April 2005 Archives

I've spent the week in San Francisco working. Until today I hadn't had much of a chance to see anything. Today I had some free time and took a walk through China Town.

I was fascinated by the stores selling fresh meat and fish products. I am so used to packaged, indidually wrapped meat products it seems very odd to see the actual animals or large pieces of them. The variety of foods I couldn't identify was also very surprising.

If you are a squeamish about meat products you might want to stop reading now.

I warned you.

Jason Coleman has a blog.

"These are not the droids you are looking for."

Obi-wan Kenobi

I never played a lot of tetris myself, but I find myself wanting these shelves.

Read this awesome story of Boy Meets Girl gone awry. Thank goodness Accordion Guy's loyal readers warned him about the woman he was dating. I wonder if my readers would warn me about impending doom? Would I have listened?

[Link Courtesy of Julie Leung]

PostSecret has been one of my favorite blogs for a long time. The postcards people send in make me laugh and laugh. Some make me feel so sad it takes my breath away. Some creep me out.

Some of the postcards seem so simple or truthful that it makes me sad considering the fact that the person sending the card in didn't have anyone to tell their secret to.

Happy Earth Day! Anyone care to guess why Earth Day is so important to me?

The answer can be found on the white album and no the answer is not "Happiness is a warm gun" or "Bungalow Bill".

Sometime next week, I'll be sitting on a rock looking at the Pacific Ocean. It's been too long since I've sat on a beach.

Staring at my monitor for hours and hours is no substitute.

It's time to pick a new pope. If you don't know how the process works check out the wikipedia's article on the procedure for picking a pope. I'm fascinated by how it has evolved over the centuries. In honor of the occasion I'll also mention a post on Killing the Buddha.

I love that phrase, "mutual aesthetic destruction". I suppose every relationship has some of this whether or not you live in a 10 x 10 dorm room. I love the idea of having an aesthetic of destruction.

Yesterday morning I got up so early I had to go to three separate coffee shops before I found someone both open and willing to serve me a cup of coffee.

While I have nothing but good things to say about my favorite baristas (aka my personal messengers from God), when I knocked on the door and had one of them meet my eyes and then turn her back ... well that just hurts.

For future reference 'Bou opens at 6:30 on Saturdays.

From now on I'll no there is no point in going anywhere before 6:30 on a Saturday morning.

I've been working a lot lately. My children each individually came to my office to eat in our cafe once this week so they could have a special lunch with dad. Following lunch we took my usual walk around the pond near the office.

My kids were pretty thrilled to see the turtles on the pond. Seeing the turtles sitting motionless, soaking in the warm sun, then the mad scramble to plop into the water when they heard us approach makes me very happy. Seeing my kids get a kick out of seeing wildlife is priceless.

I love being outside in the spring. I always want to live in a place that is sometimes too cold. There is nothing like spring after winter, food when you've been hungry and a kiss after a long absence.

Back in college I worked for a few years making bluelines for a couple of local companies. It was a repetitive job, without a lot of intellectual challenge.

I still think of it fondly though because it was very social work. It was easy to carry on a conversation while doing something as mindless as running the diazo machine. Slide the original, wait; slide another on in, lather, rinse, repeat. We played music a little too loud and made a lot of bad jokes trying to keep going until the second shift was over.

I ran across some folks who are using the blueprint process as alternative photo process. I tried this a few times but never really got anything that looked the way I hoped it would. These folks have turned out some pretty good looking work I think.

Makes me homesick for the smell of ammonia.

Cellular Interruptus

I just heard The Shins are playing First Avenue tomorrow. I was totally unaware of this until just this moment.

In more disappointing news it appears the show is sold out.

If any of my loyal readers have tickets and want to take me to the show, please leave a comment. The person writing the funniest comment gets to take me. As a thank you gift, I'll create a very special blog post just for you.

In the last three weeks I've now been to three local sushi restaurants in the twin cities. You saw my thoughts about Origami, today I'll cover Nami & Sakura.

[Photo courtesy of joopy, one of the many people on flickr who license their photos with a Creative Commons license. In the interest of full disclosure, this photo was not taken at Sakura, Origami, or Nami. It was taken at Sushiharu]

Sakura

I went to Sakura, because I was invited there by a few co-workers for lunch last Thursday. I was busy and had a lot of work to do, but couldn't pass up fresh fish.

