about Muddy Waters Cafe, specifically the one on Church St. I've heard a rumor that someone in the neighborhood has open wifi.
‹#›I referred my friend Steven to Jesse's article on user-centered URLs, and he pointed me to an article he wrote , over seven years ago !
‹#›This has been blogged quite thoroughly in other places, but my friend Jay has brought it up more than once, so clearly it is worth mentioning. I've never visited, but now I'm not sure I ever will, since video games are now illegal in Greece.
‹#›User-Centered URL Design. Read it. Practice it.
Jesse morphs Edward Tufte's term chartjunk into a new term CMSjunk to express the crud that is present in the URLs of typical CMS generated web pages.
I have to wonder how many folks at W3C have read Tufte or attended one of his classes (two things I highly recommend that anyone working with design or information do ASAP).
There seems to be a trend to introduce more and more markupjunk in W3C technologies, such as Namespaces and the usage thereof in content formats.
Jesse's article (unintentionally I'm sure) is quite well timed, as there is now a huge argument at the W3C TAG which essentially boils down to user-centered design vs. architectural purity and implementation-centric design.
Perhaps attending a Tufte course should be a prerequisite for serving on the W3C TAG.
‹#›SFRaves, which has a long history in the bay area, is holding a 10th anniversary free rave in McLaren Amphitheater, SF, CA (same location as Save the Rave) on Sunday, Sept 29th from 12pm-6pm.
‹#›I'm changing my email name back to Tantek Çelik because the undotted i with a combining dot is reinterpreted by the W3C Hypermess email archive system as "zˇ" as is shown in my most recent post to the CSS working group email list which the W3C Validator also describes as invalid. For a public example, see one of my posts on www-html and the Validator's corresponding error report.
‹#›Time to play with characters of a different sort. The Game Addicts game day is today and started a couple of hours ago. This month's is in San Carlos, which shouldn't take more than half an hour to get to. By then, hopefully there will be just enough folks to play a good game of Settlers.
‹#›The OS9.1 software install CD that came with my Titanium PowerBook refuses to do any installations on my current system because I my system has been updated to OS9.2.x - precisely one of the reasons I have a separate 1GB "cache" partitition for experimental installs etc.
Following some instructions from Nisus that some Googling revealed, I custom installed a fresh OS9.1 system with all the Language Kits checked, hoping that despite not seeing "Turkish" in the list of Language Kits, that somehow it would magically work/appear in the resultant system. No such luck.
Back to Google. Found a site with Turkish fonts and a Turkish script file. Drag to system folder, reboot, still no luck.
‹#›For now, I 'll simply start using the unicode small dotless i with the unicode combining dot on web pages and and my email from and see what happens. The sad thing is that even W3C does not properly handle the simple matter of the Ç in my last name. When archiving messages from me the first letter of my last name is simply dropped. I reported this problem this past May, and supposedly there is a new version of Hypermess that is being tested that fixes this problem, but I have no evidence of its existence besides hearsay.
‹#›Ian Hickson had pointed out to me that he had a blog during the recent CSS working group meeting in Paris, but I just now noticed that he posted
‹#›the most accurate character encoding of my name that I have seen to date: Tantek Çelı̇k , which, unfortunately, does not render properly on my current browser/OS (IE5.1.5/MacOS9). Maybe it will work if I install the Turkish Language Kit.
‹#›Registered for SXSW. I had such a great time at this conference/festival last year that I am certainly going again. Tomorrow is the super early bird deadline so be sure to get your pass soon if you want save $. In fact, the savings was enough that I decided to pick up a Platinum pass this time, which cost about the same as my Gold pass did last year.
‹#›Aytek and Steve are back! In their honor, I've finally posted my photos from that wonderful day.
‹#›HTML working group meeting finished up yesterday. Watch this space for updates in the coming months.
