voidstar

If you are interested in additional angles or slightly higher resolution images of this building/area, refer to my notes at the bottom of this link... https://voidstar.blog/san-francisco-california-2021/ My original are about 6000x3036 resolution. The "two guys" forum host at 1200x607, while WordPress is resizing it to 2000x1012 (I understand these forums need to conserve bandwidth, and appreciate that they adjust to reasonable sizes for bandwidth reasons - that's the part that makes building these kinds of forums a bit tricky, detecting a users mobile vs hardline connection and on the fly transcoding as needed). Thanks for still hosting this forum Al and crews. Going on a little tangent here, I've been pondering the following: an old timer in the 1980s would say "the world sure has changed a lot in the last 30 years"... and now, here in 2020, I can say exactly the same thing: "the world sure has changed a lot in the last 30 years." Both in technology and social customs. There is an old StarTrek TNG episode where Troy loses her ability to "turn off" her telepathic abilities - and she becomes overwhelmed by hearing everyone's thoughts. I tend to think modern society is dealing with the same situation - with social media and connected devices, it's no longer possible to really mind your own business. Anyway, progress happens and things change - but I sure had more fun back in the 80's. But I realize the same exact thing could have been said in the 1920s... an old timer then would have reflected: people used to just ride horses in the 1880s, and didn't need these complicated cars, street rules, licenses, insurance.... I had a dream years ago: it was about self sustained cities in orbit, and the entire Earth surface had become a kind of National Park. I imagine such orbiting cities will still need janitors 🙂 In honor of Sierra OnLine overall, I trekked to Glacier Point so I could provide an update on the Half Dome using a 24 megapixel sensor (taken 2 days ago Aug 10). Cheers to Living Legends! v*

By unique circumstances, I ended up staying in Oakhurst just last night (after a long day of touring Yosemite). I've been a Sierra adventure game fan since the mid-1980s, so this was quite a treat for me personally (especially having recently finished Ken's book released late last year). This felt to me like some kind of pilgrimage to sacred grounds of the legend of Sierra. My visit was entirely impromptu. We had only 4 hours to get to SF International Airport (from Oakhurst). Sunrise was at 6:10am. Long story short, all this meant I had only 45 minutes to pay my respects. However, I did happen to have my King's Quest shirt with me - I toss that on and was out the hotel by 6:15am. I'll work on a longer summary of events (and post a link reference when that is ready), to find a way to provide/archive higher resolution images. But as a brief summary, here is an August 2021 status update on the two addresses mentioned earlier. I organized the addresses like this, which is altogether a tour of about 1 mile apart: A) "original" SQ address/Sierra HQ (but not the original above the photoshop store) 48677 Victoria Lane Oakhurst, CA 98644 B) steel barn, now SierraTel (I assume a local telephone company) 40033 Sierra Way 426 Oakhurst, CA C) highly recommend this hotel - the newer hotels next door were $254, while Yosemite Southgate was $164. My wife is very picky about hotel rooms, and she was very pleased with Southgate. Yosemite Southgate Hotel and Suites 40644 Hwy 41 Oakhurst, CA 93644 D) Driving thru town on Hwy 41, you can't really miss this landmark... Talking Bear 49015 Road 426 Oakhurst, CA 93644 Here are some highlights/notes: - at the time of my visit (August 2021), two lanes of the road in the north east part of town along Hwy 41 appeared to be in the process of being replaced (they were all dirt, lots of construction) - Talking Bears eyes seems to have been changed/upgraded within the past decade (just based on past videos - I believe at some point he had painted eyes, but now they appear as brown glass eyes) - SierraTel now has a gate entrance. I was there around 6:30am, service trucks were starting to enter (there is an open section in the chain link fence for these trucks, towards the left of the main entrance). I don't believe this black gate was there in 2016 (it's like a typical apartment community gate: coded entry, and closes automatically). - The "other side" of the SierraTel steel buildings is Oakhurst Elementary school, which has quite a few buildings - the area the school is at seems to have been completely redone around 2012 (i.e. old buildings town down, new ones placed). - after reading Ken Williams 2020 book about Sierra, it is somewhat fitting to me that there is a small "Sierra Chapel" in front of this steel building that is a crematorium. My photo of this came out poorly, but I suspect it should be visible in any Google Earth drive-by. [ when I first saw the "Sierra Chapel" sign, I truly did initially think that someone had created a little shrine to Sierra OnLine -- but no, that wasn't the case here ] - the property further up the hill from Address A (the "SQ" building) is titled "Chateau du Sureau" / "Erna's Elderberry House" subtitle "In the classic tradition of old Europe" (looks like an up-scale spa) [ no idea on the history of this proper, such as if it was a spa also back in the 1980s ] - I am also attaching a view towards Oakhurst as you are leaving the "Sierra SQ building" - The "SQ building" is still called "AdventistHealth", but the "Community Center" part of the title seems to have been dropped since 2016. I have some additional photos, but I don't know the attachment limitations here. Again, I'll try to prepare a longer description, and post a link to that here (which should hopefully also provision for full resolution images). I realize these are just buildings now - but still, I was very honored to have this brief opportunity with what I consider to be computing history landmarks. -v*