Zoka Again

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It’s Saturday, it’s noon, and I’m sitting in the University Village Zoka again. I don’t have a particular pressing need to be online, honestly, but it’s nice to have a destination to go to when it’s kind of rainy and grey out. Besides, there are worse things to do than to blog randomly. I don’t really have a set goal with this post, so we’ll see where it goes.

I drink a hell of a lot of chai — it’s my drink of choice in most coffee shops. I’ve noticed that a lot of the coffee shops in Seattle tend to have two kinds of chai: sweet and spicy. What this really means is “Oregon Chai” or “Morning Glory Chai“, two particular brands of chai. While having the options of different types is nice, there are other choices out there that I really wish they’d consider. In particular, there are a few brands that I think would go over really well in Seattle’s coffee-culture. There is a Mate based chai called Pixie Mate Chai that I’ve been really impressed by. It has the spices of a sweet chai, but none of it is so overwhelming that you can’t taste the tea beneath it, which is really important and often missed with Oregon Chai. As far as spicy chai goes, I may be bucking a trend, here, but I like a spicy chai to have a moderate bite, versus the strong bite of the Morning Glory. The best I’ve found along this line is a Portland local brand called Dragonfly Chai. If I could convince one of the local coffee shops to try it, I think they’d be well pleased with it.

It’s interesting to sit in a coffee shop near the counter, because you really notice the sort of pattern and flow of traffic. It seems to be a steady trickle of people until it abruptly floods in. I don’t know what else is going on in the area that would cause the momentary surges, but they’re definitely unmistakable. It’s all about the ebb and flow and cycles. (And being patient… it’s time to refill my chai, but I’m waiting until the current surge dies down).

I recently read a blog post that talked about how delightful it was to have a grapefruit, Photoshop, and an empty apartment to work in. While there are certainly days that sounds excellent, that’s not really my model. I like my solitude as much as the next introvert, but what exactly that entails differs between people, I think, and for me, it comes down to having solitude without being alone. This is why I’m so fond of coffee houses and cafes: I’m left to my own devices generally, but other people are around, satisfying my desire to people-watch when I want (watching the social dance between people is something of a pastime… I find it fascinating). That sort of “communal solitude” is my happy medium where I feel like I’m the most productive. I’d really love to sit down and get a discussion going between a number of creatives to talk about that… where our productive “sweet spot” is. I’m not sure this blog really has enough of a readership to get as broad a sampling as I’d like, but I’d still love to know folks’ thoughts on the matter nonetheless.

Snappy Dragon

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Second post of the night, I know. I’m waiting for an immortal meeting to start, so I thought I’d write up my thoughts on dinner. I’d heard good things about the Snappy Dragon, a small chinese restaurant just up the hill from my apartment. It’s small, in what looks and feels like a converted house, which makes for a nice, cozy ambiance. Staff was young and pleasant, and I was seated pretty quickly (the benefit of eating early and alone… by the time I left, there was a pretty respectable line). The menu was respectable in length and reasonably descriptive in what each dish contained. I was initially a little disappointed to see a relatively small vegetarian list (while I’m not vegetarian, several friends are, so I’ve taken to keeping an eye out for places that would be reasonable to take them), until I noticed at the top of that section: “Please ask a server for our complete vegetarian menu.” Hah!

Since it was my first time at the restaurant, I figured I’d try one of the dishes that you find everywhere, so I’d have a basis for comparison. I opted for Moo Goo Gai Pan, and a cup of wonton soup. The soup first: it’s pretty normal to run into relatively bland wonton soup, with a soggy wonton in an inconsequential broth. This wonton soup was markedly better than that. While it still remained only wontons in broth, the wontons tasted pretty fresh, and the broth was a hearty and flavorful, based on either a pork or beef stock, and the whole thing was rounded out with a pinch of fresh scallions on top.

The Moo Goo Gai Pan came out and was a respectable portion. Their particular incarnation of this standard is comprised of chicken, snow peas, and three different types of mushrooms in a light sauce. I found the chicken to taste a little dry, but not unreasonably so, and the rest of the dish was excellent: none of the flavors were particularly overpowering, and the sauce served to augment, rather than replace the flavors of the mushrooms and snow peas.