Sakura had an outstanding deep menu of sushi to try. They seem to have a more rolls and especially spicy rolls than some of the other spots I've tried. I had bin toro, salmon, and anago. All of it was very good, but nothing stood out to me. The bin toro wasn't quite what I was expecting as it wasn't quite the velvety taste of toro I've had before. I think that was a matter of expectation on my part rather than execution on the restaurants part. The chef at the sushi bar was personable and had useful suggestions.

A few of my co-workers offered me slices off of their rolls. These were highly spiced and very good. I enjoyed them immensely (and was grateful they offered me some) but sometimes the rolls had so much spice or cucumber or melon or whatever that it took away from the taste of fish. The rolls are really good for serving people who might be taken back by the nigiri pieces that I crave.

The verdict, Sakura is very good. The prices seem more reasonable than Origami, the selection is good, and their selection of fancy rolls would make it easier to introduce sushi virgins to the genre.

Nami

I've been working a lot of hours lately. My family went north this weekend without me to open up the cabin and see the relatives. I took this opportunity to work a lot of hours. After my seventh consecutive day of work, I decided that perhaps dinner out was in order. I chose Nami, because I wanted to go for a walk downtown and I had enjoyed a previous lunch there.

Again I sat at the sushi bar. I love to watch the sushi chef make my food. Usually each hand motion seems like a ritual that is both practiced and efficient, but contains a certain flair. Not so with my chef at Nami. He was, however, very competent with a knife. This meant that he would make artistic small cuts into the top of the sushi which made for a beautiful presentation.

The toro at Nami was exactly what I was hoping for. It was buttery and velvety and left a subtle but exquisite taste in my mouth. I had tuna and salmon as well which were also very good. One thing I enjoyed about Nami on my last visit was the beautiful pottery they served the food on. While I think I still like having sushi served on a ti leaf when eating at the sushi bar, Nami's elegant pottery is a nice touch.

The verdict --- Out of the three restaurants, I had the best fish at Nami. While Sakura holds the trump card for selection and value, the toro I had at Nami pushed them over the top for me. Nami also has a slightly more elegant ambience. Last year I had a fantastic visit to Fuji-Ya, I'll have to visit then again soon so I can compare them while it's fresh in my mind.

Origami, Sakura, & Nami all seem to serve very good sushi and likely you won't be disappointed with any of them. Sakura seems like a good value so that's the place I likely revisit first.

Local blogger Scott McGerik has reviewed all of these sushi spots as well.

• Review of Sakura
• Review of Nami
• Review of Origami

The conversation at Sakura indicated that I was the only person who thought that eating with the fingers was polite. I've now asked this question to three sushi chefs at two restaurants. I've been told that eating the sushi with the fingers is polite and normal in Japan. Chopsticks are acceptable and normal as well. The chopsticks should definitely be used for the pickled ginger used to cleanse the palate. It doesn't appear that the "fingers versus chopsticks" question is nearly important an etiquette point as compared with offering other people sushi with your chopsticks or putting your chopsticks on the sushi bar. Here are some links from google that discuss sushi etiquette.

• internamtionalgourmet.net
• thesushibar.com
• sushiyasuda.com

Lately, I've been leaving for work early, when the house it still dark and everyone is asleep.

As I was walking past Elise's room last week I heard some quiet talking. Curious, I peeked into her room and found her reading to her doll, Sander-Hander. She had Sander propped up on her lap with the book in front of her. She was reading each word on the page and pointing to the pictures as she went.

It was so cute. Of course, I'm already head over heels in love with her, but sometimes she does little things like this that make me swoon. She loves her doll so much she reads to her.

Beyond the adorable, it was so beautiful that she has learned to value reading and books. The love of reading and books is high on the list of values I want to pass to my children. I felt a sense of reverence watching her read to her little baby.

Speaking of being in love, two bloggers caught my attention while talking about love.

