New Year's Resolution: failed

In my defense, Feb was a short month, only 28 days... and maybe I broke my foot in late Jan... but those are excuses and I didn't make it to a show.

Thought about it... but didn't.

Oh well.

I'll make up for it by playing in 3 shows this month. As mentioned in a previous post, playing with Greg Hoy this week. We are rehearsing tomorrow, and then doing it for real on Friday and Saturday, with local horn legends, Max and Ric on trumpet and sax. Thursday we're having Planets practice with a special guest. It's gonna be a fun couple music days.

Next week, we'll do one more practice with special guest, then our long-awaited vinyl release at Sleight of Hand. I've been going nutz making IG posts and the like. I am no pro, but they're cool, mainly because of Mike Mitchell's pictures.

Got a couple more shows in May and June, but that's it. Everything quiet on the SG front for now. Dennis is leaving the country this year, we haven't talked about replacing him, but supposedly we have a gig lined up in August? We'll see what happens...

Sub gig time

Greg Hoy, who I subbed for 2 years ago, texted me recently and asked if I'd do it again. He's coming early March and I said, sure, why not? Dave will be on drums and Greg has also recruited local horns, Ric and Max to play trumpet and sax, respectively.

I recruited Steve Reeve's band Square Peg and Brian Chase's band Full Life Crisis to play as well. We will all be playing at the Skylark on one night, then at the New Frontier in Tacoma the next night. We'll get one rehearsal at Dave's house on Wednesday, PITO practice with Tim on Thursday, then the double-header.

I just got the song list from Greg and there are only 3 songs I know from the previous set. This dude has a lot of songs and I really dig 'em. They are easy and catchy and fun. Great melodies and harmonies, but he gets around, so whenever he comes to town, I'm happy to jump on.

Here are the tunes on Spotify. We're doing a Tears for Fears cover as well, so that should be fun.

Looking forward to it!

2026-01-31 Planets in the Ocean at Slim's Last Chance

First show of the year, gonna be hard to top this one! It sort of fell in our lap. We got our new records and sent some to friends and as soon as Ben in Stag got one, he asked us to be part of this show. Pretty awesome as we've played with Stag many times before and they are not only swell dudes, they have excellent songs and bring a great crowd.

It helped that Slim's had recently announced its closure and as a result, shows were being well attended anyway. When I saw a show there a few weeks ago, it was quite packed and great to be a part of. I expected this one would be the same and was not disappointed.

Prior to the show, last Sunday, I woke up and felt a weird pain in my left foot. Long story short, after a trip to urgent care, I was told that I had a "well-corticated lucency through the base of the third metatarsal on the oblique view." In layman's terms, I guess there's a tiny fracture on my middle toe. Fast forward to the end of the week and I have felt no pain since last Sunday. I wore an orthopedic boot during the workday all week, but had no pain other than the pain in the ass of wearing that boot.

Anyway, I had asked Pete Nordstrom to borrow his bass gear since I thought my foot might be dumb, but in hindsight, it was not necessary. That said, he has an Orange Bass Terror (as do I), so I knew how to dial it up for maximum good tones. Plus, he had a sweet Bergantino 212 (so light) and it was a nice paring.

Pete's Orange, Bergantino and my BASS.

Showing up at the club, there were a lot of familiar faces: Mike and Amy, Lisa and Neil, Ted L., Ben and Brian from the Rallies, Jeff Barlow, Steve and Salena, Alan, Bob W., Steve N., Andi W., Dave and Paul from Pop Cycle, Chris E., Jimmy C., among others. Always good to see these folks and added bonus, more bodies in the door!

Even though it was a rock show, there were only us and Stag on the bill as bands. The opener was a DJ, which was actually quite cool as he played tunes we all knew, and it wasn't super loud, so people could talk and mingle beforehand. Right at 9, we took the stage and as always, I wish I had warmed up a bit. Robb wrote a setlist that started off with a couple bangers, and off we went.

I was a tiny bit concerned about my foot, but after those two songs, I realized it was fine. I didn't do any gymnastics but did my fair share of bouncing around. It ended up being fine, no pain, no nothing, all good.

