Roy Choi: Everyone wants the answer. They want us to have the solution.

Everyone wants the answer.  They want us to have the solution.  But we don’t have a solution.  We’re just trying to feed and take care of people.  If we’re not perfect at the beginning, well, fuck it,man.  We’re a year old.  Give it time. – Roy Choi

Sometimes an east coast person will come west and try (food, restaurants, and so forth) and report negatively on it.  Probably missing some context or perhaps from their perspective, accurately depicting their opinions.  Recently Pete Wells of the New York Times gave Roy Choi’s LocoL zero stars.  And while I don’t know what exactly that means out of a general ignorance of the New York Times restaurant reviewing standards, I feel like saying “zero stars” suggests some colossal failure and reflects negatively on the food and experience in general. Continue reading “Roy Choi: Everyone wants the answer. They want us to have the solution.”

Twitter, please verify me

So … there’s this form that you can use to apply for a verified check on twitter.  I’ve wanted to be verified for … years.  One of the things you do is provide a link to a website or something?  Wasn’t quite clear what they were looking for, but here I am, on the website that I have but seldom update whose domain is my name, and hoping that Twitter will indeed verify me.

Link to the form so you can get verified too

On Baseball, the most terrible of all sports

It’s been a very long time I think since I posted anything on this blog.  Probably did something silly and became employed and old and forgot that I have this habit of mansplaining throwing half baked ideas on the internet because either I feel like it needs to happen or I have no other way of expressing myself.

And it’s really been so long that I actually have been fairly submerged in baseball to an astonishing degree.  For a guy who never really cared about athleticism, this new interest in stickball is something that’s been going on for a few years now and it’s kind of isolating because I want to talk about baseball and very few people understand baseball, care about baseball, or able to understand the level of conversation that I am currently operating at.  (Internet baseball troll).

Continue reading “On Baseball, the most terrible of all sports”

Geography Club cover boys and visualizing characters based on their movie actors

This is a post about Geography Club, Geography Club (the movie) and The Thing I Didn’t Know I Didn’t Know.

A while ago Brent Hartinger wrote a book called Geography Club which is the story of a young gay guy and various coming out issues.  You know.  Back then, this sort of thing wasn’t as acceptable.  Naming a social or support organization with something so harmless was a bit of a brilliant turn.  Also, the book always attracted my eye because of the young man on the cover. Continue reading “Geography Club cover boys and visualizing characters based on their movie actors”

NyQuil and automated check out

So … I know that I was not a big fan of the self-checkout movement.  Part of it was my perspective as a courtesy clerk and knowing that if we didn’t need more checkers, my route to promotion was limited.  Also, I don’t really trust people and the part where an employee stands around babysitting customers and machines means that the labor savings may not be as great as one might think.

But also. In the state of California.  You cannot purchase alcohol through self-checkout machines.  I understand this when you think of minors who are buying alcohol.  But I was trying to purchase NyQuil.  And yes, it says on the bottle 10% alcohol.  But I was thinking / hoping that the computer would not think of it as “alcoholic beverage” but “medicine / pharmaceutical” … but alas.  So if you ever find yourself trying to buy a bottle of NyQuil and get into the self-checkout line?  (in California) get out and go to a regular checkout line.

Jimmy Johns and the price of food

Hey so … I’m budgeting?  The question mark is because it’s never something I have executed with discipline.  Sure, I’ve tried to hunt bargains for recreation.  In my travels and through the conversations with out of state friends I have discovered a few restaurants that have been unavailable to me in California.

You know, like In-N-Out was unavailable to everyone else. Continue reading “Jimmy Johns and the price of food”

One thing that Kobo does better than Sony is FOOTNOTES

Okay so I’ve been using the Sony Readers since PRS-500 which predates the touch interface.  I’ve never been happy with how they handled footnotes.  You would be taken out of the text to jump to the footnote probably at the end of the chapter and then you’d have to hit the back button to jump back… Of course if for some reason the footnote paginated … anyways.

My experience with the Kobo Aura and footnotes has been much better.  A small dialogue box pops up with the text of the footnote over the text which I can easily dismiss.  I don’t feel like I’m bouncing back and forth in the book.  I suppose I should include pictures and what not but I’m not going to because I doubt anyone really cares about this sort of thing.  I mean anyone else.

Remembering Ned Vizzini at Skylight Books

Hey. I didn’t say anything because I have issues with public speaking so I like to put words together first so I know that I have words and I’m not just standing around looking like I’m trying to say something or make a point when I’m just trying to think because communication words don’t come easily to me.

Tonight, some people, especially young adult writers came together to remember Ned Vizzini, the talented young adult author who committed suicide right before Christmas last year.  Some selections from his books were read out loud as well as some personal recollections.  Some really nice things were said.  Ned will be remembered as a caring and intelligent guy. Continue reading “Remembering Ned Vizzini at Skylight Books”

Grasshopper Jungle

9781101590065.600x600-75Grasshopper Jungle is a new book by Andrew Smith.  I have previously read books by Andrew Smith such as Winger, Stick, and The Path of Falling Objects.  I’ve been looking forward to this book for several months.  Feels like nearly a year.  A year of John Corey Whaley hyping the book to me.  A year of trying to get my hands on the galley.  An exaggerated year of trying to figure out what the book is about.

And the book comes out on Tuesday.  So soon you will be able to find out.  I finished a free advanced reader’s copy I got from Netgalley so there may have been some changes in the finished copy then what I read.

Things that the book reminded me of:  mid-century science fiction films, Lost, Venture Bros, plus a fairly honest look at teenage boys in the middle of nowhere Iowa.