Try some stuff about the week long web class I'm taking right now in San Francisco. So far so good. What more is relevant? Lunch, to date, at three different restaurants, none of them much worth comment. We're not down near the Embarcadero at the foot of Market, where we attended our last class together, and the restaurants are good and plentiful. A look through Stacey's bookstore after lunch. They have a good selection of photography books. I managed not to buy one. Or two. But I'm returning tomorrow.

One of the vice presidents was fired Tuesday afternoon. Totally unexpected. She was given the news and was out on the street in thirty minutes. At least that's what I've been told. There's a long story here, one that I'm not knowledgeable enough or stupid enough to tell, but it gives us all a glimpse of how it might happen for someone at my level. Three minutes. Pack your desk, pack your cameras, grab your ass and say "goodbye". Goodbye.

Today was the last Wednesday for blues concerts this year over on Tenth street. An overcast and cold day today, an overcast and cold afternoon. I went by the brewery pub and had a Guinness, then walked over around the corner to the bandstand and shot maybe twenty pictures using new camera settings. Less light for the general shots, which have tended to be overexposed, more light for dark skin that doesn't fill the entire frame. I lost some last week because I hadn't opened up the camera enough. You have the same problem with any photograph taken with a strong back light. The meter is fooled and the people in the foreground turn into shadows. Shadow lady in bikini. Who is she? I think she's waving. Uncle Sammy at the beach, only you can't tell it's Uncle Sammy because, well, Uncle Sammy looks like the Mud Creature from the Deep Lagoon come to drag women back to his kingdom and entertain them in his bedroom, except, you know, it's all underwater, this kingdom, and the ladies drown. That Mud Creature. That kind of photograph. Like some of the ones I took last week.

Hi, ho. Long day, long week. Tired, although I seem to get to bed at a decent hour. The Labor Day Weekend coming. Oakland is having a festival of sorts. Close by, easy to reach, no need to drive. Sounds fine.