The new G&L BASS (LB-100 body/L-2000 neck marked "BASS") performed excellently. Pete's rig was great as well, though I think I was pretty loud. Robb brought his two new amps, running in stereo and luckily those weren't blasted too much at me. My biggest gripe was the vocals; I couldn't hear myself really well and I think Robb couldn't hear himself at all. Either that or my own lack of hearing had me hearing things that weren't there. People said we sounded fine, so I guess there's that.

Pic by Mike Mitchell

It's 2026, people need better cameras. :D

We debuted a new song called the Mean Machine, that old SE bassist Ben Brunn wrote the lyrics to. It's our first new song since I think the Unraveled/Sit and Spin/Nomenclature trio from a few years ago. I hope there are more coming, as MM came up pretty quickly. It still needs some fleshing out, like adding more to the second verse, and figuring out transitions, but it has some legs and sounds like PITO.

Lots of fun on stage, lots of people enjoying our stuff. We had a couple flubs here and there, but nothing terrible. Robb did come in early on the 2nd verse of the Loud Silence, and Cass and I had to catch up to him, but we covered fine. I think Robb may have had one pop too many prior to us taking the stage, but it's all good.

We got off the stage and lots of kudos. Michael Markley, as he's said before, really loves my playing in a trio setting. Andrew K, the photographer, said he thought playing in Sunset Grooves elevated my playing. He said that in SE, my playing was much more subdued. I told him I played that way so I didn't intrude on Tim's stuff, but in PITO, that's more how I usually play. I don't know if he was goofing or not; he took pictures of us in the studio, so he has seen how I play, but he seemed genuinely surprised. Maybe he forgot?

Stag took the stage next and showed everyone how a really good band performs. All guys, Ben, John, Pete, Rob and Steve, are all so good at what they do individually. Put them together in a group? Really good vibes, that's for sure. They played a fun, loud and heroic set and we all left satisfied and better for it.

The Mighty Stag!

Overall, we sold a bunch of records, gave away a handful, sold some shirts, and had a bunch of talk about doing more shows down the line. Always positive, but we'll see how it shakes out. It's usually a bunch of talk, but who knows? Let's let things happen how they happen. In the meantime, next up is our actual vinyl release at Sleight of Hand, but before that, in early March, I have 2 sub gigs with my old pal Greg Hoy, coming out from CO to play a few shows.

Stay tuned.

2026-01-09 Thrashed Behind the Eyes, Once For Kicks, Mopsey at Slim's Last Chance

For some dumb reason, I made a new year's resolution to see at least one show a month that I don't play in. When I went to the Sunset at the end of 2025 to see Pop Cycle, Rallies and Royal Blunder, it really was cool and a lot of fun. Plus, making connections will just get people to come to my shows, so, like everything else, it really is all about me.

After talking to some friends about this show, it seemed like there'd be more people at Slim's than at for my own shows. I showed up a little after 8, after having not picked up Mike and Amy since they got hung up on the light rail. The place was fairly packed, what with Slim's recently announcing they'd stop shows in mid-Feb this year. Though rumors are swirling that Mason from Tim's is purchasing the place; I've heard it from multiple people, including in the club that night, but I am a nobody and maybe I'm being trolled.

Anyway, these three bands, Thrashed Behind the Eyes, Once For Kicks and Mopsey, all have their own little legacies and people I recognized. As a result, there were plenty of scenesters in the room. Other bands were there as well, and I may have had a hand in that, bringing out Brian, Tom and Lee from Full Life Crisis. The aforementioned Mike and Amy were there, as was Jeff, doodling his pictures up front. I saw Fred Speakman, who helped me get my amp back.

Brian Hughes plays bass in TBTE and OFK, and he backlined his rig, two Aguilar SL12s and a Mesa Boogie head of some sort. He's seen a bunch of Planets shows and is always super nice. I had never seen him play, so I wanted to check him out.

Thrashed Behind the Eyes

TBTE started things off. Brian played a nice sunburst P and his band was a little garagey, a little grungy and pretty cool. I couldn't hear his bass much, but that changed for OFK.

Once For Kicks

OFK featured Kurt Bloch on guitar and Bill Coury on vocals. I have seen Kurt a bunch, but I only know Bill from when he fronted Thee Sgt. Major back in the day. They were great when I saw/played with them with the Lunds. And OFK was really really cool. Poppy catchy tunes and Brian's bass playing really shined. He played a Stingray and it cut through the mix a lot better. His lines were complex and that band would be a ton of fun to play in.

