In my opinion, San Diego is now seriously over-built. Condominia are going unsold all over town. But development continues none-the-less. Through-out the country, the real estate market has been driven by more than simple considerations of supply-and-demand. And San Diego is one of the places where the results have been notably grotesque.

Some of my searches on Google are resulting in a 403 error return (Forbidden) from Google itself, with this message:

We’re sorry…

… but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.

We’ll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

If you’re continually receiving this error, you may be able to resolve the problem by deleting your Google cookie and revisiting Google. For browser-specific instructions, please consult your browser’s online support center.

If your entire network is affected, more information is available in the Google Web Search Help Center.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we’ll see you again on Google.

This is, of course, a bit annoying. But it is also interesting, as it says that Google is acting to stop the use of their system by malware. However, I don’t see how spyware per se would make use of Google.

The searches in which I’ve engaged which have triggered this have used the Google site operator, and have looked for a PHP-generated page. Further, the 403 error return is more likely to come after I have moved through multiple pages of results.

My inclination is to think that what Google is really trying to block is some sort of zombie searching for vulnerabilities in the sites to which it provides links.

Phillip made a surprise appearance at Babycakes yester-day. When I called him earlier, he gave no hint that he was in San Diego (as opposed to the Solipsistic Bay Area). During the course of our conversation, I walked from my home to Babycakes. I inferred from the noises from his end that he was running errands in his car. At some point, he was heard ordering coffee. Then I spotted him in Babycakes; he had ordered the coffee there.

Phillip hadn’t been told of my mutton-chop sideburns, but now understands indeed what sort of change to my appearance has been effected such that a few people have since failed to recognize me. (For his part, Phillip has grown a mustache and goatee.)

Setting aside further discourse on what is and should be called the Midwest, I guess that the largest part of our conversation involved politics. (Phillip and I disagree on many issues, but neither of us looks forward to the next Administration, as we both see the two major-party candidates as each a technocratic centrist not really all that much different from his opponent.) We also talked about mutual friends, at least one of whom Phillip hopes to rope into hanging-out somewhere during his visit, about relatives, about the changes at Babycakes, about computers, and about hats.

Our conversation continued until Babycakes closed; we went thence to City Deli for a late dinner. Afterwards, we walked back to where he’d parked and talked until about 01:40.

Although I was told that the baby grand piano of David’s Coffee Place would be replaced by an upright piano at Babycakes, the latest that I’d heard is that they’d since determined not to do this. Now, I’m not sure that they’ve really determined against it; it may be merely that they are postponing installation of the upright piano until after renovation of the south room (in which the baby grand piano used to be).

I don’t actually know where the mass of opinion is amongst the present customer base. Chris, the regular pianist, used to do 90-minute medleys, drawing largely upon popular music from the age of Gershwin and Porter. Some people find it hard to connect to such music, and for them it was made harder still because Chris chose other than dance arrangements. Many people are only comfortable with music with the rhythms of dance, even if no one is going to be dancing.

The other thing that has happened, musically, at Babycakes, is that they are drawing on a different sort of music for the sound system, and playing it much louder. I was told that this change was because they now sell beer and wine, as opposed to being just a coffee place. I’m not sure how to interpret this reasoning unless the idea is that, because they sell some of the same product as would a bar, they feel that their music should be more like that of a bar.

On this score, I can tell where the mass of opinion is amongst the present customer base; it’s mostly negative. People want to be able to converse without raising their voices, and they’re not pleased to have the sins of the ’70s and ’80s return.

Now, I refer to the present customer base, because the new owners presumably want a larger customer base, and that may mean a very different customer base. None-the-less, I don’t think that many people are particularly going to want to shout over Olivia Newton John as they sip merlot or nibble on raspberry tarts.

(Underscore mine.)

Also, it takes increasing amounts of money to buy stuff. And prices are going up.

A few days ago, Phillip asked to just what the term Midwest refers (this question leading towards a more vexing question). I told him that the region was somewhat vaguely defined, but that in my mind it included the states from Ohio to-and-including Nebraska, and those to their north.

(The more vexing question is then of why it should be called the Midwest, when it is geographically centered to the east of the geographical center of even just the contiguous United States.)

In the course of our conversation, I consulted a 1975 edition of The American Heritage Dictionary, which said that the Midwest ran roughly from Ohio through Iowa, which is one state to the east of Nebraska (thus centering the Midwest even further to the east). Later, I discovered that the United States Bureau of the Census includes Nebraska in the Midwest. Further, some would include West Virginia and Kentucky, and some would exclude Missouri.

For now, it is the Question of Nebraska that exercises me. I have placed a poll at my 'blog.

I often pass this granite building: Erected in 1912, at the south-east corner of the intersection of Robinson Avenue and Third Avenue, it was originally the First Church of the United Brethren in Christ. According to what I’ve read, it served a Free Methodist congregation from 1950 until the late ’60s or early ’70s. (In 1946, the United Brethren in Christ had merged with the Evangelical Association to form the United Evangelical Church; perhaps they’d consolidated places of worship.) From 1971 until 1988, the building housed a gallery for art (with a theme of the American West), and still has doors carved to read Thackery Gallery. In the late ’90s, it was turned into six apartments.