While I'm not sure that Julie deserves a lump in her stocking, it's no surprise to me that she mentions Christmas morning several times. Both the cultural and spiritual meanings of Christmas are all tied up in unexpected extravagant displays of giving and love. For me the magic of real love is always tied up with idea of the undeserved surprise of it all. I want to be this kind of surprise. I wish I knew what to give you.

This is exactly the way that my children captured my heart forever. Don't let my cynicism and gruff exterior fool you, having children changed me forever by exposing me to passionate, undeserved, surprising, extravagant love.

I recently read Harry Frankfurt's essay "On Bullshit". This slim book was both interesting and funny.

Mr. Frankfurt does a fabulous job creating a definition of bullshit and comparing and contrasting to it other related concepts like "humbug" and "lying". One strong distinction he raises in his book is the idea that liars (and truth-tellers) are both interested in and care about the truth, even if the liar doesn't want to people to believe the truth. The bullshitter on the other hand doesn't care strongly about what the truth actually is. This dichotomy left me convinced that bullshitters are more destructive than liars.

The essay referenced Augustine's writing on lying a number of times without delving into the specifics. Here are a few links that go into a little more detail: Augustine and the Fall of Rome 395-476, The Summa Theologica.

The funny part of this book was the academic style of writing addressing such a seemingly base or vulgar topic. I read the whole book wondering if the meta-joke was about the bullshit found in academic writing.

Much to my wife's chagrin, I think this little book will become my standard graduation gift from now on.

The EFF gives advice on blogging anonymously.

Sometimes I wish I blogged anonymously. There are a lot of things I feel uncomfortable saying when everyone know my name.

On an unrelated note, here is an interesting write up on Ajax, Struts, & XMLHttpRequest. I wish I had the spare time to play with this concept.

I've finally found been introduced to a loose tea I really love. Although I blush when I say it, it's called "Prairie Passion." Just saying the words Prairie Passion makes me think about my childhood crush on Laura Ingalls as played by Melissa Gilbert. The tea is a black and green tea blend and has a hint of sweetness to it. The tea is available from Tea Source.

I recently went to see a play near my house at the "Lakeshore Players Theatre" in White Bear. Actually it wasn't a play but nine ten minute plays written for a contest.

It was really fun. The actors were very good. To my surprise I knew one of the actors, Mike Laudenslager, who I now know is on the board of a local theater Lyric Arts. He was such a good actor, I wasn't sure it was him until I saw him outside during intermission.

The thing I really like about the plays was their brevity. If you didn't like one, all you had to do was wait ten minutes and you would get a whole new play to enjoy.

I didn't agree with the judges of the contest at all. They ranked the serious plays as the top three. The funny plays were much better in my book. The word play in "Old Maids Never Worry", by Rich Espey, was especially good. I also enjoyed "Speed Date" by Carol White.

Pope John Paul II will likely be the last Polish pope in my lifetime. I'm a little sad to see him go. He seemed like a good pope as these things go.

To avoid sounding tacky I'll wait until the funeral is over to start campaigning to be the next Pope.

Young Joel suggest writing like "no one is reading." It's great advice that I try and follow ... right up until someone who you haven't talked to in months or even years walks up and says, "Hey, I was reading your blog and ..."

That experience is both unnerving and disarming. It makes pretending that no one is reading much harder.

Whenever this happens, like it did three times in the last week, I try act cool, like it's no big thing. After all, I write this stuff expecting someone might read it.

In my head I sweat and furiously click through my postings wondering if I've offended them or if my thoughts weird them out in some way. It's all I can do to not backpedal and blurt out things like, "No you shouldn't see "Chasing Amy" it's not for you. I have the worst taste in movies. I don't know how that picture of Harry Frankfurt's essay on Bullsh*t got there, I don't even think words like that, much less purchase books on the topic ..."

I generally imagine about three people reading what I've written. It's an audience just large enough to justify spell checking. For my imaginary audience I hand pick people who I know aren't easily offended and can deal with my special brand of humour. You know who you are.

I think the desire to backpedal stems from imagining that I look better from further away.

Being a furious pattern matcher, problem solver and let's not forget problem creator it's tough to live in the moment and enjoy the "delicious ambiguity" without trying to pretend to direct this little three act play.

The idea that I d not need to know where I am in the story reminds me of a line in the Semisonic song, "Closing Time".