Mail

I got a letter from Charles Schwab this morning.

That's not quite accurate. There was a piece of mail from Charles Schwab that came to my apartment building.

They use a very specific font on their return address: charlesSCHWAB. I am vaguely aware that it is a federal crime to open someone else's mail. I am not sure this applies to "junk mail." This is not an envelope, but rather a folded 30 page document.I can look inside without actually tearing any seals. Is that like entering without breaking? Does that hold up in a court of law? "But sir the door was open." I should find out .Charles Schwab refers to itself as "Investment Management Inc."The pamphlet suggests I sign up for edelivery at www.schwab.com/edelivery. Incredibly, it also lists Charles R. Schwab's birthday, 7/29/37.He is Chairman, CEO, Director of Charles Schwab Corp. Also he's a trustee of Standford University and until 05/04 Director of The Gap.

Google Earth

I went over to a friend's house tonight and he showed me Google Earth. It is amazing. Really if you are reading this and you haven't done it yet, now is the time. Open up another window, go to www.google.com, and type in "earth." It is a whole site based on feeds from the satelites that are up in the sky. You can look up your house and see satelite footage of your car, if you have one, or your neighbor's car. There seem to be more satelites over big cities, so the views of New York are amazing. The views of Benin are relatively vague. Unfortunately I ran into problems trying to run this on a mac. But Flash Earth works just as well. Plus then you get access to all of his other neat programs, like the stars.

I had a strange experience looking up my hometown. It was very nostalgic, and felt like a trip home. "There's my highschool" and "There's the reservoir." This is where I really wanted to be able to zoom in and see the faces of my family.There is something about the footage that feels live. I think it is because you can control the zoom. But of course all the footage is years old. It feels very real. I can understand wanting to issue parking tickets based on this footage.

First Photo


This evening I checked out the offices. I got there too early, though and couldn't see much inside but glare and reflections. Lucky for me there is a cafe across the street. At some point I'm gonna have to admit this is my favorite coffee shop in Berkeley.I sat there and drank coffee while I scoped out the scene.

There weren't any obvious security guards hanging around the building, and by 6pm it looked like most everyone had left the building. By 7pm it had gotten pretty dark, and I approached. I could now see inside well enough to distinguish objects, like a stapler on a desk. Several cubicles were empty. Some computers and printers were still on. I could see the blinking red light of a phone. In front the the reception desk there were kiosks for the public to use. I couldn't locate any cameras, but I am sure they are there.

I got a photo which I will attempt to post at this time. It looks like someone has a broken hard drive, and just left it sitting on that table. There is a post-it note attached but I can't read what it says.