336. B2B Expo +

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Medium

Was on Medium just now and I’m still amazed by how much interesting content they have. An interesting piece on Seneca -- one of many? -- and another on existentialism and nihilism. Medium is almost always a handy way to start down a philosophical path. 

Seneca is always a mixed bag for me, Stoicism makes wonderful sense if you are a Stoic, the same is true with Buddhism. But this piece focused on Seneca’s ideas on how best to spend your time, or how best to not waste it. And this is problematic for the same reason Buddhism is problematic -- deciding what constitutes “wasted time” is not easy. Much of what Seneca -- or Cicero, for that matter -- would consider well spent time I would consider questionable at best. I can’t recall the name of the Roman poet I love to quote (Horace) who is so well spoken on enjoying life while you’re young, but I like his ideas too. Seneca was keen on spending time doing things that, in the end, ironically, probably had very little value. In his death tub I wonder if he had any second thoughts. Interesting that Seneca and Marat are both famous for dying in a tub.

Here's Horace:
"Tomorrow and her works defy;
Lay hold upon the present hour,
And snatch the pleasures passing by,
To put them out of Fortune's power.
Nor love nor love's delights disdain;
Whate'er thou gettist today is gain."

B2B 2019

My goal every year at this time is to avoid working Bay2Breakers. B2B is a charming SF tradition, a combination of a footrace across the peninsula and a party. There are clever costumes. There are always nude men. There’s still a lot of drinking. Working it is a pain. For years I dodged it by working Maker Faire and then last year, when we stopped doing Maker Faire, I switched to Himalayan Fair in Berkeley. This year I was unable to get a shift for that -- I’m not the only one trying to avoid B2B -- so I signed up for a Saturday shift at the B2B Expo instead. 

I wasn’t really happy about that move, but it worked out perfectly. For starters, we’ve been getting a series of winter storms in a month that should be the start of our dry season. Saturday was wet in a major way, so much so that they canceled the Himalayan Fair. And the B2B Expo turns out to be held inside one of the enclosed piers on our waterfront. Aside from some leaks, I got to work inside out of the rain on a day of serious precipitation. 

The only bad part was that I had to work my complete shift because we couldn’t finish before everything from the Expo had been hauled away, revealing all the signs and bundles of newspapers and random trash that the vendors left behind. It was a lot like the early days of volunteering for GreenFestival. Except that I was being paid and, being a much smaller event, it wrapped up hours earlier. 


The Bank Cafe

I’m currently sitting in the just opened remodeled section of the Bank Cafe. Now the center of the space is blocked off including the stairs. This is a huge improvement over before. And by that I mean over the previous blocked off state -- but also the remodel is quite nice, with more seating in the windows, for example and a much better sound system with better music to go with it. The most noticeable change, besides the new wood floor, is that everything overhead is now bright white except for the fire sprinkler pipes and the three oversize pendant shades over the central table, all of which are dark red. The new furniture is an improvement. Both better looking and just not as worn out. There are two small “rooms” on the Kearny side, I’m sitting in one now, and it appears that they are intended to have doors for increased privacy, though the doors are not installed as yet.

The biggest improvement is that we now have windows again for the first time in months. It was pretty oppressive. The trade-off being that not as many people have been working here so the WiFi has been better.