It's pretty clear why the people in my neighborhood tend to have bigger vehicles: You wouldn't want to cause too much damage to your car when you back out until you hear a sound...
Day 196 - Brewery
People taking a brewery tour at the microbrewery "21st Amendment" in San Francisco. Thank heavens for the helpful label on the window, or I might have had trouble telling what I am looking at.
Now, the same brewing space we're looking at here featured a disco ball later, which is pretty awesome, I must admit.
Day 195 - Flying Teddy
At a concert in San Mateo's Central Park, a boy is throwing his teddy bear into the air to catch it again.
I think I captured a great moment, but I am terribly sad about the depth of field in this one. It is really hard to tell the subject apart from the background. But I thought I'd share the shot anyway, despite this flaw.
Day 194 - Magnetic Awesomeness
A colleague got this "magnetic desk toy" a while ago, and keeps building awesome things with it, like this "magnetic atom"... so cool.
Day 193 - Maccheroni alla San Giovanniello
It's probably a pretty safe assumption that by now, 193 days into Project 365, I have driven away all readers who thoroughly dislike good food, so might as well proceed on the path of food madness!
This is fresh penne pasta with a "San Giovanniello" sauce that contains San Francisco-made prosciutto along with fresh, local, tomatoes, basil, and garlic. Mmmmmm.
Day 192 - One-way Street
Starbucks, fueling the throw-away society since 1971.
Now, don't get me wrong, I like my cappuccino as much as the next guy, but it greatly saddens me just how much trash your average to-go coffee place actually produces. The semi-proudly presented recycling subtext on the cups ("contains 10% post-consumer recycled fiber" or so) provides little consolation in the light of, well, 90% fresh tree (along with a plastic lid) being dropped into the nearest to-the-landfill trash can after a mere 15 minutes of caffeination.
Day 191 - Caltrain
This is a Caltrain, as it is leaving Mountain View station, southbound.
Turns out, fisheye lenses are great for things like trains. However, I also realize this is hopelessly overexposed. I'm going to need to continue tweaking the settings until I know what my camera does with a fully manual lens it can't talk to.
Day 190 - Flags
These three flags decorate my office: The US and German flags are easy to recognize, but what's the other one for? Glad you asked! It's the local flag of the German region of Baden. It's not a state by itself (anymore), but a region with a long, eventful heritage and, accordingly, a strong sense of pride among the locals.
Now, in general, plastering everything with flags in the US is deemed acceptable. Back home in Germany, I found the opposite to be true: After the Nazi government thoroughly overused flags in every conceivable way, in post-war Germany it commonly results in raised eyebrows when private people put up flags (except during the soccer world cup). However, local flags (be they state flags or regional) are shown off with much more pride and generally accepted as a declaration of heritage.
Of course, in my office, I get to make the rules so I can hoist whatever flags I like :)
Day 189 - Important Business
Important business decisions are best made over a glass of Jameson + Ginger Ale1, and a cigar if one was so inclined2.
1) nope, until today I didn't know that was a valid drink, either! 2) I was not, but whatever floats your boat.
Day 188 - Evening Sun
Today, my new fisheye lens arrived, and it seems it's capable of some fabulous pictures! This is today's sun, a few minutes before sunset. Note the nicely bent lines that are straight in real life...
The lens is actually fully manual, making it somewhat challenging to use, but I wouldn't have a photo project if I wasn't looking for a challenge ;)