I live!

The rumors are indeed true, my friends. I have returned to the land of milk and honey and surfboards, and after four very full and exhausting days I have finally gotten a good night's rest.

Such stories I shall share with you! The very firmaments of your mind will boggle at my possibly-not-as-interesting-as-I-think-they-are-but-still-fairly-entertaining stories, gasp at the surprising twists and turn, and nod your head approvingly as the countdown to my ascension into the pantheon of obscure and semi-famous demi-gods drops one digit lower.

Alas, that time has not yet struck the clock (the stories, not my death). If you can but hold for one day longer, I shall begin my stories of wonderment then. For now, I must make my way back home from the land of my girlfriend's family and begin the process of acclimating myself back into society at large.

So for now, adieu.

Daily Haikus - Christmas Break Edition

Rollercoaster rides
Replaced with Christmas lighting;
Winter wonderland.

Sorrow‘s burden lifts
With the company of friends.
Raise a glass once more.

Terror in the night;
I should not have driven home.
Rain comes down in sheets.

Innovative thought,
Exploding every which way;
THIS is theatre!

I want to tap dance
So I can do the number
From ‘Holiday Inn.’

A fun house mirror,
Sorting through old photographs.
Is he truly me?

Daily Haiku - December 16, 2012

Each one put away
Triggers three more taken out;
"Comic Book Constant."

Home for the Holidays

Almost every year since I moved out to California I’ve gone home for Christmas. Usually it’s the week spanning Christmas Day, but this year I ended up coming out a week early due to a second run of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson we’re putting up on the 27th and 28th. This turned out to be rather fortuitous for a number of reasons.

First off, it allowed me to finally make it back to my friends’ Christmas party for only the second time ever, and I stayed up until 3am catching up with friends and drinking delicious hard cider. Plus, they got me these totally bad-ass pint glasses.

[Try not to be too jealous.]

Secondly, by the very nature of it not being the week of Christmas, people are freer to meet up for coffee or what have you. Usually Christmas break ends up being a clusterduck of trying to relax while also cramming in as many trips as possible to see everyone who is in the area. Invariably people get left out because everyone has their own families and friends to catch up with, but coming in a week early has really opened things up. As such not only am I going to see both my parents, my sister, two sets of cousins and at least a half dozen friends, but I’m ALSO going to have a few days to sit at home and do nothing beyond cataloguing my immense comic collection. Not bad if I do say so myself. :D

[This is half of my collection.]

Daily Haiku - December 13, 2012

Pastrami revealed:
You're just a shaved beef hotdog.
You don't fool me, pal.

Daily Haiku - December 12, 2012

Dark room, empty stage.
Applause, laughter, more applause;
Life of the comic.

I'm a Little Late to the Party

Last night I finally finished off the first season of Battlestar Galactica and jumped straight into season 2. I had watched a smattering of episodes when it first came out years ago, but quickly fell off the wagon as I’m not really a TV person and we don’t have access to the basic networks, much less cable. Fortunately my roommate owns the entire series on DVD and my girlfriend had expressed an interest in seeing it, so I lucked out into getting to watch what has been, so far anyways, a great series.

The only reason I’m at work today is that I got too tired to keep going by 1am. It’s the third night this week we’ve been up that late gorging on BSG and were I not heading home tomorrow for the holidays, I’m fairly certain we’d grind through all of Season 2 over the coming weekend. The following clip from Portlandia (another series my girlfriend got me hooked on) sums it up perfectly:



My girlfriend has also gotten me into an old, rather quirky BBC series called Black Books, starring Dylan Moran, who by coincidence showed up in L.A. to do a show at Largo the other night, which we went to see. He’s a very funny guy and I’m planning on spending some time today browsing YouTube for more of his work. Oddly enough, I think he’s only the second comic I’ve ever gone to see, the other being Eddie Izzard, which is probably a trend I need to extend. I like funny things. There are lots of funny people. Ipso facto, I should go see more funny people.

Daily Haiku - December 11, 2012

An Ode to Panda Express Orange Chicken:

Orange Chemicals,
Masquerading as flavor,
How I love you so.

A New Age of Technology

On Black Friday, I got up early and hit the local Verizon Wireless store in the hopes of snagging myself a heavily discounted Samsung Galaxy S3. Unfortunately, Verizon was the only carrier not to put the smartphone on sale, but I went ahead and got it anyway. I'd been living in the stone age for too long, and it was time to start cooking with fire.

Honestly, the only reason I hadn't switched over earlier was cost. My new phone bill is almost double what I used to pay and I'm still not entirely sure it was worth the price. That said, I'd been sitting in the upgrade sweet spot for a while and it was as good a time as any to pull the trigger. In one fell swoop I got:

(i) internet access in the palm of my hand (which was incredibly helpful when traversing Portland last weekend); and

(ii) a portable music player that could hold all my music; and

(iii) the ability to save myself the hassle of carrying around my digital camera (the built-in camera on the S3 is just as good).

