Endurance

Last weekend I read a book for leisure for the first time since probably high school, a period of at least six years. I had been interested in reading Endurance by Alfred Lansing throughout that period, as I had initially been introduced to Ernest Shackleton's journey through Ocean Bowl in high school. The journey is a harrowing tale of survival while being trapped in Antarctic waters and the daring maneuvers undertaken by the group to not only survive but return to civilization without human casualties. While this is a historical fiction work, the detail put into writing the book to present a complete story that beautifully captures not only the actions and thoughts but also the raw emotions and conditions of the entire journey to rival many fiction works. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read of any genre.

The Boss

(Click to Enlarge)

Small Business Saturday

This past Saturday was Small Business Saturday, a promotion run by American Express to encourage cardmembers to spend money at local establishments. They do this by crediting you $10 for transactions of at least $10 at registered local merchants up to three times. So naturally, I went out to take advantage of this.

My first stop was Fran's Chocolates, which is a local Seattle-based chocolate boutique (aka really fancy). The promotion was the main reason I was there to shop, as the normal $2 per piece was considerably out of my price range. I sampled their single malt whiskey truffle and was immediately captivated by the richness of the truffle and the prominence of the whiskey. I used two of my three credits there on two separate transactions, both on truffle samplers. I did spend more than $10 for each transaction, but I will hopefully savor the truffles for some time.

My second stop was Trophy Cupcakes, another desert shop. I had been to Trophy Cupcakes a couple of times before, usually when I have had dinner in U-Village and was ambling around with dessert in mind. As this was towards the end of the day, there weren't too many cupcakes or flavors available. I selected a strawberry lemonade, vanilla vanilla, and carrot walnut cupcake. I brought them back to the office to split with some other students, and needless to say people enjoy free cupcakes (or almost free in my case).

Magic Morsels!

A while ago as part of Flyertalk's Secret Santa, I received a box of  sweets as part of a larger box of gifts. Now I tend to stay away from sweets, but not because I don't enjoy them. I can say no to others giving them to me and I tend not to keep any near me, thereby eliminating any temptation to consume (or over-consume) sweets. Of course, I indulge occasionally, and this Secret Santa gift was quite the opportunity.

The sweets in question was a 24-box sampler of Magic Morsels, which are bite-sized brownies from Phoenix, AZ-based Fairytale Brownies. When I first opened the box, I had no idea what Magic Morsels were, until I saw the brownie label on the treats. There were six flavors inside the box: original, caramel, chocolate chip, creme cheese, raspberry swirl, and walnut.

Box of Magic Morsels (Click to Enlarge)

I quickly opened one up an original-flavored and it was absolutely delicious-very smooth and not too sweet. I managed to pace myself through the box over about a week and was a hit with the few other grad students I shared them with (mostly because I was eating them...). All of the flavors were delicious, but I would have to say my favorites were creme cheese and raspberry swirl.

An original Magic Morsel (Click to Enlarge)

Chamber Music!

This past Tuesday evening I attended my first real chamber music concert since attending performances by the Pacifica Quartet and Avalon Quartet during my time at Interlochen (in 2006!). (This also doesn't count the celebrity Itzhak Perlman/Yo-Yo Ma/ Emanuel Ax piano trio, and chamber music concerts were not all that common growing up.)

Miró Quartet
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
7:30 PM

Daniel Ching, Violin
William Fedkenheuer, Violin
John Largess, Viola
Joshua Gindele, Cello

String Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2 "Fifths" - Franz Joseph Haydn
Allegro
Andante o più tosto allegretto
Menuetto: Allegro ma non troppo
Finale: Vivace assai

String Quartet No. 5 - Gunther Schuller

-Intermission-

String Quartet No. 9 in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3 "Razumovsky 3" - Ludwig van Beethoven
Introduzione: Andante con moto-Allegro vivace
Andante con moto quasi allegretto
Menuetto grazioso
Allegro molto

This performance was held at UW's Meany Hall, which was a smaller auditorium providing a much more intimate atmosphere.

