I guess they really mean it! (Spotted tonight on a garage in Upper Haight.)

Thanks to Tharpo for sending this to me today. She got it in her district email newsletter. Yeah, we’re crime-patrol geeks.

Dynamic map of homicides in SF from 2004, 2005.

As of the time I wrote this the Geocities link wasn’t working- for the active Google-maps version.

Is that joke getting old? Was it ever funny? The point is, today is Tuesday, and that means that tonight is the Metroblogging SF meetup!

Not that I have to remind you. I know that you have been scoping out upcoming.org all week to see what other hip people might be there. You added it to your Google calendar as soon as you saw the first post. You are starting to wonder what Technorati tag to use when you blog about the event (sfmetblogs? metroblogsf?). And I can already hear those Yelp reviews of Toronado being written.

But to make sure that you don’t miss out on the midweek drinking event of the year, here are the details:

What: Metroblogging SF Meetup
When: Tuesday, August 22 at 8:00PM
Where: Toronado, 547 Haight Street, SF
Who: SF Metroblog authors, new and old, and all of the coolest readers (the people kind, not the RSS kind)
Why: Because your mom would be so proud

Let’s drink some beers! I am driving all the way up from the S.J. to see y’all, so I’d be, like, totally bummed if you couldn’t make it. I hear the bar is small, but cozy is good.

(No, that’s not me in the pic. I browsed my pictures that I have tagged with drinking on Flickr, and this was the funniest one I had. Funny, isn’t it?)

The good folks over at Yelp threw a little party at Poleng last night, and this south bay girl drove up to the city on a Wednesday night for the gin, tea, music, and food. Poleng, an Asian/fusion/trendy restaurant/teahouse/bar on Fulton, was packed with fellow geeks/foodies/hipsters.

Dave from Art of Tea came up from LA to share his overwhelming enthusiam for organic, fair-trade, hand-crafted tea. Tasting all of the different blends and talking Camellia sinensis brought out my inner tea snob. I even warmed up to their herbal iced tea. Poleng seems to have quite the tea selection, so I’ll have to go back and check it out some more.

I also met Arnie, who makes gin right on Pier 50 at Distillery No.209. Mmm….gin. Good stuff. Just as the gin warms my tummy, it warms my heart to see people making tasty things locally. A lot of warming going on…no wonder I am so damn hot!

Magnolia has resided in the Upper Haight since 1997, and has already established itself as a local institution for fine brews and meals.

Not too many people know that the namesake of this pub is Magnolia Thunderpussy, a dancer in the sixties who opened an ice cream parlor of the same name. The parlor thrived for a few years before being replaced by a few different restaurants until Magnolia Pub & Brewery arrived in the late nineties, when they built a seven-barrel microbrewery in the rickety old basement of the building at 1398 Haight.

I had patronized the Mag before, but I became more a fan of ‘em during Strong Beer Month this past February. They have a great selection of beers regardless of which month you happen to be in. I particularly like the Oyster Point Oyster Stout (no worries, it doesn’t taste like oysters!), and the Cole Porter (I guess I lean more towards the dark brews). Note that pints are only $2.50 on Tuesdays!

The food at Magnolia is a big draw for me, as well. They have one of the best burgers I’ve had at a SF restaurant, cooked to perfection and preferably topped with blue cheese. Served with hot, crispy fries, the meal is complete with a serving of their addictive curry ketchup (you may have to ask for it). The steak frites as well as the pork chop are very good selections as well.

If you’re at the Mag purely for sampling the brews, but perhaps you are a wee bit hungry, the plates for sharing are a good call. Last time I ate there, we shared the house-cured fish sampler which comes with a fresh assortment of local seafood, pickled vegetables, goat cheese and thin slices of bread. It was perfect to go with the couple of pints that we consumed.
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For a limited time only. Though not a blader myself these days (since my pair got stolen out of my trunk on the first of four car break-ins), I’m selfishily psyched that running in the park on weekends will be car-free for a stretch. “This is a six month pilot program that will close a portion of Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park to auto traffic on Saturdays the same way it is currently closed on Sundays. The program will begin on Saturday, May 27, 2006 and end on Saturday, November 25, 2006.” Roll on with The Godfather all weekend long…

At the base of the traffic light pole at the corner of Haight & Fillmore. In front of Raja Cuisine of India. (Despite the spelling error, it’s certainly my personal belief system …especially as I head to the Toronado…)

How many mirrors can a bike have? Over 24 in this case!

It’s scooter weekend in San Francisco. Tag your photos with ‘scooter’ and blog about it!

I’m not as much as a gamer geek as I was in ages past (though still enough of one to say stuff like “in ages past,” har har), when I had tons upon tons of RPG books that actually sometimes got used. As time went on and we got more involved with our careers, friend and I would talk about putting a game together, but no one would have the energy or time to put the work in to set it up. Still, today as I was giving some out-of-towners a whirlwind tour of some of the different areas of the city, we ended up in Gamescape over on Divisidero, which as far as I can tell is the only game store in town. They sell RPGs, strategy/war games, puzzles, and board games—and not Parker Brothers stuff; the indy game manufacturers are represented here. (Did you know that a game could be “indy”? S’truth.)

They also have a selection of used games that you can get on the cheap, but as far as I know, they’re not buying stuff off of customers at this time. For that, speaking as someone who cleared out his bookshelves a few months ago, you could go to Gator Games in San Mateo. They’ll take anything, but you’ll only get store credit for your stuff, not cash.

The book pictured here was in the rack of new books, and… well, seems inevitable when viewed from geekland, right? Call it a pursuit of happiness.