The sights of San Francisco

Although I flew into SF from TO on Sunday, we headed back to Sacramento almost immediately. However, thanks to the ignorance of the INS officer at SFO, I was back in SF on Tuesday. While waiting for my number to come up at the INS office in SF, I was able to take in a few of the tourist traps downtown.

My uncle took me to this very beatnik bookstore, where all the radical thinkers from the 60s used to chill. They even had a poetry reading room at the top! The book selection was a little eclectic but a refreshing change from the tripe usually found at Chapters et al. We actually managed to spend almost an hour just walking through the place because we couldn't avoid picking up the books that caught our eye as we walked past them.

When it came time for lunch we retrieved my aunt & little cousin from her office & ate at a Japanese joint. The most interesting thing I noticed there was that they use real crab flesh in their California rolls. I was quite impressed by the ease with which my aunt was able to quaff wasabi, since I've never developed a tolerence for the stuff.

After lunch, my uncle & I walked down to the pier, where the sea port is located. We scared a seagull & convinced a random dude to take a pic of us with my digicam before going into what promised to be the actual sea port building. Sadly, the building was nothing more than a mall so we didn't stick around long. There was some interesting industrial sculpture outside it though, so I climbed atop a large concrete sphere to watch the people go by for a bit.

After I had my I-94 in hand, we had a couple of beers at this quirky little microbrewery since it was happy hour & they offered drinks for a buck each. The beer was good, although not as good as Hoegartens or that stuff at Brewtopia in Montreal. The bar did have some really fascinating ceiliing fans though; They were actually mounted on a long rod that stretched acrosss the ceiling and spun the blades like parallel catherine wheels!

The last thing we did before heading home was to grab a pre-supper snack at this Indian restaurant. While we were there, one of the other patrons expostulated that it was the 2^nd best Indian joint he'd ever been in. The other one is in Santa Clara, where I'll be living, but I cannot remember the name of the place any more :-( Besides, I'm not convinced it could compare to Gerard street in TO...

Chapter 1, in which I learn (the hard way) that flights from Canada to the USA are considered domestic

Yes, I am still alive & kicking. Three very intense days have gone by since I left TO so this is going to be a whopper of a post.

First, some background: I am being allowed to work in the US this fall on a J1 visa, which is designed for students in specialized fields to gain practical training. As a Canadian, I was supposed to have my Visa stamped and pick up an I-94 from US customs at the port of entry when I crossed the border. Sounds simple enough, except that I was told that all flights from Canada to the US were now considered international. Consequently, I was expecting to encounter US customs when I landed in San Francisco so, when I was asked for my passport at Pearson, I didn't volunteer the document that was supposed to get me an I-94, thinking it was simply a preliminary examination. And when I was asked for the purpose of my visit, I said I was going for a 4-month training program, unfortunately neglecting to mention the J1.

The customs officer misunderstood my intentions & thought I was just another Canuck crossing the border for pleasure. As a result, my passport was not stamped and I was not given an I-94, which I require to start working in the US. At the time, I did not realize that something was amiss, believing that this process would happen when I got off the plane. It was only when I picked up my luggage in SFO that the horrible truth dawned upon me. My mind rushing, I quickly decided that I should contact US immigration & see if they would do the needful at SFO, which I figured would be a major port of entry.

The officer at the immigration office in the airport said that I needed to go to an INS office during business hours and ask for a deferred inspection. Since I was going to be in the state capital (Sacramento) for the next few days, he suggested visiting the INS office there in the morning. Unfortunately, when I went there, I was told that this inspection could only be done at the INS office in downtown SF.

Thanks to much assistance from the relatives with whom I am spending time this week, I got to the INS office in SF at slightly after 8 am on the 26th. After standing in line for about 45 mins, I managed to get a number barely 15 mins before they ran out for the day. Realizing that it would be several hours before my number came up, I went gallivanting around SF with my uncle until there were only a few numbers remaining. As it happened, I was using the washroom when my number was called unexpectedly early, thanks to some no-shows being skipped over. Most fortunately, my uncle was able to convince the officer not to skip over me. She turned out to be very nice, in fact, unlike the officer who issued me a number earlier. After examining my paperwork, she sent me up to the 9^th floor.

