Thursday, April 28, 2016
Well, I got up and ready and drove back to the Zoho Conference from the hotel and ate my usual breakfast of hash browns, bacon, and chicken sausage. I had about three or four soft drinks throughout the day such as a coca cola, orange crush, mug root beer, and wild cherry pepsi. The sessions got more detailed and bit more complicated as the speakers covered writing code, scripting, and application interface programming (API). Yeah I know it is like a different language all together. Thanks Techies for your complex world. As the sessions progressed, the hands on activities stalled because the internet went down. Go figure the internet goes down at a Tech company event. They have Comcast, so that is not a good endorsement right now. At lunch, I talked with a lady from North Carolina and we had a quick laugh about how our two states are going through some stuff about those crazy religious laws. We exchanged information about how we use Zoho and North Carolina sports and stars. Michael Jordan and Steph Curry were talked about a quire a bit. Dante would have loved to have been in this conversation. The rest of the afternoon was about the same concerning the content of presentations, so for the rest of my day now begins. Since the group picture was taken yesterday, they decided to take the picture after lunch because everyone was still there.
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| Full House Home |
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| Jack at the Full House front steps |
I downed some cream puffs and lemon cake and began my journey through the bay area. When I got into the Jetta, I plugged my iPhone into the USB port so that I would not run down my battery from the directions of the places that I was going to visit. As I drive down the freeways, I noticed that the music selections were great and said to myself that this radio station is on point and then I realized that it was playing my iTunes music. No wonder it was playing awesome songs because it was the songs that I bought and love. I have to say once again that the traffic in the bay area is not any better than Atlanta or Nashville. That is all that I can compare it to from a driving standpoint around big cities. I crossed the Bay Bridge and arrived in downtown San Francisco and got closer to the outskirts of the city to find that Full House home a 1709 Broderick Street. I luckily found a parking spot on Broderick Street and found the house that has changed quite a bit since the 1980's. The house is a different color, different trees in front of the house, and a gate has been added in the front. I am surprised the new Netflix show Fuller House does not show the modern look of the
house.
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| The Golden Gate Bridge |
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| Top View of Golden Gate Bridge |
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| Jack in Front of the Golden Gate Bridge |
As I continued driving toward the Golden Gate Bridge, the roads had some really big dips and I literally could not see the bottom of the road before going down it. I am talking about some steep downhill roads, my friends. When I got near the Golden Gate Bridge, it was simply amazing. I actually thought that I was going to shed a tear when I was driving across the bridge. After all of the years of watching movies and television, I was actually looking at and crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. I also saw Alcatraz sitting on the rock out in the water. Well, I found a place that had a great scenic view of the Golden Gate Bridge. There was a peer on the side of the road with a little metal wire fence at the edge of the hill or mountain depending on who you are. I think it was a mountain. My ambitious self stepped over the fence and began down the hill or mountain and got some really good pictures. Since I was getting great pictures, I kept walking further down, but I encountered a problem. The problem was that I wanted and tried to stop walking but my legs and momentum keep going. I tried sitting down, but that made it worse. My glasses flew off and I thought that I broke them and did not know where I was in relation to my distance down the hill. With this problem, I grabbed some weeds as a last attempt and this allowed to get my footing and stop for a second. After 15 seconds of catching my breathe, I looked around and noticed that I had about 15 feet left until the road below. I climbed down and walked up and down the road and took more beautiful pictures. At this time, I was running on adrenaline and was so happy that I was alive. However, I was covered in red dirt and my glasses had a few shades of red dirt as well. I left the dirt on the glasses because the dirt provided me with some shade from the sun and I could still see out of them. Luckily, I received a few scrapes and stretches with nothing broken. This experience pumped me up, so I was game now. I began my journey to the University of California at Berkeley. My iTunes shuffle played Alive by Pearl Jam when I turned the car on and that was only fitting to what just happened to me concerning the hill or mountain.
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| Sather Tower |
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| Sprout Hall hosting Bam Fest |
The trip to UC Berkeley was about an hour and traffic was horrible because it was rush hour. I finally got to campus and there are so many restaurants and stores up and down the town an campus. So I found myself at the top of the hill at a restricted location and was told to make an u-turn by the guy at the gate. Went a little bit down the hill and parked in an area that I probably should not have, but I did it anyway and began to walk down the hill through a construction zone. As I get half way down the hill, I walk up on two deer. This can be a scary moment because they can get spooked and charge you and I have seen what they can to cars, so I quietly walked back up the hill for a few minutes and waited them to leave. The deer eventually did leave. I walked around campus and saw the tall Sather Tower, which I think that is what it is called. The time changed and the bell began to ring. I saw a few more sites like a Bam Fest drum presentation and the Football stadium.
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| California Memorial Stadium |
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| The Golden Bear Campus Mascot |
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| The Thinker by Auguste Rodin |
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| Varsity Theatre in Palo Alto |
I was still pumped up from the fall and the deer scare, so I decided to make my way to Stanford University, which it had gotten dark outside and was a 45 minute drive from UC Berkeley. On the bright side, traffic had gotten better and I saw the Oracle, which is where the Golden State Warriors play. They love there Warriors and Steph Curry around here. There were banners, billboards, and signs with his face and the Warriors logo everywhere that you go. I finally arrived at Stanford's campus, and they are going through a major construction process with several roads. With this dilemma, I could not get into several parts of campus that I wanted to go or see. However, I found the Cantor Center for Visual Arts and took some pictures of the outside of the building and through the doors. The buildings were all locked because it was 10pm. I have been driving for about two to three hours and have not used the bathroom since I left the Zoho conference. I found a dark area before some tress beside the Cantor building and had an epic urination release. This felt very awkward because I was thinking what if I get caught and get arrested for this. I mean I people talking from somewhere in the area, but I knew that they could not see me. Of all places, I never thought that I would piss on Stanford University. My apologies, but I had to go.
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| A Cool Cube Structure |
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| Cantor Center for Visual Arts |
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| The Apple, Inc. One Infinite Loop Sign |
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| Apple, Inc. Front Entrance |
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| The Main Apple, Inc. Campus Sign |
I noticed that I was not that far from Cupertino where Apple, Inc. is located. So I drove about abutter 40 minutes and drove around their campus. Everything was closed, but it was cool just to see everything where the ideas to our cool technology gadgets are developed. After I saw everything that I could, I drove about another 30 minutes to my hotel. I realized when I got back to the hotel that I have not eaten dinner because of the excitement that I had. Everything was closed and I was still not even hungry. Man adrenaline can really get you going once it is activated. As I do almost every night, I shaved, showered, and went to sleep, which was very fast for a change. Hopefully, I can see some redwoods tomorrow or stop by Google. Who Knows?
Talk to you tomorrow!
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