View from the back row of the balcony (Click to Enlarge)

The quartet was quite amazing-they were able to blend their sounds into one group instead of playing as a group of talented individuals. The balance was never really skewed towards or away any particular musician. Most of the passages were very crisp and clean, except for the violist, who seemed to occasionally struggle with running 16th notes, particularly in some of the faster passages in the Haydn and Beethoven. The Haydn felt a little heavy at times, but was otherwise excellent. The Schuller quartet is a new quartet currently enjoying its premiere season, which, coupled with my distaste of modern music, did not satisfy my tastes. I felt that some composition rules were too overbearing, and that there wasn't really that much of a progression throughout the piece-just more "white noise". I was particularly excited to hear the Beethoven, as I had previously played Razumovsky 2 and another quartet had played from Razumovsky 3 during my time at Interlochen. This piece was the highlight of the performance and was executed very well (except for some of those running 16th notes in the viola).

One thing I did notice (which can be seen from the photo), was that the stands were very low; in some cases the tops of the stands were barely above knee-level. While stands can't be eye level as you need to see other members of the quartet, knee-level is too low. The violist in particular was slouching quite a bit, and as he was sitting on the outside, his viola's body faced the cellist.

Ski Dazzle!

This past weekend I attended Ski Dazzle, a nice ski and snowboard show here in Seattle. The event brings together representatives from many ski areas in the northwest region in addition to retail shops. There are lots of contests for free skiing packages and some decent discounts on both lift tickets and gear. Being relatively new to skiing in the pacific northwest, I was excited to see everything that was offered.

There is so much quality skiing in the cascades and rockies in the northwest that it was very hard to keep track of all the areas that were present. Of course visiting all the booths resulted in lots of stickers and trail maps, and I entered every contest in hopes that just maybe I'll be able to ski somewhere pretty awesome for free. I was also on the lookout for new gear, as the skis I have are at least six years old and showing some age. I was particularly looking for skis that worked on powder but still had some grip on groomed runs (so basically an all-mountain ski), as my skis were only useful on hard packed surfaces, making it difficult to ski in powder (like last season). In the end I walked away with a new pair of 170cm Rossignol Smash 7s with bindings, ski poles, goggles, gloves, and a jacket, all of which I wanted to replace gear that I had had since early high school or earlier.

New skis and poles (left) with the old gear (right) (Click to Enlarge)

With the new gear, particularly the wider skis, this skiing season in the northwest should be much better than last season.

Skipping Intros

I attended a performance with the Seattle Symphony last night, but it originally was not a part of my concert-attending plans. I was invitedd to the concert by the symphony as a new subscriber in concert with their new donor and subscriber pre-concert reception. I think it was somewhat obvious why that concert was chosen given the program.

Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony

Saturday, November 8, 2014

8:00 PM

Second Essay for Orchestra, Op. 17 - Samuel Barber

Violin Concerto - Esa-Pekka Salonen

Mirage-

Pulse I

Pulse II

Adieu

Jennifer Koh, Violin

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 - Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky

Andante sostenuto

Andantino in modo de canzona

Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato

Finale: Allegro con fuoco

I personally am not a huge fan of contemporary music, though while the Barber is an acceptable piece, the violin concerto is a complete mess. Needless to say it would not have been very difficult to offer every new subscriber and donor two tickets to this concert. Incidentally, dinner before the concert ran a little long-I would highly recommend the Hibachi Supreme only if you have something similar to passport corporate (2 for $40), as the $45 price tag is very rich for one, even for the very nice chateaubriand and lobster tail.  We ended up arriving halfway through the violin concerto, which exemplified how I feel about modern music: obsessed with rules at the expense of actual music (and the soloist played with music!). Thank goodness the intermission quickly followed. Our seats were in the back of the third (and highest) balcony, and while the brass and percussion had no difficulty reaching the upper echelons of the hall, the strings sometimes struggled to fill the entire hall. The performance of the Tchaikovsky was pretty good, and there was no nervous feeling that the orchestra would fall apart, especially at the very fast sections involving a lot of back and forth eighth notes. I felt that parts of the symphony highlighted the symphony's ability to be loud and that other parts showed that the symphony isn't quite able to fill the entire venue on some of the more delicate and expressive sections.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Ludovic Morlot, the conductor, did his best Gustavo Dudamel and tried to conduct the Tchaikovsky without a score. Of course, he's not Dudamel and ended up exiting the stage between the first two movements (through for unknown reasons).