During one of the sets, a woman asked if I played in "Planets Run The Ocean." At least that's what I thought she said. I straightened her out and she introduced herself as Hennessy and that she has a Planets sticker on her coffee mug. Apparently she loved one of our songs, called it "haunting," but she didn't know the title and when she asked us about it at a show, we didn't either.

Mopsey

Mopsey finished the night with their tight ass guitars and pounding rhythm section. Jason on drums is so fantastic. Their songs are so high energy. Sadly, Brian's amp acted weird for the first song, so I couldn't hear Richard's Jazz bass at all. Then he got it dialed up for the second song but it was too quiet. That is, until someone in the crowd walked up front and asked Richard to turn up. Note to self: if it's too quiet for me, it is too quiet; say something!

Overall, a cool night at Slim's. I have great hope for when we play there in a few weeks that it will be well-attended, with Stag headlining.

Not sure who's playing where next month, but it'll be fun to go to another show!

NBD: G&L LB-100!

This could totally be defined as an impulse buy. It was not in the plans, it wasn't even in my mind. But after a poke lunch in Redmond, followed by ice cream, we headed to Redmond Town Center and decided to check out the Guitar Center. All I wanted was a speaker cable to be able to keep one at home as I only have 2 and those stay at Robb's house.

I headed back to the bass corner and saw an orange P-bass with a black pickguard. Then I realized it was a G&L LB-100, which I'd been thinking about for a minute. There are some great looking Tribute versions, at a not-bad price point of $599 or so, but, with two P's at home already, why would I need another one?

Anyway, I picked it off the wall and was stoked because it had flats on it. Interestingly enough, upon checking the headstock, I totally thought it would be a Tribute, but the price tag at $999 and the CLF s/n plate on the back of the headstock indicated otherwise. The front of the headstock, however, was mysterious. It totally had the G&L logo, but no LB-100 sticker. Instead, it simply said, "BASS."

First play of this bass

I plugged it into a nearby MarkBass amp and played it. And it was pretty sweet. Low action, nice flats, played well through that amp. It was different than either of my Fenders, but it definitely sounded like a P. It was in great condition, no major dings or anything on it. No scratchy pots, nothing weird. After playing a few minutes, I said, nope, I have a new car to make payments on, I don't need another bass, so I hung it back up.

In the meantime, Marci had found the speaker cables, so I took a walk to the back of the store with her. I figured I'd think about it. By the time I got back to their front desk, I decided to play it some more. I messaged my band, trying to have them talk some sense into me, which instead of doing that, they encouraged it.

So I bought it. Marci was down with it, so much so, she picked out an orange flowered strap for me to put on it. The sales guy went off to find a case for it; since the bass is a Fullerton model (I think?), it would've come with a nice case. At first, I didn't want a case, but he was gonna check, but it turned out he couldn't find it. No big deal, I have plenty of cases. I grabbed it and chucked it in the car without a case and off we went.

At the sales counter

In the car, off we go!

After cleaning my prep area, I took the strings off the headstock and got to work oiling the fretboard and cleaning the fingerprints off the guitar. At the store I noticed the strap peg on the front horn was loose, so I attempted to tighten it. When I did, it didn't sit flush because it seemed like the hole was drilled at a weird angle. I found a felt pad in my junk and put it there to make up the difference after I tightened it up. I thought about taking the neck off to check the dates of manufacture, but I didn't as I wanted to play it some more.

I plugged it into the aforementioned Ashdown and it sounded great! I think the action may be a little too low for heavy pick playing; the pick sound is very clicky if one of my EQ sliders is not zeroed out (don't know which freq). Fingerstyle, it sounds just fine. I compared with my other P basses and they all offer something unique and usable.

the BASS headstock

Shiny backside, check the strap

Lookin' tight before wiping it down!

Looking forward to busting it out with the Ashdown on Thursday at practice. In the meantime, will mess around with it at home!