Now don't get me wrong, it's not all roses and sunshine. As mentioned above, switching over to a smart phone can drastically raise your monthly bill (about +$40/month for me) and it tends to make folks more antisocial. But assuming you can afford the cost and have the willpower to turn off your phone when hanging out with friends, I highly recommend you pick up a smartphone.

Any day now I expect to start pontificating about the cold, dark days when I tried to get by with a phone that only allowed for simple texting. Texting! What are we, animals?! *scoff*

Daily Haiku - December 10, 2012

Wrap, fold, tape, repeat.
Scribble cryptic clues on top;
Gifts are so much fun.

L'évolution

Who just unlocked food and animals? This guy, right here! BOOYAH!


[click image for larger version]

Artists you should know: J. Slattum and Sienna Morris

While in Portland we stopped by the Saturday Market and ran across two exceptional artists who I wanted to share with you. The first is J. Slattum, a surrealist painter whose work intially caught my eye with it's color palate and then with the beautifuly bizzare subject matter. I don't have enough wall space as it is, but I'm sorely tempted to purchase a piece or two anyways. I highly suggest you check out his gallery and consider doing the same.

Root of Good Intentions	Intuition

The second artist is Sienna Morris, who created a style of painting she calls 'Numberism.' Instead up using strokes to paint with, she draws in numbers that realate to the subject matter. For example, in the picture on the left below, 'C25H52,' the wax of the burning candle is drawn with the chemical formula for Paraffin Wax, C25H52, and the flame is drawn with a temperature map of the flame in Celsius, ranging from 800°C – 1200°C. The second picture, 'Schrödinger’s Cat,' is drawn with Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. It is a fascinating intersection of science and art and well worth your time.

C25H52	Schrödinger’s Cat

(Re)Learning a Second Language in 2012

Thanks to a private elementary school education and the foreign language requirements in high school and college I have compiled something close to fifteen years of French, but have very little to show for it nowadays. Lately though I’ve decided to have another go at it in an attempt to find a more productive way to spend my down time at work, and also because my girlfriend is a Francophile. Okay, it’s mainly because of the latter, but having something to do at work is also nice. :D

The initial plan was a two-pronged approach which involved (i) having all future emails between my girlfriend and I be written in French, and (ii) making flashcards for new words as I went along and studying those later in my spare time. The first part worked fairly well, with me using a combination of my retained knowledge of the French language, WordReference to look up new words, About.com to help with verb conjugation, and Google Translate to make sure it actually read properly when translated back into English. The second part? Not so much. I’ve never been particularly good at studying on my own, and that habit apparently hasn’t changed with time.

And that’s when Reddit once again came to my rescue. In response to a post that I no longer recall, someone mentioned and linked to a site called DuoLingo. Duolingo is a free site that helps you learn languages (currently offering Spanish, German, French, and Protugese) through a points/rewards system found in most video game these days. Lessons are broken down into sectional quizzes which can be completed for points, which in turn level you up and open newer, more difficult lesson to conquer. The desire for rewards and perfection are an excellent motivator to go back over the lessons until you’ve got them down perfectly.

I’ve only been using it consistently for about the last week but I have to say I really enjoy the system and think it does an excellent job in teaching the language. If you’ve ever considered learning one of the aforementioned languages or just find yourself bored and looking for a way to pass the time, you could do much worse than checking out DuoLingo.

Daily Haiku - December 7, 2012

A glass of wine falls,
Blooming roses on the couch;
Unwelcome garden.

Daily Haiku - December 6, 2012

I’m always amazed,
Using peroxide on ears;
So much wax in there!

The Return of the Revenge of the Son of Kickstarter

Man, I just can’t escape Kickstarter. I was perusing Reddit, as I am want to do, when I stumbled across an AMA by Ryan North (he of Dinosaur Comics fame), who mentioned he was kickstarting a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book of Hamlet starring the artistic talents of every web-comic in the known universe. Well, I happen to like all of those things so I immediately threw down my $25 for a copy and started emailing friends about it.

While not my first Kickstarter, it is the first book I’ve backed. My five previous endeavors have included two board games (Nothing Personal and Heroes of Metro City), a board game accessory (The Official Settlers of Catan Gaming Board), a computer game (FTL: Faster Than Light), and a musical (Super Sidekick: The Musical).

I rarely wander the site on my own, which is probably for own good, instead finding my way there through secondary sources, either one of my friends or one of the websites I frequently visit. I clearly lean heavily towards gaming in its many forms, but Kickstarter offers so much more than that. Its top-level categories include Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film & Video, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater.

