New Contributor Interview: Chuck Jordan
SFist readers may have noticed a quantum leap in the depth of our technology analysis in recent months. That is due to our new contributor Chuck Jordan. The world really started to pay attention to Chuck when he broke down Apple’s announcement of the video iPod. If you can stop playing with your new gadget long enough, make sure to read the comments on that post since they are almost as awesome as the post itself.
You may also have noted a trend among new SFist contributors—they are not lovers of the Mission Burrito. Before you scream “un-SanFranciscan”! we’ll hasten to point out that Chuck is a video game designer and programmer which gives him some serious Bay Area credentials. Look for him next time you hit your neighborhood Best Buy, and make sure to keep reading his awesome tech coverage.
I wanted to be a SFist contributor because:
Rain lied to me, saying "you'd be good at it" and "they pay you in Snickers bars."
Name
Chuck Jordan
Introduce yourself in one sentence
I can't shake the feeling that I'm not supposed to be here.
Age and Occupation
34, Videogame designer and programmer
Home Town
Conyers, GA
How long have you lived in the Bay Area and Where?
About 10 years in the Bay Area, the last 1 and a half in the Panhandle of San Francisco. Moved out here to get a job for a videogame company.
Favorite website
Achewood is just about the best thing on the internet ever. Runner-up to Gizmodo for making gadget & tech news actually entertaining to read.
Favorite local business
Since Best Buy probably doesn't count as a local business, I'll say Isotope Comic Lounge. They get about as close to "cool" as you can get from a comic book store, and help dispel the notion that being a dork requires you to be anti-social as well.
What I'm currently Reading
"Monstrous Regiment" by Terry Pratchett, and when I get a chance, "Food in History" by Reay Tannahill. Next up is a biography of Robert E. Lee by Roy Blount, Jr.
Best Deal in San Francisco
I guess the curry soba at Mifune in Japan Center is the closest I can find.
Favorite mode of transportation
My car. I still don't have the patience for MUNI. And those bastards outlawed Segways.
Favorite local hangout
I guess Best Buy doesn't qualify for this one, either? Zam Zam's on Haight St is kind of cool, but small. And the Crow Bar is good for getting everybody you know together for a birthday.
SF has the BEST:
Affectations.
You've never lived in SF until:
You've paid more in rent for a one-bedroom apartment than your parents' mortgage payment.
You can tell someone is a local here IF: it's sunny and warm and they're still wearing a jacket.
SF would be soooo much better if only:
It weren't so expensive and there were more BART stations and people were a little friendlier and it weren't as cold.
Best Burrito:
The one I haven't eaten. I'm not big on the burritos.
Best Restaurant:
On the Bridge in Japan Center. (It's got curry and comic books.)
Best movie scene filmed in or about SF:
That chase scene in "The Rock" where they hit every single stereotype about SF in five minutes. It was just standard Palace of Fine Arts and jumping over hills and narrowly missing trolley cars until the bit where they hit the truck filled with bottled water, which knocked it over the top into brilliance.
I want all the SFists out there to know:
That we do live in a bubble, but that the rest of the country isn't as hopeless as we like to believe.
Tell us a San Francisco Story:
I read the phrase "theme park for adults" describing SF in a guide book before I moved out here. I didn't think much of it until I found out that Emperor Norton was a real person, I saw cars queuing up to drive down Lombard St, I saw an unannounced fireworks show over the bay from the base of Coit Tower, and I couldn't get any work done because the Blue Angels kept flying over my neighborhood. Plus, everything here is almost as expensive as it is at Disneyland. I'm still trying to work out what the theme is, though.
Place you always tell visitors to check out:
The Mechanical Museum, which sums up everything about San Francisco -- old, novel, and creepy.
Favorite Bridge in the area:
The sight of the Golden Gate, when coming out of the Waldo tunnel from Marin, still impresses me 10 years after the first time I saw it.
You have two hours and $15 bucks to kill in SF, what are you going to do?
Take a cab from my apartment to downtown. Then I'd spend the remaining hour waiting for a bus back home and use the remaining $1.50 to pay the fare.
Question you'd ask if you were doing this interview:
Are you going to eat that?