The total meal was very reasonably priced for dinner prices, and I got out of there for $16 after a very respectable tip. I definitely plan on heading back there (especially since it’s so near my house!), and already have an eye on a chef’s special that I want to try: the asparagus in black bean sauce with chicken.

Beware the Posts of March

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We’re not at the Ides yet, but it seemed appropriate. Things march forward in life, in generally pleasant ways. I’ve been puttering around getting various tasks done, and in general really wishing I had, say, furniture in my apartment. I’ve been sleeping on a camp mat and using my camp chair to sit in, but it makes it hard to get some computer projects I’d like to do done. Considering it’ll be another week until my things start to arrive (things are being shipped shortly, and the storage unit gets delivered on the 13th)… hrm, I may need to find a solution. As it stands, I spend most of my days in coffee shops, slurping chai and making eyes at the baristas (always more delightful when they make eyes back…). I had dinner with Mickey last night, which was really nice, and hopefully we won’t let quite as much time slip between get togethers now that I’m local again. Honestly, the only major concerns I have right now is job hunting and a strange noise my car has started making. I’m keeping an eye on it, and actually swung down to the service center this morning to make sure (in classic fashion, it wouldn’t make the noise while the mechanic was there). He suspected a loose belt, which makes sense, but it’s not immediately pressing, so it should be able to safely wait until I get my car serviced again. Still, frustrating, and I worry for my poor car. She has 130,000 miles in her already, and I really hope to double that.

As some of you know, Ayyam-i-ha just passed, and my parents were great and sent me some gift cards to help me out with this move. I picked up some frivolity via Amazon (some portable games and preordered Twin Peaks Season 2), and replenished my wardrobe at JC Penney. I’m pretty happy with what I managed to pick out (nothing out of the ordinary, just some nice slacks and button-down shirts suitable for a potential office environment). I do still need to do something about my shoes (my current Keens are beginning to disintegrate), but I think I may be able to just recover a prior pair of shoes by doing something about the insoles. You know me… shopping maven… if by maven you mean decides what he wants, goes in, finds what he wants, buys it, leaves. (Except bookstores… I can spend freakin’ hours in them.)

It’s hard to imagine that it’s already March. Here’s to the coming spring!

Tuesday Drips By

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As a follow up to last post, I did indeed procure and install a shower head and pillow (well, the pillow doesn’t really need installing per se, but the gist I think is made). Life is better, though I’m still looking forward to something more resembling a bed. I’ve gotten a few other errands out of the way, and my Scrivener review is now up, if you care to read it.

Today I woke up to a bright, blue sky, which is always fantastic. Spent the morning reading and puttering around the apartment waiting to meet with my landlady and for a package from my parents to arrive (got it, and it’s all very much appreciated! Happy Ayyam-i-ha!). The meeting with the landlady went well, so now I’m officially the leaseholder and I’ve paid my rent and all that. I’ve got to say, it’s really nice renting from someone who is willing to work with their tenants: I was able to move in on a relatively small deposit and without the lease officially signed, and all a week before the apartment was originally supposed to come due. Big, hearty thumbs up on that. We also briefly discussed my doing some computer related work for her other business, and she asked me to give her a rate to set up a VPN. I’ll need to think on that and get back to her: not too worried about setting up the VPN (she has pretty minimal needs, we’re not talking some enterprise level solution here), just trying to think of what to charge — I could certainly use the money.

When I was down in Portland, I swung by Powell’s, and ended up picking up Harry G. Frankfurt’s On Bullshit and On Truth, both of which are delightful short reads (I started and finished On Truth this morning waiting for my appointment). Definitely some interesting things to think on, and I’ve already started taking some notes (via Scrivener!) for an essay I’ve been thinking about writing.

I’m currently in Zoka, downing a pot of Jasmine while waiting for for their wireless connection issues to sort themselves out (system crashed and had to be rebooted, and now appears to be flaking out again… unfortunate). I’ve been here most of the afternoon, wrapping up a project for AvatarMUD and mailing it out to the rest of the staff. While I think I did some good work with it and that it would on the whole benefit the game, I’m not exactly holding my breath on seeing it actually implemented. Perhaps I’m getting cynical in my near-decade on the MUD, but seems like big changes tend not to go through unless they’re championed by someone in a position to implement the change themselves… which this isn’t. Sorry I can’t be more specific about what I’m talking about. It’s good to have it out of the way, at least. I’ve been working on it since August.

