Sunday, December 22, 2019
Troubleshot problems with email filters in Apple Mail. All of my filters had incorrectly specified folders—everything was one folder off or no folder was specified. It took a lot of work to resolve. Patrick tried boiled-then-cooled water in the Sodastream today and decided that it was suitable and with no aftertaste that occurred with San Francisco tap water (but see later today). Rode UberX to The Great Dickens Christmas Fair and Victorian Holiday Party. Uber instructed our driver to enter at a gate for cars to park rather than drop off, so there was some confusion over how to be dropped off—use Gate 5 instead. At Gate 5 there was some confusion over whether we should drive in or walk in. We decided to cut our losses and asked the driver to drop us at the sidewalk. We walked in—about a four-minute walk to the entrance, realizing that we could have been dropped off instead. We entered, skipping the coat check until we could determine how comfortable we felt inside. We were hungry even before arriving, and the large newspaper map was very difficult to use to find food quickly. We found meat pies within a few minutes of wandering, placed and received an order, then walked to the nearby Victoria and Albert Bijou Music Hall to watch a performance in progress of Baron Munchausen and Fariy Mopsa Save Fairyland while we ate in the dark. After filling our stomachs we needed beverages. (It was too cumbersome to try to handle the food and beverage at the same time since no tables were near the meat pies place.) We found a nearby pub where we both got hot beverages. After a bit more wandering, we realized we were warm enough even without our coats, so we left them with the coat check. Finally, after maybe 45 or 60 minutes of our arrival, I felt comfortable and began to be amazed at how elaborate the entire fair production was. Everything seems very much like a small Dickens-era Londonesque village at Christmastime, and we saw many people in full costume. Some were playing cards, some were reading, some were resting, and many were eating or drinking like we were. After a number of times consulting the large newspaper map, I realized how useless it was, and we simply wandered without regard to trying to find specific things. The map has many different named neighborhoods, but there is little to help one remember the difference between, say, Nickelby Road and Tinsley Gate, much less what you'd find in either of those neighborhoods. It would have been better to make use of what people already knew, for example, West End, East End, North End, South End. Or, the map could have had letters along one side and numbers along another to assist with location identification, but it did not. The 3D artwork is beautifully detailed, but I found it very difficult to read in poor lighting, and I didn't want to pull out my phone's flashlight because that would have spoiled the effect of stepping into a different era. The map frequently uses centered text which is harder to read than left-justified text. There are a lot of show listings that could have been improved by having the data in borderless tables with times right-aligned. I was confused by names in parentheses following shop names, e.g., Cuthbert's Tea Shoppe (Honor) because I didn't know what the words in parentheses were for. (I thought these were somehow related to the neighborhood names, but I later realized that they are perhaps the names of the persons running each shop.) A pair of shop windows containing live, scantily clad women surprised me, since I saw this as a family event. I realized later that it was a corsetry shop whose entrance was around the corner. (This is also a fine way to legitimize sexist mores since one could argue that it is a somewhat authentic representation of the time and since there was no analog for men.) It seemed clear to me that a very few of the fully costumed women were intent on sexualizing their roles. Later we shared a Christmas dinner from a food vendor on Fish Street: roast beef, green beans, mashed potatoes, Yorkshire pudding. The food tasted good. We saw chimney sweeps, a man who seemed to have a wooden leg, young women talking quietly amongst themselves, and families in full costume. We stopped at Green Man Inn to hear David Copperfield and Charles Dickens recite from various works. We spent about three hours there, walking each street at least twice, and we were exhausted. When we interacted with others in costume, we frequently received dialogue that seemed in character. There was much more we could have seen, but we decided to return home. $33.95 each after ticketing fees. Upon leaving we walked across the street from the Cow Palace in hopes of avoiding the problem of the Uber driver arriving at the wrong location, but it didn't matter. The Uber driver was dropping off someone else at the same event and got stuck in the Gate 5 drop-off area for a long time before picking us up. In all, I was both amazed and disappointed by the event. I don't regret going, but also I would recommend it only with caveats. Dinner at home with Patrick: I prepared orange chicken from a frozen meal package, spicy shrimp fried rice from a frozen meal package, and sticky rice from an instant rice bowl. To drink: sparkling water for Patrick, pumpkin spice rooibos for me. Washed dishes. Vacuumed. Continued playing Shadowmatic on my iPad Pro after a long absence. Archived documents. Various software updates for home computers. Patrick changed his mind about the aftertaste with the boiled water. Next to try is distilled or Brita-filtered water. Sam sold his car today; Patrick said he needed the money.