Strong & Kind

Recently I had the opportunity to try Kind's new(ish) Strong & Kind bars. It's their savory bar, a deviation from their sweet and salty fruit and nut combination, and contains more protein than their traditional bars. This was initially a plus for me, as I think the regular bars are too sweet, particularly if you're eating several of them during an ultimate tournament.

I was only able to try out one flavor (hickory smoked) and found it slightly odd. The smoke flavor was overpowering, as it seemed to contain a lot of liquid smoke (or some related ingredient). The smoke flavor aside, I was a fan of the rest of the bar, which contains almonds, pumpkin and hemp seeds, and pea crisps. Those components gave the bar a nice savory flavor without the excess sweet that sometimes accompanied the bars that contained fruit. Perhaps I should try another variety (and one that doesn't contain "smoke flavor"...

Openness

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Finally, A Memorable Performance

Once again, I'm ridiculously not on-time about writing about the Seattle Symphony performance I attended last Saturday. Initially I had my doubts about this concert, as Hillary Hahn had pulled out of the performance, citing a medical concern at the advice of her physician. In her stead was Philippe Quint, a Leningrad-born violinist who I had previously never head play, whether it be live or on a recording.

Dvořák and the New World
Saturday, October 4, 2014
8:00 PM

Lollapalooza - John Adams

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 - Erich Korngold
Moderato nobile
Romance
Finale

Philippe Quint, Violin

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, "From the New World" - Anton Dvořák
Adagio-Allegro Molto
Largo
Scherzo: Molto vivace
Allegro con fuoco

My aversion to more modern works was not reduced by the performance of Lollapalooza. It seems to me just to be a bunch of noise, with the composer more concerned about following a set of rules than creating something people want to listen to. This was all put to rest with Quint's performance of the Korngold violin concerto. While I'm not a big fan of the particular piece, Quint's mastery of the violin, in both the technical and artistic sense, was phenomenal. It was the first time in recent memory where I couldn't sense any unnecessary nervousness or tension in the music. He was able to fill the auditorium with incredible warmth and his spiccato was both articulate and penetrating. If you get a chance to listen to him play I would take it and not look back. The New World Symphony saw the Seattle Symphony play its characteristic good, but not great style or seeming to play as a group of individuals instead of as one body.

A Slight Redemption, With A Twist

Two Thursdays ago (I know, I'm bad at this updating thing), I went to see a second performance of the Seattle Symphony. However, the adventures began before I even arrived at the concert hall.

I previously detailed my various bus adventures, including someone getting arrested and my poor luck involving the downtown tunnel station. This time both were combined when someone was arrested on the bus heading towards the downtown tunnel station. When the bus arrived, the driver wouldn't let anyone on, citing that the engine was overheating and needed to cool down. After about 10 minutes, we were allowed to board the bus, but the bus wasn't moving. Several minutes later, the police arrived to arrest a rider. Apparently he had been drinking and was verbally threatening other passengers. At this time, the bus driver then spoke to the officers and we disembarked from the bus to catch the next bus to the tunnel station. Needless to say, that bus was pretty packed with two busloads of riders, and I barely made it into the auditorium before the program began.

Tchaikovsky & Dvořák

Thursday, September 18, 2014

7:30 PM

Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Richard Wagner

Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 - Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky

Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso – Allegro con spirito
Andantino semplice – Prestissimo
Allegro con fuoco

Daniil Trifonov, Piano

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70
Allegro Maestoso
Poco adagio
Schertzo: Vivace - poco meno moso
Finale: Allegro

This time I had orchestra level seating, which means I had a more "standard" view of the orchestra (sorry no pictures). Overall I felt that the orchestra played more as one cohesive unit, which was a nice improvement over the previous performance. I was pretty excited to see the Tchaikovsky piano concerto performed, though it would be difficult for anyone to match the legendary Van Cliburn. Trifonov is a very technically talented pianist, though he seemed to give off a nervous vibe, hurrying through certain passages; more concerned about finishing without a mistake than being expressive. His movements were a little jerky, and this was most evident when he was walking/bowing/etc. It seemed to reflect some lack of elegance and stage presence, reducing his ability to truly bring music to the audience. Overall the performance was pretty good, but definitely not great. My next date with the symphony is this Saturday, a performance that Hillary Hahn has pulled out of due to medical concerns. We'll see how that goes...