The weather has progressively become wetter as the day has marched on, with it currently wavering between drizzling rain and simply looking sullenly damp. I’m fine with this. I kind of like the semi-rain Seattle tends to get. It evokes a partcular mood that is a little hard to describe: the closest I can come to a short definition would be “indie aloofness”, only without the smug pretentiousness. You’re walking around or driving around and there’s a good groove going on the radio or on your iPod and you’re feeling good about the solitude. It is all good.

Insomnia

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I’m sure it’s exacerbated by the fact that I’m sleeping on the floor with a sleeping pad, but I’ve had little to no sleep the past two nights. Last night I got roughly 20 minutes of sleep… I say roughly because I remember checking my watch and seeing that it was 6am, and then actually waking up at 6:30 when my alarm went off (had a job interview at 8… I’m hoping it went well, but I’m not sitting around waiting for it, either). The rest of the night I can remember in excruciating detail. Got up, went to my interview, then went over to Zoka to leech bandwidth and get some juice and a chai. Their network is a little overly locked down, in my opinion: most of the ports are locked down, which means that I can’t check my email securely, or even log into Avatar (found a nice little workaround for that… the standard ssh port IS open, so I ssh into the host and then telnet remotely from there). Interestingly, even the Gtalk port is locked down, though none of the other IM services appear to be.

Something I meant to sent to Lichen last week but forgot: are you aware of the library and literacy initiative in Portland, OR? It was remarkably refreshing to see billboards promoting reading nights not only at the local libraries, but at cafe’s, sponsored by libraries. I think that’s a fantastic marriage. Coffee and books have already been wedded together for years thanks to the prevalence of cafes in every Barnes and Noble and Borders (to name a few), so why not leverage that link for libraries as well?

Today, I think I need to buy a shower head and a pillow… I gave the shower head that’s in there a fair shot, but a) it sprays everywhere, b) it’s too low (I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have to practice yoga to wash my hair), and c) the water pressure out of specific parts of the nozzle could cut diamonds. The desire for a pillow I imagine should go without saying.

Second Post of the Day

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Sitting in the University Zoka atm, drinking a White Pekoe tea and doing some general updates. I ended up sitting down and playing (and writing) with Scrivener this afternoon, and I’ve got to say that I’m really impressed. It’s well worth the $34.99 (which I’ve not yet had a chance to plunk down… making sure rent and bills are covered comes first, sadly), and a lengthier review will be up over at AppleGeeks on Monday (it’s already written, but I forward dated it to Monday morning).

Mostly I wanted to post that my friend and former classmate Caleb Wilson will have one of his short stories in volume 20 of Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Congratulations, man, you deserve it! I hope it bodes well for further publication.

Updating in the Rain

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Just updating in the rain… (apologies to Gene Kelly)

I’m currently in the Apple Store in University Village, making use of the wireless to find some information I need, since I don’t have an internet connection at the apartment yet (nor furniture, though I did make a trip to a Fred Meyer for basics like a trash can and shower curtain). There are 9 wireless networks in range of my apartment, 8 of which are WEP or WPA encrypted, and the 9th appears to be a honeypot. Interestingly, the networks are all piled on top of each other, either on 6, 9, or 11… but none on channels 1-5, which means I’ve got plenty of room for my own network when I get connectivity.

The mall is something of a yuppie-land, full of upscale mall-stores and plenty of well dressed but still vapid-looking people walking around, but there are worse things, I suppose. I may end up working here (interview tomorrow morning), we’ll see how it goes (my biggest concern is that I’ll just be signing my checks over to the store… you know how I am about geekery, and employee discounts are hard to pass up). It’d be an easy commute (straight down 20 to 65, 65 to 25, turn into mall… 10 minutes in traffic, tops. Same route will also take me to the 520 bridge without having to get on the interstate), and assuming it has some basic benefits like healthcare, should pay enough to live on.

Having no connectivity at home has made me realize just how much I rely on an internet connection. It’s my primary mode of communication (email, im, audio/video chat, blogging), it’s my encyclopedia whenever I have a random question, it’s how I find stores and restaurants in a new neighborhood, how I find phone numbers of same, how I check my bank and credit card balances, the games I play are primarily online, the articles and news I read are all via websites. Just… well, damn. I know I’d adjust if the internet suddenly went away, but it really is pretty remarkable how “wired” you can end up without realizing it.

