(Part 2) Top products from r/AskSF

1. Power of Now. Changed my life. Read with an open mind. Let the spaghetti stick to the wall where it will. Not all of it will stick. But some will.
   
   
2. How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty. Opens your eyes to common social traps.
   
   
3. The Empty Boat: Encounters with Nothingness. This one's hard to get through, because ego, but worth the slog. Read #1 first.
   
   I wish you well. Know that you're not alone. I understand the feeling. Also recommend therapy, ideally someone of the same gender. There are certain gender-specific issues that are best understood/empathized with by a therapist of the same gender.

> Is there a good resource for finding out where the fog is in San Francisco?

Look out the window?

Sorry for the snarky joke. :)

Besides weather forecasts, the prevailing weather patterns in San Francisco are actually pretty interesting.

There is no coincidence that the ancient location of the main Indian village (in what is now San Francisco) is in the Mission District, which is the warmest and sunniest part of the City.

Pam Pierce wrote an interesting book about the microclimates of SF.

The bottom line is that fog is cool air, and cool air likes to sink. Therefore the fog zones all are the lowest pathways for air flow. The Golden Gate is the biggest of these. Also, the low point in the ridgeline near Daly City tends to collect the fog. The converse is that areas protected by high points tend not to be foggy, so therefore the areas with airflow blocked by Twin Peaks tend to be sunny.

Start here: https://www.amazon.com/Francisco-Street-Secrets-David-Eames/dp/0935182756. It's a history of SF from the view of it's citizens that have had our streets named after them. It's a fascinating book!

The "bad" sections of town are the Tenderloin and Bay View/Hunter's Point 'hoods. They're "bad" because they house poor residents and the area are prone to drug and human trafficking, as well as violence.

The "Muni Metro" subway is nice, but it's starting to show its age. Each station has different colored walls and floors to distinguish one from the other. They've finished boring out the main tunnel for the new "Central Subway" under Stockton Street, and how they're (block by block) ripping up the street and inserting the infrastructure around the tunnel.

It almost never snows in SF. I've lived here 20 years and I've seen it once (it evaporated before it touched the ground at Haight Street and Market Street, and this was at night!) and a friend "out in the Avenues" had a sleet / snow storm that laid out a couple of inches a few years ago. Other than those "freak" occurrences the Winter months are (WERE!) usually raining and overcast. However with the ongoing drought in California our Winter's have been pretty dry lately.

The "High Class" 'hoods are Pacific Heights and Sea Cliff.

The last two I cannot answer as they're too subjective. What's expensive to me wouldn't be to another, and "coolest" is far more subjective than just $ or $$$!

One of the biggest issues facing the city now is "Techies". These are well paid, IT-related, young professionals that are moving into the city and rents have been skyrocketing. SF is a very NIMBY city so for years now no one wanted to allow high density building in their 'hoods. Hence a shortage of rental units. We also have some very Renter-centic laws in the city that have owners of apartment buildings just not renting them out and having to deal with those laws.

That should be enough for you to get started on your research. Let me know if anything else comes up.

Personal Note: One of my favorite books is Altered Carbon (https://www.amazon.com/Altered-Carbon-Takeshi-Kovacs-Novels/dp/0345457684/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474925617&sr=1-1&keywords=altered+carbon). It's a sci-fi novel based in SF that's intelligent, very well written and trippy as hell. The author does a great job basing it in SF, but not falling into the trap of "over explaining" the details/scenery to "prove a point". (I hope that makes sense.) It was a joy to read because of that. I could "tell" where they were by what he was describing!

Salon founder David Talbot chronicles the cultural history of San Francisco and from the late 1960s to the early 1980s when figures such as Harvey Milk, Janis Joplin, Jim Jones, and Bill Walsh helped usher from backwater city to thriving metropolis.

http://www.amazon.com/Season-Witch-Enchantment-Terror-Deliverance-ebook/dp/B005C6FDFY/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Cool, Gray City of Love brings together an exuberant combination of personal insight, deeply researched history, in-depth reporting, and lyrical prose to create an unparalleled portrait of San Francisco. Each of its 49 chapters explores a specific site or intersection in the city, from the mighty Golden Gate Bridge to the raunchy Tenderloin to the soaring sea cliffs at Land's End.

http://www.amazon.com/Cool-Gray-City-Love-Francisco-ebook/dp/B00D78R550/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1451757678&sr=1-1&keywords=cool+grey+city+of+love

Not a book, but this American Experiance episode is fantastic.