Returning to Concerts

This past Saturday was the first time I had attended a classical music concert in over a year, and I chose to attend the Seattle Symphony's opening concert of the 2014-2015 season. Program as follows:

Opening Night Concert & Gala

Saturday, September 13, 2014

4PM

Suite Symphonique "Paris" - Jacques Ibert

Le métro

Faubourgs

La mosquée de Paris

Restaurant au Bois de Boulogne

Le paquebot "île-de-France"

Parade foraine

Gymopédies Nos. 3 and 1 - Erik Satie (orch. Debussy)

Lent et grave

Lent et douloreux

Havanaise for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 83 - Camille Saint-Saëns

Gil Shaham, Violin

Méditation de Thaïs - Jules Massenet

Gil Shaham, Violin

-Intermission-

Selections from Suite No. 2 from Coppélia - Léo Delibes

Entr'acte and Waltz

Prelude and Mazurka

Carmen Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 25

Gil Shaham, Violin

Selection from Orphée aux enfers - Jacques Offenbach

Ballet des mouches: Galop

Couplets des baisers

Duo de la mouche

Overture

Alexa Jarvis, Soprano

Charles Robert Stephens, Baritone

Ludovic Morlot, conductor

Flying Lufthansa Long-Haul (AKA United, Step Up Your Game)

Adapted from my trip review I wrote in Flyertalk

Firstly, I'm not one of those people who fly all the time, whether it be for work or pleasure. Nor do I generally fly premium cabins or have access to lounges. However, I have flown some and have achieved some low-level elite status (that doesn't really get me much), and now I understand the system much better thanks to places like Flyertalk. (I'm also not quite as smitten and exited when I do occasionally fly domestic first class on US-based airlines, unlike my other flight review, which was my first time in any premium cabin.)

This flight, as part of my trip to Norway, was a lot of firsts, which I will be highlighting. Beginning with: first long-haul flight on Lufthansa!

 Airbus 330-300 (Click to Enlarge)

On Perception

Oftentimes I observe those who ride public transportation with their bikes to garner clues about how far their commute is. I can understand if you live far enough from major public transportation (like a local train that travels across town) that biking is essential to reduce the commute to a reasonable time. What I don't understand, is, if you are one of my neighbors, you ride the bus with your bike to a workplace that's only a couple of blocks from the bus stop. It also takes me two minutes to walk from my apartment to the bus stop.

It's interesting how much we care about how other think of us and the lengths we go to try to change who we are on the outside. It's not really going to change who you are, and I feel that going out of your way to impress people just doesn't get you anywhere.

Just my two cents...

Norwegion Fjords

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The Downtown Tunnel Station and Murphy's Law

Early I wrote about how I see weird things on the bus, and I continue to chronicle my bus adventures. Recently, most of my trips that involve the downtown tunnel stations seem to result in some kind of issue/incident.

My Murphy's Law experiences began in May, when I was trying to go SEATAC airport. A bus had broken down at the first tunnel station (Westlake) going southbound, and the bus wasn't towed into the middle area of the tunnel (between the two lanes) for about 20 minutes. My bus going downtown showed up right after the bus had been moved out of the way and they were boarding passengers into the alternate bus. This meant that the light rail (train) that goes to the airport can't run, so the resulting fiasco resulted in three trips worth of commuters trying to cram into a single train. It also didn't help matters that we had to depart the train one stop away from the airport and board another train because the train was beginning to overheat. My return on that trip featured the "phantom bus" that never showed up.

More recently I ran into another similar incident coming home from downtown. In this case I didn't see any cause of an incident, but there were at least 3 full busloads of people waiting for the university express, which is not a normal sight. After the next university express bus arrived, only a small handful of individuals boarded the bus. Since this route is run every 15 minutes, it would have taken over an hour to board a bus. Instead I boarded a bus above the street to head back to campus. However, while we were going up Broadway in Capitol Hill, we were temporarily slowed by a small march speaking against the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, further delaying my return to campus (and work :P).

Granted I take the bus most days to and from work without incident (though today something happened which resulted in all the buses I could take home from the office between 6 and 7 to arrive at 7), but apparently I seem to attract mistakes when I take pubic transit downtown.

Pickleball

The first time I heard of pickleball was when I was in high school, where I was introduced to it during gym class. It felt like a weird combination of ping pong and tennis, though more like giant ping pong trying to be more like tennis. At the time I thought it would be the last I ever heard of the game (similar to when I played sproutball at Interlochen).