‹#›Grabbed dinner at Ti Couz with some friends. Bumped into Peter. Only the first of several encounters on the way to {fray}. Walking along 16th street as if on our way to somewhere else our casual banter was interrupted by the exclamation of one Jane - who seemed quite suprised (pleasantly even) to see me. We bought our tickets, handed them over to her (Jane was graciously doing duty as ticket taker), got our hands stamped and walked in. The stories as usual were personal, engaging, funny and sad. Being of short attention span, I took frequent breaks in the lobby and outside where I was rewarded with additional chance encounters. Chatted with Derek, Heather, Kevin (who recently moved in nearby in the Haight), and saw Molly too, who I hadn't seen since April and has moved back to SF! Afterwards - drinks at Casanova with Jane, Ev and Hilary.
‹#›I have been working through some personal challenges these past several months (years?).
‹#›Folks are in town for various web related meetings - dinner out with
Sebastian, Scott Andrew, Eric and Jeff. We went to EOS - a restaurant I had walked past many times and mental noted but had yet to try. 
Eric ordered a dessert which had (appropriately enough) a very stylish presentation. See the rest of the photos for another kind of complex spiral.
There is yet another legislative attempt to restrict freedom of expression in the U.S. Congress. Specifically, S. 2633 (AKA the *R.A.V.E.*(Supposedly 'Reduce Americans' Vulnerabiliity to Ecstasy', but more like 'Reduce American's Variety of Expression') act), currently in the U.S. Senate seeks to punish individuals that take part in organizing, sponsoring, performing at, djing, etc., electronic music appreciation events (aka raves) by making such individuals criminally liable for all actions (e.g. consumption of unconventional substances) of persons at said events. This would be akin to holding Shoreline Amphitheatre or the Rolling Stones criminally liable for all the folks that smoke unconventional substances at such events, except this act is targeted specifically at electronic music. For some additional information, see http://www.emdef.org/s2633/ .
‹#›In a show of opposition to S. 2633, a free daytime event was organized today entitled (appropriately enough) 
Heather and I attended and participated in this non-violent protest. Legoboy
has posted some photos.
If you are a U.S. citizen, it is your patriotic duty to defend our Constitution (including the Bill of Rights, which provides constitutionally protected freedom of expression). Call your Senators and politely ask them to please oppose S. 2633. You can contact your Senators through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. If you are a California resident (i.e. registered voter), your Senators are: Senator Boxer 415-403-0100 and Senator Feinstein 415-393-0707. When I called, a polite human being answered the phone and said they would pass my message onto the Senator. One of them also asked me for my last name and zip code. If you do email them (their names above link to their feedback pages on the web), put something like the following into the subject line: "Against Bill S 2633 (The RAVE Act)", "No on Bill S 2633 (The RAVE Act)", "Bill S 2633 Is Bad(The RAVE Act)", "Oppose Bill S 2633 (The RAVE Act)". Be sure to express your opinions in your email - personalized emails are more effective. Democracy in our representative republic depends on the citizenry speaking their opinions to those that represent them. Speak up!
‹#›My friend Daniel Glazman
noticed that I had been to Cafe des 2 Moulins, but not from my blog. He saw me
on the 8pm news on Channel 2 in France, and announced
it to the CSS working group. Next thing I knew, a colleague at W3C has posted a convenient SMIL file
which points to the original .rm
file which can also be downloaded via http
. At the time I found it quite entertaining to talk to the news crew, and thought nothing more it. Having seen some screenshots:
I was happy that despite being with camera,
I provide an example of a "Touriste Americain" quite different from the expected stereotype.
I did get a few strange looks when I broke out my deck
and started writing postcards.
Despite rumors
, I was certainly not expecting to overhear a W3C related-discussion
. More screen grabs.
Today I went to see Notre Dame, which, for the first time that I've seen it, was not covered in scaffolding
(at least not the front), and then followed my friend Michelle's recommendation and walked across the Seine to Ile St. Louis for very good ice cream at Berthillon.
Unfortunately they didn't open until noon (I know, what were they thinking - don't they know it is perfectly reasonable to have ice cream before noon?)
