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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Pictures and video of South Beach, Fleet Week, and motorcycles.

Here a bunch of pictures I took around South Beach Harbor, AT&T Park, Fleet Week, and some videos of awesome motorcycle riding at Pier 30/32.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Airsoft and laser tag at Escape Sonoma County

Airsoft

This past weekend I went to Escape in Rohnert Park to play airsoft. For those that don't know, airsoft is played like paintball, but the guns shoot plastic BBs instead of paint. The guns are generally realistic replicas of military firearms, as opposed to the funky looking paintball guns. A lot of the guns are such accurate replicas that accessories designed for the real guns fit the airsoft guns.

At Escape airsoft is only played on Sundays, and they use the same arena as QZAR laser tag. The arena is a close quarters battle (CQB) field, it consists of a bunch of little rooms with windows and doors, and random barrels everywhere (just like in video games!). In first-person shooter (FPS) terms the gametype in Team Deathmatch (TDM) without respawn. The rounds end up being pretty short, probably because the area is quite small (5000 sq ft). Overall it's a lot of fun, the people are friendly, and it's well worth the money.

Monday, October 3, 2011

What the... Cherry.com washed my car for free!

A few days ago I was walking down the street and I saw two guys with bright red shirts, they looked kind of like Facebook employee shirts, except they said Cherry on them. And they were putting business cards on cars, including my car. I took the card off my car, it said:

"The Carwash that comes to you
Park anywhere, check in online and we'll wash you car right where you left it, in real time.
Get your free carwash at cherry.com"
What a brilliant idea! I live in an area of San Francisco without driveways and hose hookups. Getting a car wash means I have to drive somewhere, and lose my valuable parking space. The business card has been sitting on my desk for a few days, and tonight I decided to sign up. Registration was easy and they have a good website (once you login). I browsed around the site, their HQ is a couple blocks away, and they are hiring a front-end dev. Normally car washes are $25, but I get a free one, I decided I'd use it later this week.

All this thinking about my car made me remember, it's street cleaning tonight, I have to move my car--right now. So I rush out the door. I find two more Cherry business cards on my car. Luckily I find a good parking spot on a different street. As I'm closing my car door I notice something, the door is smooth, like really smooth, like just waxed smooth. What the...!? I haven't washed my car in over a month, it's too much of a pain. I only drive once every few weeks. My car should be filthy... but it's clean... really clean.

Yes, Cherry washed my car for free, and I didn't even ask them to. I don't know whether they were supposed to wash another car and washed mine by accident, or if this is just brilliant marketing. But I'm happy! I tried to think, is there a time I wouldn't want my car washed for free? I try to avoid drive-through car washes, but I'm always in favor of a good hand wash. If I had I classic car or a show car, I wouldn't want it washed by a random person. Then again, if I had a show car I wouldn't park it on the street covered in two months of dust. Cherry probably thought through the same thing. Most people are going to be happy, just don't wash any '65 Mustangs or Lamborghini Murcielagos without being asked.

Cherry's website says they are "building an online/offline technology to connect consumers with services they use every day." I have a feeling they are planning to do more than wash cars. It's a closed beta, if you want a free car wash click here. Cherry is on Twitter @Cherry.