Click Me! Click Me!

I've started playing with Google AdSense, which lets you place ads on your website and get paid when people click on them. I've placed a small box on the right sidebar of this blog between the Links and Previous Posts sections. I was inspired by this article about the biggest revenue earners from AdSense.

While I don't expect to make any money from clicks generated through this blog, I'm just experimenting to see how it all works in case I try to make money with it on other sites in the future. I could certainly place the ads in more visible & annoying places like at the top of the page or in the middle of the blog entries which Google suggests, but I don't want to make things ugly.

It will also be fun to see what ads they decide to show based on the content of my blog pages. Right now they are just showing public service announcements and ads for cars, but after the ad crawler goes over my site it will show ads related to the blog entries which could be fun!

So click away and make me a few cents! :)

SF Home Buying

I'm starting to think about buying a place in San Francisco. The housing market is softening a bit to the point where you can actually find something you like for a lot of money instead of something you don't like for a lot of money. Here are some resources I've found recently.

MLS listings cross-referenced with Google Maps & Mapquest:

• Movoto Real Estate
  
• The Choey Group

News Sites about new developments in SF:

• New Developments
  
• Buying Preconstruction Units
  
• SF Real Estate Blog

Loft Listings in San Francisco and the East Bay:

• Urban Bay San Francisco
  
• San Francisco Lofts
  
• Soma Pro Loft Listings
  
• Urban Bay East Bay

KSW APAture 2006 Opening Night

Checkout the opening night images.

The opening night was much bigger than I thought it would be! Hundreds of people came for the event, and 11 of the people I invited came to check out my stuff! I also randomly ran into people I hadn't seen since high school and college.

Kearny Street Workshop normally resides on just the third floor of 180 Capp St., but for this event, the artwork is spilling out into the halls and stairways. My three photos were placed near the entrance to the building on the ground floor. While not positioned in the main gallery, this is actually a good location because they're not stuck in the narrow stairway, and my images are amongst the first that people see when they are walking in the door with fresh eyes.

The first link above has images that Mulan and I took of my photos and fans that showed up. The second link will eventually have photos of the whole opening night that the event photographer took.

There is a price list of the items for sale, and at $350 each my photos seemed like a bargain compared to the prices for other photos on display. I also dropped of an artist statement and resume for KSW to have on hand for folks who many be interested in purchasing my images.

My first gallery showing is tomorrow night!

Three of my B&W urban landscape photos will be shown starting tomorrow night in Kearny Street Workshop's APAture 2006.

It's an annual art exhibition for "emerging, local Asian artists". It will be the first time my photos are shown in a gallery setting. The opening night is *tomorrow night*, Tuesday Sept. 19th from 6-9pm at 180 Capp St. in the Mission, San Francisco. I'm inviting everyone to come and checkout the various artwork and to schmooze with me and the other artists there. I'll be there from around 6-9pm.

Tickets for this are sliding scale $2-$5. They can be purchased at the door. If you miss that night, the visual arts exhibition which includes my photos will be going until Oct. 20. During this month there will also be performances which are part of the exhibition shown at various venues around SF. Checkout the links above for the schedule!

Babies! Babies!

Adam and Laura just had twins! I'm so happy for them. Recently I've been around them and other babies and infants. Except for playing with my nephew, I haven't had too much experience with kids before. So this has been good practice. I've been feeling the fathering instinct for the last couple of years, and being around kids recently has totally encouraged that.

Ideally, I'd like to have two which are close in age. Sometimes it works out so that siblings are close to each other and can really help each other through school and other aspects of life when the parents aren't around. My sister and I are a bit far apart in age and only started really talking after we both graduated college.