photos 2004, part 2

On a trip to SF, i visit Nino - nice view from his apartment -
...and interview at SRI.  It looks generic for a reason - this 'research park' actually served as a model for countless thousands later - it's the 'proto-park'.  A nice view of Lake Tahoe from Jetblue on the way back.
Back in NYC, cool art in the Canal St. Subway Station...
BFI relocates from the west coast to Brooklyn; in fact, only a few subway stops over the east river from my LES apartment.  They hold a housewarming for the new office, with domes and kids on the roof.
A trip with Deb to Staten Island, to visit the New York Chinese Scholar's Garden.  Very peaceful, very beautiful, very relaxing - you can tell from the goofy relaxed look on my face.

 

Now, i have a story to tell about my cell-phone.  I have a really lousy cell-phone.  It's low-tech.  It's slow.  The sound is terrible, and the battery goes flat in less than a day.  I have lost this phone many different times - at work, at home, in different cities.  Each time it manages to come back to me.  I lost it on Caltrain, commuting down the SF peninsula.  I lost in the JFK airport, Jetblue terminal security - and after months of phone calls where they said they didn't have it, mysteriously it appeared in the mail.  Finally i lost it on an MTA train.  Now MTA, the New York City Transit System, does not have a lost-and-found.  It would be simply impossible for a city of 12 million people, most of them taking transit every day.  So, it would seem i had finally managed to lose my phone.
Yet, lo and behold.  A call from my parents in Hawai'i.  "A man called us and says he has your cell-phone.  He dialed us with it because we were listed on the phone.  He was really surprised when he found he was calling Hawai'i from Queens!"
Sure enough, it's a very nice guy who drives the 7 train to Flushing, the train i left my phone on.  I call him and arranged to meet him at a specific time when he pulls the train into 42nd St. station.  My damned cell-phone is back again:

One bit of advice about New York City.  The best pan-fried dumpling in the city is also the cheapest.  Tasty Dumpling, 54 Mulberry St, Chinatown.  Order the #1 (6 for $1) and try them with hot sesame oil.
A few assorted pictures to round out the month.  I managed to get to several Critical Mass rides this year, and this one on May 28 was especially good - nice weather, a nice cohesive mass, and interesting places (from Union Square all the way up through Harlem into the Bronx).  Here is Park Avenue that day, completely overtaken by bicycles as far as the eye can see.  Sorry it's slightly blurry, it's hard to take crisp pictures from a moving bicycle:
Three people: Aura, a Romanian friend with whom i got to spend some wonderful time conversing (in Romanian..)  Patricia, an old friend from Hawai'i passing through New York and staying in my apartment.  And me.