So I skated back to the Latin Quarter to check out Shakespeare's - a great used English bookstore. After a browsing for a bit, I headed back and ordered up a double scoop (chocolat and framboise - chocalate and raspberry), and can definitely say I was not disappointed. Skated back to the right bank and finished it at the fountain in front the Hôtel de Ville (the Paris town hall). 
A few more photos of that morning can be found here
.
And here is where my Amelie
tour began.
Now, I had done my research the night before, having brought my Amelie DVD with me. The movie provided scant clues to someone who wasn't a native of Montmartre. I started with the first - I took the Metro to the Abbesses stop which is the one clearly identifiable Metro stop that Amelie visits. 
Second clue: in a few frames of the movie, you can just see a street sign that says Passage des Abbesses near Collignon's market (the grocery market she visits). Having found Passage des Abbesses on my map, I proceed to walk there (steep cobblestone is not ideal for skating), and lo and behold, there was the store. 
So I took a few pictures - and then noticed that there were a couple of other people taking pictures. Coincidence? Not at all. I spoke one of them, a nice older gentleman, asked him to take my photo and he obliged. 
He asked me why I was there, and I told him about Amelie which only confirmed what he was guessing. He showed me on the map where the Cafe des 2 Moulins are and where the waterfall/stream was where she skipped the stones, and Le Manege de Square in front of Sacre Coeur. Apparently Canal+ is showing the film all this week, and there was a map in a magazine of the various places Amelie visited.
After Collignon's, I walked west and then south a bit to 15 Rue Lepic, the location of Cafe des 2 Moulins. There was a big crowd on the sidewalk outside, and a television camera crew also. I started taking pictures of the cafe and then was approached by the Channel 2 news crew.
The nice reporter lady interviewed me and asked me lots of questions like why was I taking photos, where I was from, how many times I had seen the movie etc. Then they reviewed the tape and decided that they didn't like the shot so asked me if they could do it over with me standing in the sun. Sure I said. Note: I'm sure a lot of such "news" is semi-staged.
In return, I asked her to take a few pictures of me in front of Cafe des 2 Moulins and she happily obliged. I went inside and felt a wave of surreality wash over me. 
My goodness, I almost felt like I was in the film - they really did not change much about the cafe at all.
I ordered un cafe and sat at a table (later moved to a seat facing the Tabac counter) 
and wrote postcards on my laptop. I noticed that the news crew had now come inside the cafe and continued to film. 
After a few hours of writing and one espresso and Orangina (and a drained Powerbook battery) later, I decided it was time to move on to the next site. I paid my bill, and bought stamps for the post cards from the Tabac counter.
Took Metro line 2 from Blanche to Anvers. Skated up to Le Manege de square 
- note there is no phone booth here. Walked up the steps to the base of Sacre Coeur, took in the view, and walked back down. 
Continued on Metro 2 to Barbes, switched to line 4 (Pt D'Orleans), and went to Gare de L'Est. 
Of course I had to sit in a photo booth and take a set of photos 
(actually, it's not a set, the machine takes one photo and then you can have either 1, 4 or 16 images on a single sheet, depending on how small you want your shots). Took photos of the clocks in the train station.
Skated up to Canal St. Martin, to the where the waterfall was where from the top of which she skips stones from a small wooden walkway. 
A metro train passes on a bridge overhead. Note, access to the walkway was blocked by a fence (and signs saying Access Interdit). This was the last stop on my Amelie tour. I have posted the complete set of photos
.
Afterwards I took Metro 5 (Place d'Italie) to perhaps my favorite and most "at-home" feeling Paris hangout - the Bastille - and found a superb soup place to have dinner. 
Note, it is readily identifiable by the space-invader tile work on the side of the building. 
Dropped off a few postcards at a mailbox (you would think that such small mailboxes would get full very fast), and called it a night. 
© 1996-2002, Tantek Çelı̇k, All Rights Reserved
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