The San Francisco Zoo

We had six people for the game, five of us staying the whole time, ordering pizza for dinner around 10. We found a few really good maps which promoted a lot of combat and chaos, my favorite being a "space platform" one with multiple levels and a lot of "jumping pads" which throw you into the air.

I'm clearly not the best of us, but I'm not the worst either. I have a high variability in my game: Sometimes I have a terrific game, and then I turn right around and have a terrible game. (Game quality is measured in how many kills you rack up before someone hits 20. I'll have an 18-kill game followed by a 2-kill game.) I have a tendency to do a lot of jumping, which I am starting to learn does not substantially improve my ability to dodge shots from good players and makes it considerably harder for me to aim. So I need to start repressing that reflex and practice my aim. Aim is everything.

The best part of the game is coming up beside someone or lining up a perfect shot on someone who's not looking at you. We played with our telephones conferencing everyone in, so when I got off a shot like that, my target would go, "Where the fuck did that come from?" That's sooooo satisfying!

Yes, it's yet another addictive game. I hope they eventually release a version of their maps editor for the Mac; I'd be willing to try my hand at creating a couple of maps, even if they do take a lot of work.

Today I somehow struggled out of bed after only seven and a half hours of sleep and went up to meet Lucy and John so we could go to the San Francisco Zoo. Fortunately, they were also slow to get up (or, at least, John slept in) so I didn't have to rush to get there.

Here are some pictures of things we saw at the zoo:

	A Cassowary (88k) (which I think is a really cool name, albeit one which sounds like it was computer-generated). This flightless bird seems very well adapted to life: It tends to stay hidden where possible, but can run very fast and can tear things apart with its large claws. What more could a grazing animal want?
	Bird swimming near Eagle Island. (104k) I think the ones in the foreground and the darker one by the reeds may be pelicans.
	A Capybara and a Tapir. (116k) The Capybara is apparently the world's largest rodent.
	The Andean Condor spreads its wings. (92k)
	The Giant Anteater forages for food. (84k)
	The gorilla pit. (44k) The alpha male is on the left, a female gorilla is on the right, and the year-and-a-half-old baby is in the middle. We spent quite a while watching the alpha male and the baby play together in the nest behind the big central tree. It was really cute. We got to see each of them thumping their chests, and even see the baby thumping on the male's chest. They were having a great time!
	The female gorilla sits and watches the humans with suspicion. (28k) Did you know that the scientific name for a gorilla is "Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla"? This exhibit is worth the trip all by itself.
	Otters. (64k)
	A pair of Indian Elephants eating. (88k) The one on the left would periodically grab one of the fence wires and rub her trunk back and forth along it. We wondered why.
	Penguins swimming. (80k) Unlike other zoos I've been to where the main view of the Penguins is from below in the water tank, here you have a great view of the penguins from above, and can see them all swimming around in the pond. There were a couple dozen of them swimming around, and boy can they move! There were also some greedy seagulls walking around.

The SF zoo is in the process of updating many of their exhibits, but the one most in need of updating is the cat house, which is one of those old-style buildings with multiple cages that the cats sit in. The cats never look very happy in these places, although I think cats basically dislike being caged regardless. But they really need to build some nice pits to hold the lions and tigers.

That said, they have some wonderfully elegant lions and tigers here. The tigers are especially pretty. But one of the lionesses spent some time playing with a large ball, grabbing it with her paws and licking at it. It was almost just like what my housecats do! Cute! The cats mostly ignore you if you talk to them, though.

Another fine exhibit were the Aye-Ayes, which are Madigascaran primates who are mainly nocturnal. Their house is largely dark, and you have to look closely to see them. They don't look much like monkeys - probably they're part of the same family as lemurs. But they climb around much like monkeys.

The hippos and smaller cats are also worth seeing. The hippos were swimming around and yawning or grunting a lot.

I'm glad I finally got to the zoo; it's a good one. It has a lot of open space and took us a good two or three hours to walk through (including lunch), and we didn't even really have a look at the bears, zebras, giraffes, or the Australian exhibit, never mind the Children's Zoo.

After the zoo we hung out at Lucy and John's for a while and chatted. Had a good time.

I left around 5:30 and went to Cafe Borrone and read comics and started the next Peter Wimsey novel. Had dinner and all that. Also stopped at Know Knew Books where I scored a hardcover (non-book club!) edition of C.J. Cherryh's Cyteen for only $25! It's in nearly perfect condition, and probably would go for $100 or more normally. Quite a find.

Stopped off at work on the way home to grab some stuff and played a little Quake with Tom on an Internet server. But we only played for 45 minutes; I do have some discipline! Still, I played around on the net when I got home and still got to bed too late. Sigh.