The Story of My Free Ashdown ABM EVO 300 II

I obtained this amp in September 2023, read about it here: https://gwonchang.blogspot.com/2023/09/free-stuff.html

Since then, I didn't get it back until late October 2025(!), over 2 years later, then I dropped it off November 1 at another guy's house, and finally picked it up on Dec. 26th. And guess what? It works!

When I got the amp in 2023, it was Labor Day, and I met my guy Brian at the Fred Meyer parking lot in Kirkland, where he took it from me. I figured since I got it for free and I had a working amp already (the Trace, and I think I had the Orange by then), he could take his time.

So a few weeks later, I checked up on him and he responded something snarky like, "well, since you paid nothing for it, you're getting the same level of urgency." Whatever, that's Brian being Brian, so I let it go (he's pretty sarcastic and spicy at times).

But every time I contacted him, there was something and since I didn't need it, I didn't push it. After a few more months, though, I started reaching out again and it was more awkwardness. Not that the amp is so special that he was trying to hustle me or anything, so I wasn't worried about that. It was more the principle of the whole thing; I just needed a response of some sort. Even if he said he couldn't fix it, that's fine, let me know, I'd pick it up and move on. I told him I'd pay him for his time, no response. I told him to tell me to f-off, no response. I left phone messages, texts, Facebook messages. I asked Tim and others if Brian was OK; they all said he seemed fine as they'd had him work on stuff.

I think it was January of 2025 when I told Brian that I was done with him and he could keep the amp and just live his live. Whatever, I was only out the pickup and drop off time, and he'd lost whatever business I'd give him.

But over the next few months, I talked to some people to let them know about this interesting story. One of the people was Richard Davidson, who plays bass in Wild Rumours, Mopsey, and formerly, the Young Sportsmen. He has tons of bass amps and we know a lot of the same dudes, including Brian. But he had no idea what was going on. He ended up reaching out to another common friend, Fred Speakman, who decided to get involved on my behalf. As it turns out, another guy got ghosted by Brian and Fred reached out to Brian and got some info in July. There was a bunch of drama for Brian, of which I have no details, and I don't really care. All he had to say was, "I can't fix it, come get it," and that would've been that.

Anyway, Fred got my amp in August, he gave it to Dave Thompson. I picked up from Dave in October and then found a guy on Facebook in Magnolia. I dropped it off on Nov 1 on my way to a PITO show and then finally picked it up on Dec 26. And guess what?

Works like a champ!

The repair guy, Mark L., apparently is an engineer of some sort with all sorts of stories about Steve Jobs, comet rockets, and other super secret nerdy stuff. His workshop is full of all sorts of crap, most worryingly, a janky folding table that looked like it was about to collapse, with my amp on it! Luckily it didn't and I was able to get home with the amp. He said there was some oxidation on the pins of a connector cable from the preamp board to the power amp board. He said to spray Deoxit on it, brush the F out of it, and reseat the wire if it failed again.

But since I've had it at home, it's been great. Plugged into the Avatar, it's loud, round, throaty, and seems to work just fine. I wish we were gigging or rehearsing now so I could put it through its paces, but it's gonna have to wait until probably the 2nd week of Jan. We're gonna have to get together just to dust things off anyway since we have a gig on Jan 31 opening up for Stag as we play our last time at Slim's.

Will continue playing with it and give a more in-depth review soon.

Ioniq 5, one month in

So far so good! Let's just do a brain dump. First, the bad:

• Within the first 2 weeks, I scraped the front passenger-side fender backing out of the garage. Super aggravating, but luckily, no obvious damage. First time, just some paint onto the plastic; Blake was able to buff it out with some rubbing spray. Second time, I heard a snap. I sat in the car and didn't want to get out. Lucky for me, the light damage was to the same spot and what snapped was some trim around the garage door. Not too bad for the house, not bad for the car, we are good.
• I'm still, a month in, trying to get used to the dimensions of the car on the road. I feel like I've had to relearn how to change lanes. I'm not sure what it is. The car has so many bells and whistles that I always have to be on guard, it's sort of annoying.
• The car seems to have no soul. It is weird and I can't pinpoint that either. I've been driving pretty much exclusively in Normal mode and while good, it numbs the steering a little. Sport really tightens it up but it's just too fast for daily use, though I should really give it more of a try. With it being so wet out lately, I've been laying off that.
• The native Nav is annoying in that when I touch the screen to move the map, it treats it as me wanting to add a new destination and I can't figure out how to not do that.
• No dials on the dash and a clock that is tiny and impossible to find. There is a different panel for the clock, but it comes at the expense of more info. I wish they would've put in a bigger digital clock on the main dash. And the speedo number is in a weird spot; heck, the entire main dash is weird. I wish there were even digital analog dials.
• Tinted windows are so dark; it's hard to see at night.
• Auto wipers are hit and miss. They work, but they seem to be picky about the precip and whether or not to wipe.
• The "Confirm" message on the screen every time I start the car. It's annoying.
• Homelink mirror doesn't work. Previous owner removed the power dongle to the mirror and I can't seem to find the right one to replace it. :/