I first noticed the popularity of pickleball in the Seattle area when I saw a pickleball court at a public park while I was riding the bus to Northgate. I was further alerted to the activity's presence here when I moved into a new apartment and the swim and tennis club next door had a pickleball court. Every once in a while I can hear the unmistakable sounds of pickleball being played throughout the summer.

I did a little research and learned that the game was invented in (very) close-by Bainbridge Island. There are even local rec leagues and a good number of parks/community centers/etc have pickleball courts that are accessible to the public. This feels so random...

Frustration and Jehovah's Witnesses

Frustration is a funny thing. It can be as gnawing as anger, but tends to be much more subdued-until a breaking point is reached. As such:

Apparently Seattle was the host to an international Jehovah's Witness convention this past Friday through today (Sunday). The article states that the convention (not usually an international convention) is usually held in Tacoma, but was held in Seattle due to the sheer number (as can be seen here). Apparently over 38,000 (yes, thousand) of them from 4 states and 40 countries descended upon Seattle and the UW campus, taking over the football stadium and bringing traffic to a standstill on and around campus before and after their events each day, and that's where the frustration begins to set in.

Usually the drive from my place to the airport takes about 20-25 minutes. Instead, I got caught in the traffic leaving campus Friday evening and I was stuck in the same spot for 30 minutes before I somehow took a turn onto a side road and drove around the entire standstill to reach the airport. Needless to say the bad driving habits of many of these individuals (including but not limited to not signaling while trying to cross two lanes to make a right turn at the next intersection less than 10 feet in front of you...and doing the same thing at the next intersection). Also, it took me half an hour to drive to work today (usually a 10-minute drive) and it seems like they took every last parking space on campus. UW is not really well-designed to host any large event, including their own home football games...

Moved In!

So I've been a little busy but now I've moved into a new apartment in a much quieter side of town (thank goodness for that). In the meanwhile some interesting sights:

There was a metro bus with a Dianetics advertisement (on the inside). For those of you that are unfamiliar, Dianetics is the book written by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology about the metaphysical relationship between mind and body (or at least in his mind). I've had the "opportunity" to visit the L. Ron Hubbard Museum in Hollywood and I spent most of the time trying not to laugh at the poor guide, who was utterly brainwashed in the workings of the cult.

IKEA now stocks the Daim candies again-there was a period of several years (up until a few weeks ago) that the candies were not sold. As an IKEA fan, I was glad they brought them back. Now if they would only restock the dessert cakes that had broken Daim pieces in them. Speaking of random foreign foods, I'm half-tempted to order a case of Guarana soda.

"Let Your Best Photo Travel The World"

I know a fair number of people who really like to take pictures, and I figured this contest might be interesting for a few of you. Basically the contest, run through Flying Blue (the frequent flyer program for Air France, Air Europe, Kenya Airways, Aircalin, and Tarom), consists of uploading (up to 10) travel photos to the site and the judging panel will select three winners. The winners will have their photos used on luggage tags that are given to elite members for up to two years. Additionally, winners will receive a one-year membership to Flying Blue's platinum status (which includes SkyTeam Elite+), 200,000 Flying Blue miles, and a luggage tag with their winning photo. The contest is available here and runs until midnight on July 9 (it says inclusive, so I'm assuming at the end of the 9th) Paris time (GMT+2). Currently one of my pictures is featured in the gallery. :)

For those of you that are concerned about rights and licensing (which of course is a legitimate concern):
Flying Blue only has the rights to display your photograph in the gallery during the contest period. If you don't win nothing else will happen. If you do win, in exchange for the prize, Flying Blue is essentially granted irrevocable rights to your photo for the luggage tags and for use on its website and social media pages for two years. This also includes image modification and text overlay for purposes including advertisements.

Taking The Bus

My bus rides are never as weird or interesting as the one depicted by Cyanide and Happiness, but I tend to find that riding the bus exposes me to the greatest range of people around, ranging from the downtrodden castaways to the clean and well-dressed. Since it is a means of public transportation, however, there have been a fair share of uneasy times.