If you’ve got a bit of cash to throw around and you don’t mind waiting for results (turn-around can be up to a year or more depending on the type of project) you might go nose around and see what you can find.

The Portland Trip

For our two year anniversary my girlfriend and I decided to hit up Portland for an extended weekend. And while the weather was fairly crappy (rain, heavy winds, temperatures in the high 40s/low 50s) we ended up having a great time nonetheless. This was due in part to the awesome apartment we rented through airbnb.com and the massive amounts of delicious food we gorged on during out stay. I don’t believe I’ve talked about airbnb before so let’s rectify that now, shall we?

This is the second time I’ve used airbnb to book a trip, the first being back on Labor Day for a trip to Santa Barbara, and I can’t say enough nice things about the business. It is an amazing alternative to just booking a hotel room for your trip, instead allowing you to book space in a personal residence, be that an apartment, house, tree house (Santa Barbara), castle or whatever someone has available and is willing to offer. And generally speaking the cost is comparative but you get so much more out of booking a personal space.

Case in point: instead of some generic, moderately comfortable bed and a bathroom with minimal amenities, we got a full blown apartment with an opulent bed, a full living room and kitchen and a full-sized bathroom. Even better, it was located smack dab in downtown Portland, a mere two blocks from the light rail system, dozens of restaurants and major tourist attractions. The owner greeted us on our arrival, offered suggestions on where to go and what to eat, and was immediately available should anything go wrong (which it didn’t). If you ever find yourself planning a trip to Portland I highly recommend you check out her place on airbnb.

As for the food, my own complaint was that I didn’t have a stomach large enough to allow myself to eat non-stop for the three days I was there. But barring that genetic shortcoming we did what we could to eat like kings.

Saturday:

On Deck Sports Bar & Grill (lunch): we hadn’t planned on going here, but apparently 3-5pm is a dead zone for restaurants in Portland. Those that cater to breakfast and lunch close at 3pm and those that do dinner don’t open until at least 5pm, if not later. That said, both the burgers and the buffalo chips were solid options.

Andina (dinner): Our first real chance at sampling the Portland cuisine, Andina offered up a wide selection of Peruvian fare and excellent cocktails. I got the Bistec Novoandino (filet minon) and my girlfriend got the seasonal special which was some sort of seafood potpie, filled with lobster, crab, scallops and every other delicious thing from the sea. We finished the meal with their plato de crema quemada, three tiny pots of crème brûlée in walnut, chocolate and rum flavors. I highly recommend an evening here.

Sunday:

Screen Door (brunch): If you are looking to only eat once a day, this would be the place to come. Both I and my girlfriend got the chicken biscuits with gravy, which while massive and delicious weren’t even the most eye-boggling dish on display. One table over I saw a young woman delivered fried chicken and waffle, which included THREE fried chicken breasts the size of the one on my plate, skewered to an equally massive waffle by a steak knife. MADNESS. But back to my dish; the gravy and fried chicken were delicious and had a great deal of heat to them, but my chest almost immediately began to lodge a protest with my brain. While good eats, I think I’d have to leave at least half for leftovers in the future.

Voodoo Donuts (snack): Meh. Donuts are donuts. But it was fun to see all their crazy concoctions on display.

Le Pigeon (dinner): This was the fanciest meal we had while visiting and was a culinary tour de force. We got the five-course Chef’s tasting menu, which was comprised of (1) seared Foie Gras with truffle, pumpkin bread and quince, (2) Potato Gnocchi with lamb ragu and chimichurri cream, (3) duck breast with broccoli, epoisses fondue, currants and mushrooms, (4) Beef Cheek Bourguignon, and (5), Foie Gras Profiteroles for dessert.

It was the first time I’ve ever had foie gras, and while not bad, I don’t think it’s something I’ll try again. Especially in dessert form. :P

Monday:

Pine State Biscuits (brunch): This was my favorite stop on our trip and I only wished we could have gone there more than once (or that I was hungry enough for more than one sitting). Unlike Screen Door that overwhelmed you with food, PSB gave me just the right amount of food in its signature dish, The Jimmy. The portions were perfect as well, with the biscuit, fried chicken, bacon, egg, and cheese all contributing equally. If you go nowhere else in Portland, go here.

Karam (lunch): Another unexpected stop, we had been aiming to get to the oft praised Bunk Sandwiches, but it turned out they closed at 3pm, so when we got there at 2:58pm they had already shut down. Instead we hit up Karam, a Lebanese & Syrian restaurant, where we feasted on hummus, kibbee, falafel, kafta kabab, and chicken and lamb shawarma. It was a hearty meal that sustained us all the way back to Los Angeles.