There may be more bad, but it's not all bad. I can't remember much else, don't want to play pile on. So here's some good:

• The looks! Love how this thing looks. The aforementioned tinted window? They look great from the outside! And the matte paint? Love it. Glad the gold blends with the silver trim since the gold is so silvery looking.
• The pickup! Just stepping on the pedal and it goes. Always ready to pass or swoop in. The downside is that sometimes it's a little hot when I get to where I'm going and then it's on the brakes.
• All the space. Lots of room inside. Haven't loaded it up with much yet, but it's all good.
• Ventilated seats! Looking forward to using it in the summer when it's swampy down there.
• Remote start and all that stuff I can do on the phone. Pretty cool.
• No more gas stations? Yes please! Just for a month means I have "saved" about $120 in gas payments. Plugging in at home is great, even though the charge is sooo slow.

That's a quick and dirty download. The car is running great and it is pretty exciting to drive on the daily. I am enjoying learning about it and it'll be cool to see how it does over the time I have it. Payments start soon for both insurance and loan, so that stinks, but it's part of the territory.

Weirdly, I haven't taken many pictures of it, so here it is, backed in and charging in the garage.

Record Player Guy

I'm not sure when it happened, but it was sometime this year. Though I got the record player, an Audio-Technica AT-LP60, which I understand is a decent, entry level turntable. Steve Reeves gave it to me 2-3 years ago? I can't remember; I had set it up and was like, "so?" It sounded like music, but it was tuned a little quicker than 33 1/3 RPMs.

Anyway, I put it away in the basement closet, until Haley asked for it to take to college last year. Where it sat in Bellingham. I think she let her ex borrow it, and then she brought it back, minus the Audio-Technica pad on the table.

For some reason, I put it on my new desk setup and started using it? I had a couple Rush records hanging on the wall, so I listened to those. For my birthday, Haley got me the Lady Gaga record, Mayhem, only because I saw her perform on SNL and was blown away. The record itself is pretty good as well.

Since the summer, I've gone a little crazy with the records. I went to Barnes and Noble with Marci one night and came home with Moving Pictures and Weezer's Blue album. The total was like $60 or so. And then a few weeks later, I picked up some records from Easy Street, the Value Village, a bunch at Triple Play in Grand Junction in early October. Though I think I went there before Easy Street and VV. Then last week, in SF, I picked up 3 more records.

On Friday, I met with James Sonderegger, who I worked with briefly at EC One when we moved over there. He got another job that paid what he was used to getting (250k!) and bounced. But he and I hit it off and he ended up giving me something like 50 records. Maybe 10 of those I'll keep or listen to; the rest are pretty much junk, but I may give em a listen.

Who knew this would be so fun? It's pricey, but I'm enjoying this setup with my cheap ass Monoprice speakers. The hisses and pops do give it some excitement. And our new PITO record sounds great on it, forgot to mention that!

2025-11-17 Microsoft Ignite Day 3

Earlier start today, arriving at the Chase Center by 7:45 only to find out they didn't need me until 9 or so. Oh well. When I finally met up with everyone, they had taken the original E450 off the floor and put the CLA 250+ on. They really wanted to show the prototype car. But the problem was that the screens would shut off at any given time, so with that issue, we had to decide which car we were going to use.

I did contribute a little, finally, confirming that we could do a Teams call from the E450, just like the one we have at EC One. Then there was a bunch of sitting around. I'll just FF through the details as there aren't many.