Upstairs, another officer took my paperwork and made us wait for about 45 mins before he issued me an I-94, gave me a backdated stamp on my passport & confirmed that I was now aware of the importance of mentioning the J1 at customs when entering the US. Heaving a collosal sigh of relief, I walked out of the building.

Street theatrics converge upon TO

BuskerFest is in town. I stopped by the St. Lawrence market for an hour today evening and had a chance to watch a couple of performers. The 1^st was a contortionist/juggler/comedian from Oz. When I showed up he had just started his act and was telling jokes in an attempt to draw a larger crowd. Once he was satisfied with the size of his following, he began to do a few warm-up contortions, which included bringing his arms over his head from behind his back with hands clasped. I wasn't impressed yet but I kept watching, since he had promised the show would keep getting better.

He followed that up by passing his entire body through a squash racquet whose strings had been removed. Admittedly, I've never done that myself but it didn't look that difficult, although I had to admire the aplomb with which he pulled it off. Next came his final act, for which he selected several volunteers from the audience. No sooner had he launched into his schpiel than a pair of old men began to fight over who had the right to an unobstructed view of the performance! I have to give him credit for handling this potentially volatile situation quite fluidly while continuing to spout jokes. After dispensing with the grumpy old men, the busker proceeded to climb atop a steel pole, upon which he juggled first balls and then knives. That was a fine sight indeed.

The other act I saw was a pair of jugglers from Tokyo, who made heavy use of ethnically charged slapstick to hold audience interest as they progressed through their repartoire. Even the best of their antics did not beat what I had seen earlier but I did enjoy watching them juggle wooden boxes on umbrellas.

Scary stuff at Air Canada

Thinking it would be a good idea to confirm my flight details a few days in advance, I called Air Canada yesterday. I was shocked to find out that they had been rendered helpless by one of the recent Windows virii. The individual I spoke to suggested I call them back in a day or two, by which point he expected that they would have the problem under control. This is rather disconcerting, to say the least.

Chapter 0, in which Lex & I visit Sarah in Ottawa

Not even the Great Blackout of 2003 was sufficient to derail the plans that Lex & I had made to visit Sarah in Ottawa. After confirming that power had been restored to the Enterprise office where he was to pick up the car, Lex called me & we agreed to proceed as originally planned. He drove down to TO and picked me up in a silver car from the future, whereupon we played some of my CDs until we got to Kingston. Since I'd never eaten at a Denny's before, I convinced Lex that we should have dinner there, which we did. I've decided I like the food at Denny's. By the time we reached Ottawa it was dark so we just sat around for a wee bit & watched a really bad TV show before turning in.

The next day I rose bright & ridiculously early (as usual) but even Sarah wasn't up yet so I wandered off to the Bytowne market to amuse myself for a couple of hours. By the time I left it, I had procured a couple of avacados, a small box of rasberries and a dozen Montreal bagels. When I got back to Sarah's digs, we loaded our stuff into the car & went to pick up Sarah's friend Laura. Having done that, we picked up a few last-minute items from a grocery store and drove into the Gatts.

The beach was not as desolate as we had hoped for and none of us had remembered to bring our frisbees. However, minor inconveniences of that nature are easy to ignore on a sunny day, especially at the beach. We swam around & played catch (with my indestructible watch) in the water until we were exhausted & cold. Then we sat around on the sand & ate snacks for a bit before leaving.

The journey back turned into a veritable odyssey as we took time to explore random hamlets in Quebec. Encouraged by the great mileage the car was getting, we initially decided to stop in a little place that I was told had fantastic ice-cream. When we finally got there, it turned out to be nothing more spectacular than standard fare Nestle ice-cream. In its defence, the store had a very picturesque statue of a bearcub carved out of a tree trunk beside it. For some inexplicable reason, I was the only one who seemed to think so...