A few weeks ago I was taking the bus to Northgate Mall on a weekend and a (somewhat not right in the head) gentleman gets on at the same stop at which I'm getting on the bus. However he starts to have a long discussion with the driver, and soon enough, our bus gets stopped by the police and the man is escorted off the bus and detained. I'm not sure what was going on, but my guess was that the driver was not happy for some reason to have the police come on the bus and physically remove the passenger. Several months ago I was also on a bus downtown with a belligerent passenger who kept cussing out the driver before getting off after being on the bus for only one stop.

In addition to the belligerent, there are the passengers who try to talk to everyone about their lives and their inflated sense of self-worth (or perhaps they just like to hear themselves talk). Most notable was several weeks ago on the light rail to the airport during the afternoon rush there was a fellow who tried to have conversations with everyone about their private lives. I can understand a little bit of small talk, but on a jam-packed train that's carrying twice as many passengers as usual due to a bus breakdown in a tunnel station preventing traffic for 20 minutes? I think talking to a stranger who likes to hear himself talk is the last thing anyone wants to do.

No Limits

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Seattle Restaurant Week

This past evening wrapped up this edition of Seattle Restaurant Week. Now, before I continue, I'm not the person who takes pictures of all their food to share on Instagram (I don't even have one).

A friend of mine and I had dinner at The Georgian at The Fairmont Olympic Hotel. This was the first restaurant that I went to that had a dress code since I ate at Lung King Heen in Hong Kong last summer. Since it was restaurant week, there was a three-course prix fixe menu.

(Click to Enlarge)

After the duck liver amuse bouche and bread offering (including four kinds of butter), I started with the Caesar salad, which was presented in a most interesting way. On the bottom was a rectangular sheet of cheese, with a long bundle of lettuce leaves on top of the cheese. The crouton (yes, singular) was also a thin rectangular slice. This was definitely the first salad I had that required a fork and knife. The salad was followed by the cod, which was flavorful and not dry, which tends to happen a lot when I order it at restaurants. Dinner was finished with the lomoncello and lemon drop (which was a piece of shortbread topped with lemon sorbet and toasted meringue). Overall, other than the presentation of the salad, there wasn't too much to write home about (though of course there wasn't anything detracting from the experience). I suppose the restaurant week selection is just a taste of what the standard (and pricier) menu offers, and helps get diners through the door.

We'll Leave The Light On For You

Unfortunately, my apartment is not a Motel 6. However, all of my roommates have this bad habit of leaving the lights on. The roommate I share a bathroom with never turns the light off after using the bathroom, and all of my roommates leave all the kitchen lights on. They even leave their lights on when they go home for vacation. I don't understand how it can be such a difficult concept for them to keep the lights off and not waste power. Also, sometimes they forget to lock the windows in their rooms.

I know it's a small sample size (n=3), but from my experiences white people don't seem to be aware of their resource usage as they should be. Is this a general trend across the population, or did I just get three roommates who can't keep anything clean and always have a case of bad body odor?

Poke...In A Wrap?

Today my apartment complex has its big open house to try to attract students to move in next year, and in addition to balloons and cheap swag, there was a food truck they catered for the day. Of all the things I have seen on food trucks, this was the first time I say poke served on a food truck. This particular food truck, Sam Choy's Poke, operates multiple food trucks in Seattle and surrounding areas most days, and offers poke (in addition to other options) served over rice, on a salad, or in a wrap. Since it was free, I obviously had to try it.

(Click to Enlarge)

I tried the spicy salmon wrap with a spicy aioli sauce (the little container in the back). Overall the concept of the wrap wasn't bad (rice + greens + slaw + wasabi aioli + poke) and there was a good amount of poke. What I didn't particularly like was how the rice was warm while everything else was cold, sometimes creating areas of different temperature in my mouth. The poke itself was pretty good, though. Would I pay $9.50 for one of those? Probably not, but it's still decently good such that I could enjoy it for free.

The Love Song

Of course, this is already more complex than today's love songs...

Flirting With Spring

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It almost felt like spring, or at least it did for a few days. A nice lunchtime stroll through campus, a walk away from the lab and from my work, serves as a reminder that there is life outside of work (and that it can be nice). It seemed that spring was around the corner.

(Click to Enlarge) 

Of course, this is the pacific northwest, and as immediately as this weather appeared, it reverted back to the typical clouds and rain. Alas, it will be a while before it approaches the majestic conditions of a typical summer.