A woman named Teresa, but introduced herself at T, was awesome. I think she was the floor manager or something. I just loved her energy and vibe, don't know how else to say it. She would be awesome to work for. But she commanded a group of dudes to move the cars. That exercise was cool to watch. Very precision, with the dudes working in lockstep with each other.

I got to watch Collin deliver his bit again from the floor. I shot a video of it and Judson came up behind and took a photo of the rear end of the car for the "IGNITE" license plate.

Around 3, I decided it was time to go. I decided to take a Waymo into SF to check out Amoeba Music in the Mission District. I had been there before with the Forest Ray dudes, but I wasn't using a record player. Getting the Waymo was easy enough. It came to Chase, I jumped in and off we went. It drove competently and almost aggressively. I was able to wire in my Spotify and listen to music, which was nifty. Also, no awkward silences and probably the best part, no tip afterwards! Def recommend, will do again.

Got to Amoeba and looked around and as usual, I forgot what I wanted to look at. They had some Rush, only one Aimee Mann (Lost in Space, which I bought), one Juliana (Made in China, which I didn't), one Hold Steady (Open Door Policy, which I didn't) and so many more. I looked in Styx and they had 3 copies of "Paradise Theater" so I examined all of them and bought the most expensive one ($12.99) as it was in the best condition.

And then perusing through a "not yet filed' box, I came across "Chipmunk Punk" by the Chipmunks, and of course, I had to grab that because we had that growing up. When I took it to the counter the attendants were all excited and laughing about it. I bought a packing cardboard, wrapped it up and walked up and down Haight street. So many thrift shops and I didn't stop in any. I don't need anything, so it was just to get some steps and look around. I grabbed another Waymo from the corner of Haight and Asbury, and headed back to the hotel.

I got back around 5:30 or so and then walked down to the waterfront to have dinner at the Boudin Bistro. I got a crab and corn bisque bread bowl and a ribeye steak sammie. Pretty good food. Headed back to the hotel and got packed because Collin said to show up around 7am. Got everything ready and I was in bed and reading by 9:30. Crazy.

More pix, probably in reverse order.

Waymo picked me up at the nearby Ben & Jerry's

Cool van

Cool corner

Outside Chase Center

I guess I didn't take many pix yesterday.

2025-11-16 Microsoft Ignite Day 2

The day started early, and I had time to kill, so I went for a run around the hotel. I took a bunch of hills and stairs and saw some cool sights. I knew Lombard Street was near the hotel, but as I ran, I ended up right at the top of it. I walked down it and took some video and pictures. I headed back to the hotel 2.5 miles later and got cleaned up for work.

The ride in on the Lyft was wet and sunny, with glare off the streets and sun in the sky. Glad I wasn't driving. I showed up and had some breakfast and then headed over to the Mercedes in the bowels of the arena. Sean and Ross were there and they did some tinkering with it. I tried to get the phone Sean provided to connect with the car, but it wouldn't work. I forgot to mention, Mercedes brought over a prototype or pre-release car, a CLA 250+ with AMG stylings. It is chalk grey and fastback style and pretty cool, but ultimately, not my style.

I hung out there and tried to be useful, but ended up blogging the travel day adventures and just sitting around. After that got boring, I tracked Collin down and had lunch. We then went up to the suite level, where he was practicing his talk track for his presentation. I tried to get the Seahawks game up on the TV, but of course, they only had the 49ers vs Cardinals locally. I ended up doing some work, tried to stay busy, read a bit of the Ioniq 5 manual, and just sat around. Collin went to meet up with Leah and the DL guys in a different suite, so I just sat there and read the manual.

Eventually, the Seahawks game ended and I saw no spoilers, so I sat in the suite and blasted my way through it. Sadly, a missed FG to end the game, really lost on 4 INTs by Sam. D looked great and it would have been a fun game to watch in real-time.

Went downstairs around 6 to have a quick dinner. I sat with a young kid named Mohammed, who introduced himself, and he was working the event running cable for a camera on the floor. Nice kid, hope things work out for him. From there I went to the floor to hang and watch the testing and practice for Mercedes. I was not needed, so I bounced to the hotel, walked to In-n-out for a second dinner, then buttoned things up for bed. Talked to Marci for a few minutes and that was that.

