I’ve been checking out the progress of the Pier 36 teardown the last few weeks along Embarcadero as I walk home from work each day. The pier is being torn down in preparation for the next America’s Cup regatta, to be held in San Francisco in 2013. It’s been a pretty fascinating process to see!

Earlier today, I snapped a few photos with my iPhone using the Hipstamatic photo app. Black and white make for some pretty dramatic photos of a construction site!

Updated: New photos added April 12, 2012.

Dodgers vs. Brewers at Dodger Stadium in 2008

Thank the gods! The Dodgers will have new ownership this spring (MAGIC JOHNSON!), ending the tumultuous, devastating, and demoralizing reign of the evil Frank McCourt.

Over at Big League Stew, Kevin Kaduk shares the 10 best things about being a Dodgers fan. Among them:

5. The uniform: Crisp, clean and classic, the Dodgers’ home whites have remained virtually unchanged for decades (notwithstanding McCourt’s poorly received decision to remove player names in 2005-2006). In a league where teams switch from purple and teal to “sedona red” in a heartbeat, the Dodgers’ sartorial consistency represents a comforting adherence to, well, looking damn good. All hail the red (number), white (polyester moisture-wicking performance mesh) and blue (Pantone 294)!

He also mentions traffic as one of the great things. I’m inclined to disagree. Anyway, it’s a new day in Los Angeles. I think I’m excited about baseball again!

[thanks to Scott for the tip]

Or something like that. It sure is raining a lot though!

Taken at 5th and Mission.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Part sci-fi, part fantasy, and part adventure, Ready Player One is a fun read for anyone who is nerdy, plays video games, and grew up in the 80’s (and loved it). Some parts simply feel as if you’re watching someone else play a video game (we know how boring that can be), but others are action packed and deep enough to make you think. Read on for the rest of the review!

Ready Player One is the first book written by Ernest Cline. Published in 2011, it takes a look at an American dystopia in the near future (the story takes place around 2040). It’s a strange America – an America where abject poverty is prevalent on every street corner, but everyone still has access to the Internet.

More specifically, they have access to a virtual world called OASIS, which has replaced the Internet. OASIS is a fusion of Second Life, The Matrix, Avatar, World of Warcraft, Tron, and a number of other video games and movies. It’s a world where people go to escape the tedium and toil of everyday life, buy goods (both real and virtual), meet new people, and even learn and study.

The story follows our hero, Wade Watts, an overweight, nerdy kid only 18-years of age and living inside a slum née trailer park in Oklahoma City. Socially awkward, he’s extraordinarily gifted with computers and feels most comfortable inside OASIS.

Ready Player One is told from Wade’s point of view. He begins the story by recounting where he was when he found out that James Halliday, the creator of OASIS, had passed away. Halliday was both reclusive and eccentric, and spent nearly his entire life creating, maintaining, and adding to OASIS. One can’t help but think of Steve Wozniak when Wade describes Halliday’s mannerisms. (We later find that Halliday had a ruthless and smart business partner throughout his life – it’s almost an interesting parable for Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.)

Halliday had no heirs for his massive fortune. Instead, he only left behind video instructions detailing what should be done with estate. All one had to do to inherit his riches was to find and complete a series of Easter Eggs that he had hidden throughout Oasis. That was it!

Wade continues the story, explaining that this was no easy task. Halliday had left behind no clues about where his Easter Eggs may have been hidden among the tens of thousands of worlds inside OASIS.

Wade, and the thousands of others hoping to solve Halliday’s puzzle, were known as “Gunters” (a portmanteau of “egg hunters”). They began to focus on every aspect of Halliday’s life, particularly the 1980’s – a period that Halliday was especially obsessed with during his life. From here, the book descends into a virtual tour of pop culture from the 80’s. Quotes from Monty Python, songs by Rush, and arcade games such as Pacman, Tempest, and more. For anyone reading who both grew up during the 80’s and considered themselves well versed in its culture and history, the book will provide a ton of enjoyment.

Along the way, Wade and his friends will encounter rival Gunters and evil corporations bent on gaining control of Halliday’s fortune (as well as control of OASIS). Some parts are cheesy (e.g., some of the fights and battles) and others are rather thought provoking (e.g., when Wade confesses that he’s falling in love with an avatar/player that he’s never met in person – it reminded me of the movie Catfish).

Many of the themes in the book – such as those related to virtual goods, the digital economy, and even net neutrality – are especially relevant to today’s connected world. While I don’t particularly agree with the author’s vision of the future, I definitely appreciate many of the underlying themes.

Overall, I found this book to be fairly enjoyable. Some parts were slow and longer than necessary, but Wade was always a class act throughout the story. So, do nice guys really finish last? Find out! 🙂

View all my reviews

Drew Magary at Deadspin takes a look at what it’s like to take the SAT again — 18 years after he last did it. Hilarity ensues!

There are many shitty things about being a grownup. You have to make money. You have to do taxes. You have to show up for your bail hearings. It’s all really fucking annoying. But one of the few upsides of being an adult is that you NEVER have to take the SAT again. You never have to worry about it. You don’t have to give a shit what’ll happen if have to pee during the test. You don’t have to look at another analogy ever again. It’s not bad tradeoff for all the other piddling crap you have to deal with. I know I was happy with the arrangement.

[via Deadspin]

Jonathan Chait writes about the “barbarism of the health-care repeal crusade.” Frankly, he nails it. Emphasis mine.

To me, and essentially everybody on the liberal side, the answer to that question is obvious. I’m comfortable with the market creating vastly unequal rewards of many kinds. But to make health insurance an earned privilege is to condemn people to physical suffering or even death because they failed to secure a job that gives them health insurance, or they don’t earn enough, or they happened to contract an expensive illness, or a member of their family did.

[via New York Magazine]

I Love People: 5,000 Miles, 930 People, 162 Seconds from Benjamin Jenks on Vimeo.

Benjamin Jenks hitchhiked across America and created this awesome video called, “I love people.” From the description: 5,000 Miles, 930 People, 162 Seconds.

Awesome!

It reminds me of this awesome video I posted awhile ago, “The Longest Walk.”

via Andrew Sullivan / The Dish

I’ve been having a lot of fun with Hipstamatic’s new update (which includes Instagram integration).

It’s almost time for baseball to start! I can’t wait. (Photo taken from the outside of right field at AT&T Park.)

According to Goodreads, books about dystopian societies are as popular as they’ve ever been in at least 50 years. Apparently, the popularity of books with dystopian themes correlate fairly well to times of strife and conflict.

Dystopian fiction is more popular than it has been in more than 50 years. Whether it’s the result of political turmoil, global financial crises, or other anxieties, readers are craving books about ruthless governments and terrifying worlds. The new breed of dystopian novels combines classic dystopian themes of cruel governments and violent, restrictive worlds with a few new twists—badass heroines and romance.

Click through to Goodreads to check out the rest of the chart.