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Easy Listening

I'm not sure why, but music that I would categorize as "easy listening" makes me more productive than any other kind of music. I feel like if there aren't any lyrics then there are fewer distractions in the music. Of course, this is probably not as productive as working without music, but is definitely more entertaining...

Upgrade!

This past weekend I received my first (!) free upgrade to first class on my own! Finally being a lowest-tier elite has its perks! All you have to do is fly a leisure-traveler-intense flight, such as out of Las Vegas late on a Sunday, which, you know, we all do all the time...

/end sarcasm

Also, winter quarter sucks. It always seems to be the busiest, dreariest, and generally least happy quarter of the year. All this rain definitely doesn't help...

Daft Punk Fans: The New Beliebers?

Since the death of Turntable, I have since migrated over to plug. It's pretty similar to Turntable where you share your music with other individuals and they share their favorite tunes with you.

Towards the end of Turntable's lifetime and through my time at plug I've noticed a disturbing trend among some of the younger users. These individuals practically jizz over Daft Punk, much like weak little teenage girls obsess over Justin Bieber. And much like Bieber fans, these new-found Daft Punk "fans" will savagely attack you at the first utterance that doesn't worship their holiness. I can understand (though not rationalize myself to the extreme), albeit somewhat difficultly, that people can be enamored with a particular group or genre, but I don't understand why people feel the need to bash anyone and everyone who doesn't follow their narrow views. Too many young folks these days go around screaming that dubstep is the only music and that anything that doesn't have a drop is utter trash. (Personally I feel like if you only like dubstep because it obviously places the drop for you, you are not sophisticated enough to understand anything about music.)

/end rant

The Supposed Right of Way

A large portion of the country seems to feel that the pacific northwest is a somewhat more "progressive" society, full of hipsters and people who aren't downright buttoned-down and closed-minded. However, this doesn't mean that they are necessarily not assholes who believe that their self-worth comes above the worth of anyone and everyone.

I've noticed this a lot more as I get back into riding. While riding and other forms of non-solitary vehicular transport are more prevalent (in addition to exercising in general), a disproportionately large group of these people act as if they're above the law and above reproach. The prime example of this behavior is when the bike trail crosses any road.

When many bikers (and runners) reach these crossings, they choose not to stop and then just continue on through the crossing regardless of traffic. While some of these crossings have stop signs for cross traffic, most of these crossings just have a sign indicating that there is a trail crossing at that present location and no more. However, this does not stop the endless berating of these drivers who choose not to stop at these crossings that have no stop signs and let the bikers/runners pass.

It's quite obvious that those drivers owe the trail users anything and anyone who does stop at these crossings is only doing so out of courtesy, but yet it has come to the point where these runners and bikers, for some strange and unfounded reason, expect any and every car to stop at these crossings as if it were the law, and will actively curse out drivers who don't wait at every crossing to let everyone cross.

What is especially maddening about some of the cyclists here is how they feel like they're above all laws and that no laws apply to them. In many places it is illegal for bikers to use the sidewalk, so bikers must use the road and designated trails. That being said, many cyclists feel like traffic laws don't apply to them and bike around the streets as if they were pedestrians, with everyone yielding to their every whim.

What would be entertaining is to see these bikers and runners try to be "progressive" and everything in the LA area, where I started riding. I feel like they would be a lot more grateful for what Seattle has to offer them...

Fountain Pens!

The other day I bought myself my first fountain pen, and so began a new adventure. Pressing down on the nib to release the flow of ink seems so much more elegant than using a ballpoint or felt-tip pen, and the ink smells really good when it flows through the pen. I feel like once I get used to writing with a fountain pen, there will be no going back to the ballpoint. The only detraction thus far is that the ink in the nib will dry up when I leave the pen lying around uncapped, but I suppose that's part of the learning curve.

"Reduced"

One thing I haven't understood is the concept of foods being prepared the exact same, except as "low sodium" or low whatever, especially with items such as "low sodium" soy sauce and other condiments. It seems like the mindset of people is that they don't want to put on any less of a condiment because it will somehow make their food "inferior" because they put less stuff on their food.

I think this links back to the predominantly American mentality of excess, where bigger is better, and there is no such thing as too much anything. It seems like portion control and any form of self-control when it comes to food tends not to exist with many individuals, and these people seem to act like it's up to these food producers to reduce the negative impacts on their diets instead of taking matters into their own hands and becoming healthier eaters.