I really don't need to be here. I am out of my element a bit, but I've met some cool people. I wish I had more to offer here, but I think I'd just be getting in the way. The lack of communication is annoying as well. I don't want to get back to work and have Paul say I was seen as sitting around the whole time. There has been little to no guidance and the expectations set were quite low. It turns out we may not even do any of the stuff I can help with, which I guess isn't my fault or problem, but it still rubs.

Anyway, more pictures, in reverse order.

The Mercedes in question on the big stage

The view from the suite

5 Waymos in a row

so artsy

Looks like GTA 6

Bottom of Lombard Street

Middle of Lombard Street

Ran to the top of the hill where this court was

Cool house

Running up those stairs after running up some hills

Park sign

Top of some hill

I think that's Alcatraz

Starting off the morning

2025-11-15 Microsoft Ignite pre-show run up and travel day 1

Of course, the weekend I get a new car, I am drafted/voluntold to go to San Francisco for a work event. A week ago Friday, at work, we had some engineers/PMs come by EC1 to get the download on how the Mercedes Benz demo worked and is presented. They took videos, crawled underneath and did their research. I offered some suggestions about how we did it for the ES team and afterwards, Paul indicated that he might want me to go to CA to support the following weekend.

I didn't put much thought into it. I figured pretty much anyone could do it, I just had more experience and some practices from the team that I could assist with. It could've been done via Teams or a call, but whatever. I went on with my weekend. Monday and Tuesday rolled by, no updates from anyone. Then on Wednesday morning, I got a ping from Paul, who was in Munich, indicating he wanted me to get down to SF for Friday. I spent much of Wed talking to Tristan, getting plane and hotel set up. I offered to the team first, but all three of them had prior obligations. Truth be told, I was the best candidate to go, but I wanted to make sure they had a chance to say yes.

Anyway, after getting the tickets and prepping to leave Friday, on Thursday, Paul said to not come down until Saturday. This was after confirming my flight, so I had to cancel that and my originally booked hotel and find new stuff. Luckily, the Saturday flight was at the same time and I was able to book a hotel without much issue. It was all a little frantic and annoying, especially since Paul was traveling and no one really had any info for me as to when I should really show up. I booked a 7am flight leaving Seattle and then I realized that was crazy, so I pushed it back a couple hours. Just a bunch of busywork to make sure I could get down here.

Saturday morning I hired a Lyft and got to Seatac, jumped on the plane, and got to SFO by 12pm or so. Of course, no updates as to what to do, so I headed to Chase Center directly. Once there, I came in the players and press entrance and got to go through some of the bowels of this arena. I met up with some people and generally tried to make myself as unobtrusive as possible. I found Sean and Ross from Deeplocal, who are a partner firm that helped design and install the MB demo. Collin showed up later and we sat and chatted and planned for that.

Overall, I contributed a little bit while onsite. Being in the arena was cool and seeing the madness around the setup, as well as the scale, was pretty impressive. A lot of talented people in the building doing all sorts of things. I am just a guy who is here, but it's not as daunting as the Amazon things were back in the day.

Around 5, I finally took off for my hotel, the Marriott at Fisherman's Wharf. I picked it because it was close to the water, about a block or so. Sadly, the hotel itself wasn't that great. Not bad, but not special or anything. I checked in, found my room, then walked to the water to have dinner at an Italian joint called Cioppolino's. I was gonna get the ribeye, but I didn't want to exceed my per diem, so it was a cup of clam chowder and a seafood fettuccini instead. A ton of food, and I pounded it and was so stuffed afterward. I walked up and down the waterfront for another hour or so in a light drizzle, hit up Walgreens for some contact lens solution, then headed back in for the night.

I did some expense tracking for the trip, and then borrowed Riley's Apple TV to watch Pluribus. After that, bedtime. It's weird being away from home; less to do means earlier to bed, I guess. Here are photos, apparently in reverse order.

walking around after dinner

cool storefronts

some arch

ferris wheel

$29 for adult entry to Ripley's

cool mural

part of the arena setup

back stage

Steph Curry plays here

tunnel to the floor

Golden Gate bridge

Granny on the subway

riding the subway over