I don’t know if I’ve been playing too much RDR lately or what, but I know that anyone who knows me is going to be surprised by this post.

I saw these boots this weekend (see image below), and I kind of want some! The only problem is, I have no idea what kind they are, since I know absolutely nothing about boots. They look very similar to these Frye Harness boots, but I actually don’t like the way those particularly look (I like a combination of the vintage style, plus the “foot” seems to stick out longer in my attached picture).

EDIT: We might have found them. Kerry says they look really similar to these vintage Frye Harness boots!

Anyway, don’t worry Mom and Dad. I’m sure this desire will pass by tomorrow morning. Besides, if I actually purchased these, would I *really* ever wear them besides Halloween and Bay to Breakers? Probably not.

“Alcoholic Eruption” – January 5th, 2011

Kerry surprised me for my birthday and took me out to the Tonga Room for dinner and drinks. It was my first time there. It was a fun little place!

One of the drinks we ordered, pictured above, was called the Lava Bowl. It was dangerous.

“Better Luck Next Time” – January 4th, 2011

It’s few and far between that I ever play this, but with $355 million up for grabs? Why not?

The results? Things went about as well as expected!

Dear friends who work in marketing and PR. Promise me you won’t write things like this.

How confusing can this be? Referencing multiple time zones in the same sentence, changing previous embargo times.

The attached news release regarding [redacted] will be distributed on Thursday, Jan. 6 at 8 a.m. EST, however, the embargo on the news lifts at 11 a.m. PST tomorrow, Jan. 5, so you can include the news in your stories regarding the [redacted] launch. I’ve also attached images.

Also, keep in mind that [redacted] news embargo also moved up to tomorrow, Jan. at 11 a.m. due to [redacted] launch.

Yes, the date was missing in that second paragraph.

“F this train! (Don’t worry, it’s all cool.)” – January 3rd, 2011

Even when I’m otherwise pissed off at SF Muni, the F line always pulls through. It’s one of my favorite ways to travel through the city — the historic cars, the old seats, and the awesome growl of the train as it travels down the tracks. It’s not the quickest, but it’s fun!

Back in March of 2010, I wrote a post looking at the frequency of earthquakes occurring around the world and examined whether or not there were more earthquakes occuring than normal. Specifically, I chose to look at earthquakes between M6.0 and M6.9, as they are sufficiently large enough to be detected by seismometers around the world and they seem to be well documented in recent history.

So, what were the final numbers for 2010? Using the global earthquake search tool on the USGS website, we can see that there were 151 M6.0 – M6.9 earthquakes detected last year.

FILE CREATED: Mon Jan 3 19:59:37 2011
Global Search Earthquakes = 151
Catalog Used: PDE
Date Range: 2010/01/01 to 2010/12/31
Magnitude Range: 6.0 – 6.9
Data Selection: Historical & Preliminary Data

According to recent USGS data, an average of ~134 earthquakes happen in this range every year. Yes, we had 151, but does that mean it’s time to freak out?

No!

It falls well within what we would expect. In fact, there were more earthquakes within this magnitude range in 2007 (178) and 2008 (178)! What? Crazy!

A few more data points:
M7.0 – M7.9 eq’s in 2010: 21 (avg: ~17)
M8.0 – M8.9 eq’s in 2010: 1 (avg: ~1)

Here’s a handy table from the USGS [via]:

So, to sum things up, the world is not ending, despite what crazy folks say, earthquakes are not increasing, and there’s probably a number of other things more important to worry about.

Cheers and happy new year!

Divisadero at night, in front of Gamescape in San Francisco. I absolutely love their logo (it’s the city skyline).

Amusing and relevant autocorrection!, originally uploaded by Dave Schumaker.

Oh, man. I think I have a morbid sense of humor.

Ringing in the New Year with some simple light painting in our apartment. Here’s to hoping 2011 is awesome!

This picture instantly makes my palms sweat and my feet tingle.

Original author unknown

[via Weird Friends]