Some dance clubs are simply not made for dancing

In reality, this post is more about the arbitrary fire marshal enforcement than anything else. I went to club Rouge last night and found literally no space to dance. Yet, at other clubs I would go and see them shut down by fire marshals with far fewer people inside.

Seeing that the club layout is dominated by a center U-shaped bar and about 8 to 10 feet of clearance between booth barriers and the bar, I found some space in which to dance. Apparently, that was unacceptable, even though I take great care not to touch anyone who happens to be sharing that space.

The club security told me to go to the dance floor, to which my reply was "There is no dance floor". In fact, it was so packed that there was hardly any space to dance until 1:30am.

I usually need about 25 square feet of clear space although 49+ square feet usually works better.

Another interesting fact about this place - it took security over 2 minutes to subdue a fight, largely because of overcrowding and ill-placed booth barriers.

While I occasionally run into issues with club security in the past at other places, this team ensured that I'll remove this club from my list of clubs that are fun to patronize.

A week ago I went to Exotic Erotic Ball on Treasure Island "dressed" as a bloody Frankenstein. That is a fun story in itself.

It's the first time I actually bothered with makeup effects. Hot Topic, which is one of my favorite stores, sells a few interesting things, and one of them is called Bottle of Blood. Here I was, getting ready for the party. I won't describe the outfit, but those of you who are not feint of heart can check out some pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiseleo/sets/72157608551992816/

When I went to that party, I had some cash and some credit cards with me. I also had my coat check receipt, which was sort of important. :)

There was a stage with a pole that was unattended... I danced a bit. Actually got a few tips as well.

Fast forward to the end of the night and I am missing my credit cards, my cash, and my coat check receipt. Because I had no pockets, I had that stuff along with some business cards in a plastic bag attached to my camera strap. I took 1607 pictures. At one point, I must have forgotten to close that bag. The girl was too cute, perhaps? :) Out fell my stuff but I was caught in the moment. It's freezing, I can't get my clothes back from coat check because I allegedly exited the building and they won't let me in. Let me tell you, Treasure Island is quite freezing at night. After about 5 minutes of talking to security, I was allowed to go and get my stuff. They were OK with me missing my coat check receipt. Next problem - I have no money or credit cards, and I need to get home. I glanced at my waist, and there was enough in tips to get me home and get a facsimile of a dinner.

I had no plans to dress up after that and intended to spend my Halloween at home.

As I was riding past a movie theatre, I considered going in to watch a movie. Much to my dismay, nothing captured my interest.

I was rolling by Obama HQ (Hayward Democratic Club location) and decided that I might do some good and make some phone calls on behalf of the campaign.

I had my camera with me and started snapping some interesting pictures of the room. About 10 minutes later, the lights went down and I found myself staring at the title screen of "Young Frankenstein". That wasn't the end of it, after that movie we also watched "Rocky Horror Picture Show". Seeing that, surrounded by yard signs of "No on 8" made me feel quite welcome and at home.

What are the odds of me being Frankenstein and watching two Frankenstein movies a week later, at a Democratic Party Campaign HQ, out of all places.

The party is not over! I will be on the Ghost Ship that is departing tonight at, ironically enough, Treasure Island. http://www.spacecowboys.org if you are curious.

I am signing off on this post covered in blood and ready for more. :)

That's my tale of the Halloween week. Who said it has to be just one day, after all?

I was overdue for a new toy.

Hence, I got a nifty little Socket SoMo 650-M handheld. It's the current top of the line Windows Mobile model. 624MHz, 128MiB RAM, 256MiB flash and support for both SD and CompactFlash cards.

MSRP? $700 and worth it.

My bargain find? $170 :)

Oh... and this handheld computer is rated for multiple drops to concrete... Given the state in which my phone is currently, that will be a very welcome and necessary feature!

A month ago I went to Burning Man.

I took my trusty Canon Rebel XT and my 50mm f/1.8 lens anticipating fun pictures along with an 8GB flash card.

In total, I took 1739 8MP images over about 3 days, most of them during a couple of days due to a heavy dust storm. Out of those, only 3 pictures are of me.

The final batch is being posted on my Flickr account as we speak.

It's http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiseleo/sets if you are curious, by the way.

I'd met many interesting people, of whom 10 claimed their pictures after the trip by contacting me. This is a very easy way to make new friends!

The hard part is tagging and sorting the pictures. Flickr's uploader tool is a "joy" to use as well, when it doesn't work and fails in the middle of an upload. :)

I am pleased that finally a month later I got everything uploaded.

Bank of America decided to upgrade their ATMs in San Francisco with check scanners. In theory, that's great.

As a computer geek, obviously I wanted to try it.

In practice... "Your check could not be processed. We are unable to return the document"

If it's important to be processed today, find a lower tech ATM that still accepts sealed envelopes. :)

Just thought I'd update this - Bank of America electronic claims was able to remedy the situation through their Electronic Claims Service. If this happens to you, call the 866 number immediately and they may post a matching credit to your account effective next day.

Thus, this is a curious incident, but it didn't affect me in any harmful way. :)

So here I was at some forsaken mall at Cheesecake Factory.

While waiting for the order, I figured why not go check out what's new at Hot Topic, which is one of my favorite stores.

I spotted a new CD called Nostradamus by Judas Priest, a double-CD release for $16.99. Now, that was cool. I haven't bought a CD in who knows how long, but this I had to have. The cover advertised a free ticket to the show.

I looked at the back, and much to my surprise, there is a date on August 31, 2008 at Shoreline in Mountain View.

The pleasant surprises continued at the cash register. The CD was actually only $11.99.

As a result of a supremely boring dinner, I got a reason to block off my day for August 31 with my free ticket to see Judas Priest live!

The last time I saw them was Ozzfest 2004 where I was a sponsor VIP guest. They absolutely stole the show!

By the way, I had a chance to listen to the CD. Very, very cool :)

I am excited about the concert!

This is rather interesting.

All my life I'd been testing as ENTP. Now that I finally figured out all my business strategies and began to successfully execute them, I've become an ENTJ, according to this test.

That's rather fascinating because apparently as you move from having an employee's mindset to having a business owner's mindset, that changes the personality this much.

Hmm, however, I still feel that I am an ENTP.

I'll be looking into this for more insight when I find more time.

On the Internet, I am known as wiseleo on just about every system. Even my lovely car wears the "Wise Leo" license plate. In short, I am really not a modest person and make no attempt to conceal this fact. Whether it's a strength or a weakness depends on your perspective, with which I am fine regardless of your choice.

You can very quickly run your background check on me now. There will be a few thousand hits and most of them will be on me.

However, on this system wiseleo is owned by some lady. Rather than settling for wiseleo2, wiseleo_, wiseleo_k or some other unimaginable nonsense, I decided to crown myself king.

You are welcome to serve me. :)