I downloaded a new application the other day to try out… it shows a lot of promise, but I just haven’t had much of a chance to play with it yet. It’s a WRITING app called Scrivener, and has been developed by a writer, with the quirks of writing in mind. Plenty of note taking and organizing capabilities, collecting snippets of story and anything else… so, it’s not necessarily meant to replace the ubiquitousness of, say, Yojimbo, or DevonTHINK, but does have a lot of a similar functionality for given projects. Anyway, I’m going to play with it and write up a full review for my Applegeeks column, and probably link to it here.

No Complaints

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Back at the Fresh Pot, once again had lunch over at the Cup and Saucer… this time, a lucky scramble, which reminded me SO MUCH of Andy‘s scrambles that he used to make in Montpelier (only this had bacon instead of veggie sausage, though I’m sure you could have swapped). It had cheese and eggs and mushrooms and green onions and bacon and potatoes… damned tasty, though I did hit my egg limit and couldn’t finish it all. Ended up striking up a conversation with the folks at the next table over, who are (ironically) originally from the east coast (like, Boston, and went to St Mic’s), who are now in Portland. One is working on getting an assistantship in photography, and the other works for a trip planning organization for high school students to Thailand. I inserted myself when I heard them talking about cameras, and I ended up giving them both my card (may be helping one out with their portfolio site, even). It’s always nice to be able to strike up conversations with folks, though I’m always a little self-conscious about it.

I swung through the Hawthorne Street Tea shop while waiting for a table at Cup and Saucer (that place gets hopping on weekends), and picked up some white chocolate covered espresso beans… arguably, I think I prefer them to the milk chocolate covered beans… the white chocolate augments the coffee flavor really nicely. I also heard that Gomez is playing in town tonight, and I’m SORELY tempted to go check it out, but I can’t really justify spending the money on a show right now. There will be a time and place for such.

I’ve taken to writing in my notebook while I wait for food. I usually stop at a full page, though today I did end up doing a second page of just ideas for stories. It felt good to brainstorm, and hopefully I’ll actually go back and revisit them, and use them for writing projects. I’ve been doing a fair bit of introspection about my writing, and I’m noticing certain trends, and where I need to improve. I’m fairly comfortable with my informal prose, and my essay work, but as far as fiction goes, I’m a macro-writer with nearly no “micro” game. By which I mean that I’m good at outlining and summarizing an idea or a story arc, but when it comes time to actually do the details, the subtle dialogue and nuanced description, forget it. I think I would probably really benefit from sitting down and writing a bunch of “nothing” stories, just work on slowing down and appreciating the details and subtleties of, say, a conversation over a cup of coffee, or over breakfast in a diner. I mean, think about Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Yes, there’s a lot that happens, but the action scenes are actually relatively short compared to the dialogue. Early on in the book, sitting around in a hotel room, there are pages and pages of dialogue and detail about planning the revolution, but no action takes place, yet you’re still engaged. That’s the sign of good dialogue: it should stand alone as a conversation, not as a lecture, nor as filler within an event. The same goes for adding details to a scene… they shouldn’t be arbitrary or tacked on, they should be part of the tapestry of the scene… if you can’t think of a way to work an element into a scene without breaking the flow, then maybe that element isn’t necessary or the scene should be rethought.

This goes for all forms of storytelling, I think, not just writing. Visual storytelling has some other elements that it has to consider. Comics immediately come to mind, where each panel tends to contain an action or other method to signify the progression of time… though simply changing viewpoint can do wonders… I immediately think of the Grant Morrison run of Animal Man, the final issue, where Animal Man meets Grant (a brilliant story arc for those who haven’t read it… they’ve released it as a trilogy of graphic novels if you want). They spend a fair bit of time just walking and talking, and that slowdown from the standard pacing of comics did a lot to encourage the surrealist feel of the story.

An emerging medium that I think could really benefit from implementing a more nuanced dialogue and story would be video games. While it has been slowly improving, the dialogue in most games is a bit of a joke. Approached appropriately, the sense of ownership of action from an interactive medium could potentially make for a more poignant and directly felt reaction from the viewer. (I should really expand on this and put it up over here…)