To be contd...

Hey! Who turned out the lights?

Power has finally been restored here in downtown Toronto after the unprecedented blackout that lasted about 14 hours. Yesterday evening was certainly interesting. I had just put stuff into the washer in the laundromat & was in the elevator going up. The elevator stopped at the lobby & then the power failed with the doors half-open. Not wanting to stick around, I squeezed through them & walked up instead. Shortly thereafter, I found out that the power outage had taken down the entire Eastern seaboard.

Rather than mope around at home, my family elected to take to the streets. Apparently, millions of others had the same thought. It was nice to see so many people walking around. It was a tad less nice when I realized that the few bars & restaurants still open were filled to capacity. After much wandering, we managed to find a Pizza Pizza that was operational - hurray for gas stoves - and procured some dinner, which we consumed as the sun set. I don't think I've ever seen so many stars in TO! Walking back home was a bit of an adventure but there were sufficient random emergency lights to find my way. Apparently the elevators were actually running, although I didn't realize this at the time & walked up 20 storeys.

The making of a new Tori Amos fan

I've always liked Ben Folds, although I'd never heard him live. So when Magic Dave suggested we go to a combined Ben Folds & Tori Amos concert, I decided it would be fun. We ended up driving from Waterloo to downtown Toronto, grabbing sashimi en route, briefly getting lost on the highways & getting to the ampitheatre in Ontario Place with minutes to spare. Because I was hungry again by the time we entered the park, we bought fries and ate them while fending off a squad of intrepid birds by thrusting plastic forks at them.

Ben Folds was most entertainng, with his charecteristic blend of satirical banter & whimsical ivory-tickling. I loved how he would actually stand up to bang on the piano when he wanted to play the notes really loudly. He also experimented with having the audience simulate the horn section in a couple of songs using their combined vocal chords. Unsurprisingly, his tirade against the genre of music promulgated by Korn was met with keen laughter from the crowd.

The diva herself finally appeared onstage amidst much applause, wrapped in a long dress as flowing as it was frilly. She sat down at her mind-bogglingly expensive piano and began to play as she sang. Right away I was struck by her voice, which was both rich & melodious. After a few songs, she switched to playing the harpsichord instead. I've been a fan of the harpsichord ever since I first heard it being played solo last summer. What was most impressive, however, was when she began playing both instruments at once - each with a different hand - while gazing at her audience.

My favourite song of the evening was undoubtedly "Cornflake Girl". Judging by the response of everyone around me, I'm not alone with that opinion. Several random girls broke out into dance when she sang that song. It was also the reason for her stage backdrop, which had a girl's face with cornflakes for hair.

By the time she was done, I had decided I thoroughly enjoyed her music & would happily accept an autograph if she were to grace me with one. I think I might procure a few of her albums, especially the one with "Cornflake Girl".

Ottawa, a year later

Plans are now underway for Lex & I to drive up to Ottawa for the Aug 15-17 weekend, where I'm sure Sarah will have plenty of kewl stuff ^TM planned for us. We've also managed to acquire a passenger who goes by the pseudonym of Sean.

Planning the fun (and slightly less fun) stuff

Yesterday I called SunDial (Sun has lots of cute little names for its various programs) to register for an intern orientation, which mostly involves an hour of paperwork.

After being informed by my friend Nathan Babcock of an exciting conference being held in Palo Alto, I signed up for it. So I'll be attending the Accelerating Change conference on Sept 12-14 :-) There's also this O'Reilly Mac OS X conference at the end of Oct that I'm looking at but I don't need to sign up for it until Sept 15 so I think I'll wait until I'm actually down there before making plans for that one, since it takes place during the workweek, rather than on a weekend.

OK, it's official now :)

My offer package showed up yesterday and I have returned a signed copy so I should be getting an employee ID soon. There were a ton of forms for me to fill out in the package! Fortunately, it appears that I do not need to fill them out until my 1st day on the job.