Google’s street viewer freaks me out. There’s something weird about out in public internationally just by going out on the street in front of your apartment, you know? “In public” just got a whole lot bigger.

To get myself a little more comfortable with it, though, I went back to San Francisco (one of the first street-viewer cities) and toured some familiar locations.

First, here’s the Indian restaurant we ate at, on the recommendation of a local bookstore owner, while our car was being robbed. Good food, though. Atmospheric bathroom. This place is right across the street from the magnificent Fields Book Store, where I dropped a ridiculous amount of money on reference books for Requiem for Rome and got pointed at the Indian place across the street which, you’ll recall from earlier in this paragraph, we ate at while being robbed.

Next we have the spot where our car was parked when some dudes tried to pry off the rubber around a back window and ended up busting it instead. They made off with my backpack, full of DVDs, CDs, books and clothes meant to fly back to Atlanta with me. Ah, well. Gone is gone. But, I guess, be careful if you park up here.

Finally, here’s Games of Berkeley, the well-stocked, well-lit, clean and happy game store on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley. This is a regular stop for me whenever I’m out there. (I also stop by Gamescape, on Divisidero up near Haight, when I can.)

Why have I told you all this? No good reason, really.

Music: Cake, “Cool Blue Reason”