In 1957, decades before Steve Jobs dreamed up Apple or Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, a group of eight brilliant young men defected from the Shockley Semiconductor Company in order to start their own transistor business. Their leader was 29-year-old Robert Noyce, a physicist with a brilliant mind and the affability of a born salesman who would co-invent the microchip -- an essential component of nearly all modern electronics today, including computers, motor vehicles, cell phones and household appliances.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/silicon/

Also, not related to San Francisco directly, but focusing on California and the west, if you want to understand why California is the way it is today, this is on the list of essential reading material.

http://www.amazon.com/Cadillac-Desert-American-Disappearing-Revised/dp/0140178244

Does it also need to be small, lightweight, and durable since it's going in your backpacking gear for a few weeks? How many weeks? Will it be in hot and dry conditions or hot and humid?

The only thing that I can think of is maybe an interesting tin of tea from Red Blossom Tea Company. But you'd want to make sure you secure the tin closed somehow and that no moisture gets into it...

Is the recipient male or female? Age?

EDIT:

Oh, how about a SF themed coloring book for adults?

Or a wallet made by one of the many local companies that are super into making durable bags. Timbuk2, waterfield, rickshaw, etc.

Or if you want to be super worried your whole trip, the SF city mug from Starbucks is very pretty.

This is a really great idea. So many great neighborhoods to see! Check out this resource:

http://www.amazon.com/City-Walks-Francisco-Revised-Adventures/dp/1452109885

PM me, maybe I have these at home and I can send you jpgs of the cards.

Try to string together Chinatown (stockton, not grant), North Beach, Marina, Divisidero, Haight, Hayes Valley, Castro, Mission. Would love to see your final route!

Haha... sorry to skeeve you out!

But I only checked because I was like, "hmm, I feel like I answered this same exact question last week" ... and lo and behold it was indeed also from you.

Anyways- you might check out this book by Po Bronson, it's called "What Should I do with my Life" and it's a nice analysis of people trying to figure out where to live/what to do with there careers/family/finding professional fulfillment etc.

imo sounds like yours is more an issue with attitude than latitude- seems like family/house/hobbies/everything else is good in SD- maybe just start your own company down there, find fulfillment doing something on the side, do some consulting or write a book or something if you aren't professionally being challenged.

Cheers.

Hello fellow newcomer! My wife and I have lived here about the same amount of time. I bought her Stairway Walks in San Francisco for Christmas and it has taken us to some fascinating places this past week. Highly recommended!

Off the Beaten Path Northern California is fairly useful. It gives details on museums, hikes, points of interest etc and lists potentially helpful websites/resources at the end of each section.

Closer to home there is Golden Gate Trailblazer which lists hiking, biking, jogging and kayaking outings in San Francisco and Marin County.

If you want to do some reading, I have a few recommendations:

FoundSF and their links page

Outside Lands — focuses on the western neighborhoods

Cool Gray City of Love by Gary Kamiya

The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld by Herbert Asbury

City for Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco by Chester Hartman — fairly dry political history, but it provides a lot of valuable context for the ongoing fights over housing and development.

Can you get it from Amazon in Canada? http://www.amazon.com/Bigelow-Cinnamon-Stick-Tea-20-Count/dp/B000GFYRIK

Here's an old book that might be helpful.

This, This, and this, and then this

Install a low flow shower head.

If you already have one, get a flow control valve.

DANCO Shower Volume Control Shut-Off Valve, Chrome, 1.6 inch, 1-Pack (89171) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JFNPJE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_6FDyCbZ21BD7G

I've went through a few and alot of them fail after a while/don't hold their charge.

Talked with a few AAA service and alot of them recommended this:

http://www.amazon.com/Jump-N-Carry-JNC660-1700-12-Volt-Starter/dp/B000JFJLP6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1453145747&sr=8-3&keywords=car+battery+jumper

Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas by Rebecca Solnit!

She explores the area thematically — connecting, for example, Eadweard Muybridge's foundation of motion-picture technology with Alfred Hitchcock's filming of Vertigo. Across an urban grid of just seven by seven miles, she finds seemingly unlimited landmarks and treasures: butterfly habitats, queer sites, murders, World War II shipyards, blues clubs, Zen Buddhist centers. She roams the political terrain, both progressive and conservative, and details the cultural geographies of the Mission District, the culture wars of the Fillmore, the South of Market world being devoured by redevelopment, and much, much more.

Also a hoodie. Your friend will need layers. Layer her right on up.