(no subject)

[jfb]

Some things I did today:

• Donated a computer and a bunch of computer stuff to Computer Recycling Center, a nonprofit that reassembles components into working systems that it sells cheap to schools, and disassembles other components to their recyclable parts.
  
• Went next door to Weird Stuff, an institution that could exist only in Silicon Valley, a store whose inventory consists mostly of stuff no one wants--and yet, someone does! Mainframe cabinets, 1G hard drives, keyboards for Sun workstations from the 80s, a big bin of detached laptop touchpads ($3 apiece), manuals for forgotten Microsoft networking software.
  
• Missed brunch at Country Gourmet for the second time, because on Saturdays brunch ends at 1, not 2.
  
• Went to Turmerik for a buffet that included the first gulab jamun I've ever had that tasted like dessert instead of a menu obligation.
  

Something I love about this area is the sheer variety of languages I can hear just going out for an afternoon. I don't know for sure what most of them are, but for the sake of argument let's say I heard a young couple teasing each other in Russian, someone being worried in Cantonese, something from the subcontinent at lunch, a kid pestering his mom for cookies in French, always some Spanish here and there, and many more in the background.