The ALCAIDE’S CAFE

The Alcaide’s cafe was once quite the scene. There was always hot conversation and strong opinions about all sorts of topics - all the latest issues and controversies in science and religion and the politics thereof. Then, close to three years ago, the cafe was closed, a victim of cyber-eminent domain. The digital-space where it was built was suddenly confiscated. Blogs weren’t making the bucks, I guess, so the server-hosts where the Alcaide ran his cafe, in the best traditions robber barons and Justice Souter, simply told the him that his bandwidth was going to be converted into some other business. The Alcaide and his cafe - and those of us who practically lived there - were on the street with nowhere to go.

Unfortunately, while the Alcaide and we patrons have lots of ideas and lots of passion with which we express and debate them, none of us are too savvy about software and computers and cyberstuff. We tried to rebuild the cafe’s Movabletype home, but failed miserably. The place was left a heap of broken files and data bases, and we gave up. It wasn’t until I was surfing around the web, one day, that I stumbled across WordPress. WordPress was what Movabletype used to be. WordPress is that same sort of bohemian community Movabletype was before being bought out by Six Flags or Six something. WordPress people work together like the communes I once knew in my younger days. Everyone helps everyone else, even to the point of installing a blog and creating thousands of skins and themes free for the taking. Even better, WordPress is the software of choice of my own cyberhost, Netfirms, who also gives lots of help and advice in building a blog. I wasted little time in talking the Alcaide and some old friends into reopening the cafe.

So, who am I? Most the old Alcaide Cafe crowd call me Bear. I’m a very close friend of the Alcaide. I am probably the person you’ll most likely meet, and get into a conversation with, here. I’m practically the “host”, the “maitre d”, and professor emiritus of the cafe. I hang out all the time. Semi-retired, and with lots of time on my hands, I love to just sit around sharing a glass or cup or schooner (whichever you prefer) and talk about the world.

My first college degree, was in Political Science. I’d dropped out of physics when I became a rather (typical) radical anti-war and anti-bomb student at Berkeley. Having grown up a bit since then, I really wish I hadn’t. Physics, astronomy, and cosmology still remain my first love and interest! My second was anthropology. I taught a lot of anthropology, by the way, at various U.C campuses. As for my third degree, well I never quite finished that one, getting sidetracked into running for office in California. (I won.) When I decided to leave politics, I moved to Washington State to get into business. Now I’m back in Ca, not quite retired, but tiring I think. I think I’m about ready to retire to the position of an elder at the city gate (or cafe door). So I’ll probably get a lot more involved with the new Alcaide’s Cafe.