Restaurant Spending Now Outpacing Grocery Store Spending

Recently I came across some interesting data from the American Enterprise Institute on the food spending habits of Americans. For the first time since statistics were tracked, the amount of money that Americans are spending at restaurants outpaced the amount being spent in grocery stores for the first time this January.

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Naturally, since this comes from the American Enterprise Institute from a professor of economics, the primary issue that is addressed in the publication (and several others that note the milestone) is of the economic nature, in that the improving economy has lead to increased discretionary spending, and thus increased restaurant wages (the last part being a very recent trend). It's interesting that the social and personal aspect of this has more or less been ignored, particularly as to why this has just happened, instead of before the most recent recession (though trends from then also indicated that this would be happening).

First Business Class Flight! Asiana Old Business

The following is adapted from my trip report from Flyertalk, and will be split into two posts (one for each flight). These flights came at the conclusion of my winter trip to Australia and were booked on points, saving me a lot of money in the process.

Part 2 can be found here!

OZ602
SYD-ICN
Boeing 777-200ER
Seat 2D
January 2, 2015

I was sad to leave Australia and return to the relative cold of the US (and returning to work). However, I had been looking forward to these flights in particular due to it being my first time in a real premium cabin and flying a new airline (Asiana).

Our plane at the gate (Click to Enlarge)

Jerusalem Quartet!

Jerusalem Quartet

Thursday, February 19, 2015

7:30 PM

Alexander Pavlovsky, Violin

Sergei Bresler, Violin

Ori Kam, Viola

Kyril Zlotnikov, Cello

Quartet No. 59 in G minor, Op. 74, No. 3 "Rider" - Franz Joseph Haydn

Allegro

Largo assai

Menuetto: Allegretto

Finale: Allegro con brio

String Quartet No. 4, Sz. 91 - Béla Bartók
Allegro
Prestissimo, con sordino
Non troppo lento
Allegretto pizzicato
Allegro molto

-Intermission-

String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 "Death and the Maiden" - Franz Schubert
Allegro
Theme and Variations: Andante con moto
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Presto

This was a truly spectacular performance by the Jerusalem Quartet. The quartet was the most technically sound of all the chamber groups thus far this season; able to masterfully execute all the running passages and in particular the chaos that is the Bartók. I was very impressed with the cellist in particular. The quartet was also the most musically talented of the chamber groups this season, able to play as a group, covering the spectrum of musical expression. I was a huge fan of how they performed the Haydn and Schubert, and they at least made the Bartók bearable instead of the random jumbled mess of sound that it normally sounds like. Hopefully I'll get to see them perform again!

Theme Hospital

For a limited time, Theme Hospital is available for free on Origin (this is slightly old news). It's great that Origin is offering the game for free, but the bad news is that you have to deal with Origin.

Theme Hospital came out in 1998, long before I started any sort of gaming, but it comes from the era where games were much simpler (mostly because they couldn't be complex), but the games were still difficult. It's not like today's iteration of FPS games, where you have to memorize map layouts far in advance to beat the game at its highest difficulty levels bundled together with complex structures. With these older games there are only a few basic mechanisms, and really seem to relish in you failing (like trying to beat Super Mario on the SuperNintendo).

Theme Hospital, as the name suggests, is a game where you try to manage a hospital through increasingly difficult scenarios, trying to maintain a profit and happy patients combined with a few other objectives. It's actually a lot of fun and I'm having a difficult time putting it down...

The Importance of Conversation

...or more specifically, the importance of your conversation (to yourself, naturally).

I tend to people-watch when I'm on the bus (that is, when I'm not asleep myself), and I have a good 20-25 minute commute to and from work aboard the King County Metro's buses. It's always interesting to see what happens, and conversation tends to lead to interesting observations. Of course, these are not my conversations, but those of others.

The buses, particularly on the commute home from work, tend to be very crowded, and oftentimes the aisle of the bus becomes standing room. Naturally, when there are only a few seats left, and when friends get on the bus together, one person takes an available seat, and the other person, seeing that there are no nearby seats, stands in the aisle next to their friend to continue their conversation. Naturally, this happens while the bus is still on campus, with a good number of people still wanting to get on the bus. Of course, the second friend is standing in the aisle near the front of the bus and is always completely oblivious to the crowd that is gathering at the front of the bus. Almost always the person plugging the aisle will not move and instead makes everyone else pull a swim move to get around to access the rest of the aisle space to let everyone else actually get on the bus. It's always interesting that people think their conversations are so important such that they'll endure 30+ people to swim around them in the not so wide aisle over several stops. It always feels that people are so unaware of their surroundings, though these days I'm never surprised anymore (even when cops show up and arrest someone off the bus).

Naturally, this problem will only get worse, as King County Metro is continuing to reduce service due to an increase funding gap, resulting in a lot more swimming around unaware self-important undergrads.

Revisiting Perlman.

This past Thursday I had the opportunity to see Itzhak Perlman perform for the third time (I believe) and conduct for the first time. Naturally I was very excited to attend this concert.

Itzhak Perlman with the Seattle Symphony

Thursday, January 15, 2015

7:30 PM

Violin Concerto No. 2 in E Major, BWV 1042 - Johann Sebastian Bach

Allegro

Adagio

Allegro assai

Itzhak Perlman, Violin

Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 - Johannes Brahms

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, "Eroica" - Ludwig van Beethoven

Allegro con brio

Marcia funebre: Adagio assai

Scherzo: Allegro vivace

Finale: Allegro molto

Previously when I had seen Perlman perform, he actually came onto the stage on his motorized scooter. This time, he chose to walk on stage supported by two forearm crutches. While it was great to see his resolve, it often took a lot of time for him to get on (and off) stage, and the audience wasn't particularly great at sustaining the applause either. That being said, he is still more than capable of playing the violin, and played the Bach with the same warmth and technical dexterity that we have all been accustomed to over the years. His conducting wasn't of much note and I didn't feel it added much to the performance (and I pay to hear soloists play, not dabble in other things). I left slightly disappointed in the overall performance, mostly due to my high expectations coming in to the performance.

More Chamber Music!

This past Tuesday I had the pleasure of hearing the Takács quartet as part of the UW World Series program. This follows the previous performance by the Miró quartet last November.

Takács Quartet
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
7:30 PM

Edward Dusinberre, Violin
Károly Schranz, Violin
Geraldine Walther, Viola
András Fejér, Cello

Quartet No. 50 in B-flat Major, Op. 64, No. 3 - Franz Joseph Haydn
Vivace assai
Adagio
Menuetto: Allegretto
Finale: Allegro con spirit

String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804, Op. 29 - Franz Schubert
Allegro ma non troppo
Andante
Menuetto: Allegretto
Allegro moderato

-Intermission-

String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 - Ludwig van Beethoven
Adagio ma non troppo-Allegro
Presto
Andante con moto, ma non proppo-Poco scherzoso
Alla danza tdesca. Allegro assai
Cavatina. Adagio molto espressivo
Finale: Allegro

Overall I was very impressed with this performance-this quartet has been playing together for a long time, and it shows. All the passages are generally well-coordinated and they were able to play the lighter passages in the Haydn and the heavier parts in the Beethoven with ease. However, there were several things that did leave me unhappy. Firstly, the violist decided to choose her own dress code while the other members wore only black, daring to wear a red shawl. I'm a little old school in believing that there some be some uniformity in the dress. Also, I feel like the second violinist is probably past his prime and seemed to occasionally try to set a new tempo separate from the other members, which seemed to cause some pretty tense moments on the stage. Otherwise I was generally happy with the performance.

Happy New Year From the Sydney Opera House!

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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

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