One of my favorite Pacific Northwest artists, Pham Quoc Hung, finally has his website up and running. Over the next few months Hung plans to post more of his portfolio and will start keeping his show schedule online for those who track his work.
Mary and I will likely visit with Hung after work next Thursday at the Pioneer Square first Thursday art walk.
Those innovative guys over at the Robot Co-Op just launched something very similar to an idea I've been rolling around for a few years now; they call it 43places.com.
Nifty way to track, re-live, and share experiences on places you've visited as well as a launching pad for tracking and discovering new places you want to visit in this world.
See their blog announcement of 43 Places for a few more details.
I've been way too busy to post for a while, but Hemant pulled out some great excerpts from Fast Company and posted them on his blog. I haven't read that issue yet, but all the excerpts are worth reading and keeping tucked away. However, really liked the comparison of entreprenuers to DeNiro in Heat from Soul Proprietor:
As a side note, Fast Company is appears to get it; they have a Fast Company blog.
Ben's recent blog entry on working remotely had a great pointer to the Guide to Seattle's Free Wireless Coffee Shops.
I've definately noted in the past that I achieve extremely high self productivity when I'm able to work somewhere comfortable outside my office/home. Perhaps it's the fact that I can be in a confortable environment w/ minimal personal distractions, or able to focus on something other than a wall two feet in front of me when thinking, or perhaps it's just the regular spurts of caffeine ingestion.
I tried for a few weeks markings one day a week that I could WFH (and just work in a coffee shop), however I always seemed to forget and end up coming into work. Putting a stake in the ground, I just scheduled 2 days next week, since I'm in a project phase (requirements and design) that really lends itself well to uninterrupted time where creative thoughts can flow.
See you at Tully's.
I've been wanting to read Paul Graham's Hacker's and Painting for quite some time, but I hadn't thought of looking for related articles.
Werner pointed out Paul's excellent essay "Made in USA" about American's and design vs speed. Many great observations.
And his commentary on Taste for Makers is also an enjoyable read that plants (or re-affirms) many good core design beliefs in your head.
Engadget interviewing Caterina Fake, one of Flickr's co-founders today, and she talked about one of the many tagged groups of photos: The squared circle Pool. At this point it consists of 1600+ photos contributed by photographers around the world of circles made square through photography. An amusing look at the world we live in!
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible" - T.E Lawrence in the Seven Pillars of Wisdom
After running into Anh, Hung, and Jian Pham Quoc yesterday at the Kirkland Wednesday market I visited them again today at a Pioneer Square artist display to see some of Hung's new paintings. His more recent work uses a style closer to my original painting, a man playing music to a woman, with textured pebbles and intense, blended colors. I ended up buying two new medium size works, one a winter scene from Vietnam for my Colorado house, and another beatuful painting of a woman at peace with birds. I'm visiting their studio tomorrow before as they return to Vietnam for the Winter on Monday. I'll likely buy a few more paintings as future gifts as they haven't had as good of a sales year as those past and need money.
They invited Mary and I to visit with them in Vietnam anytime. Anh would help find us nice hotels (she said $10 / day you can find amazing hotels), and Hung would show us all the great out of the way places and sights. They said the artwork there is amazing since artists are free to think and spend significant time preparing for their work as opposed to rushing to sell them to pay high rents.
They mentioned two galleries online sell some of their work. I found one, biteofasia.com which had the following short biography on Hong:
"Pham Quoc Hung is a well-known Vietnamese artist who was born in Hue, a city located in central Vietnam and best known for its historical and cultural heritage (more about Hue). In 1992, Hung graduated from the Hue Fine Arts University and afterwards began his career as a professional artist.
Born and raised in a city filled with rich artistic tradition, Hung uses his watercolors to creatively capture Vietnamese life and scenery familiar to him. His work is greatly influenced by the allure of Vietnamese peasants and fishermen as well as the charm of places that he has visited. An award-winning artist, Hung has participated in exhibitions at the 1996 Group Painting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the National Art Exhibitions in Hanoi, Vietnam (1992, 1995) and the Vietnamese-French Cultural Artistic Festival in Hue and Paris, to name a few.
Currently Hung’s work is exhibited in over 100 art galleries, fine gift shops, resorts and private collections throughout Asia, Europe and the United States. Moreover, various companies have licensed Hung's artwork for use on a variety of their products, including but not limited to calendars. Hung depicts solitude in his paintings through scenes of resting, reading and praying, all of which naturally draw the viewer into each picture.
Hung’s delightful, charming and skillful portrayal of Vietnamese life and countryside have made him deservedly popular throughout Asia and in France. And more than any other Vietnamese painter he is responsible for the westerner’s familiarity with “Vietnamese Silk Paintings.” Indeed, his watercolors on silk combine technical virtuosity with a dramatic point of view."
I was reading a blog entry by Abra on eGullet covering her life as a personal chef on Bainbridge Island when it reminded me about Cuizam. Mary and I have passed by the Cuizam store in Kirkland on the way to work everyday and always wondered what it was. Ended up ordering around a weeks worth of gourmet meals to try it out since Mary is still in Europe and I'm all by myself. Look forward to seeing how it works out!
Dug around and also found the Personal Chefs Network which listed another service,
Chef to Go which might be interesting to also try if Cuizam works out.
Originally spotted this on a T-shirt at one of the shops at Tivoli in Copenhagen:
Looking around for a Seattle restaurant with a Northwest flair to take my visiting chef friend from New York to (since Mistral was closed and I'd wanted to try that) I ran across eGullet which has a Pacific Northwest forum with a constant stream of discussions on the local restaurant scene. Unfortunately I realized that I really missed out on the yearly 25 for $25 promotion that a number of great restaurants in Seattle offer...what a deal if you are into trying new creations. Doh! Trying a new restaurant 5 times a week for the entire month would be excellent.
While on eGullet I found links to a few other interesting sites including ExtraMSG.com, a blog that covers the Portland food scene.
Someone also mentioned an Everett tortilla factory located in the mini-mall complex at the intersection of Evergreen Wy and Casino Rd. Apparently they make amazing chorizo along with their fresh tortillas. I realyl miss breakfasts at Cafe Leysa's in Sayulita, perhaps this is my salvation in Seattle.
Also highly recommended was a place known by many names: Lo Sichuan, Sichuanese Chinese Restaurant, and That Szechuan Place on Jackson at 12th in the Strip Mall Across the Street from Bahn Mi 88. And also highly regarded was the Seven Stars restaurant across the street. Will definately have to try both.
Weekend picks: Agua Verde (UDist) and pork sandwiches at Paseo Caribbean Restaurant (Frement).
Health insurance costs ar out of control these days, particularly if you aren't working for a large company. Apparently Washington State offers a reasonable health care plan if you are a resident. Rates are much better than COBRA: $179/mo vs. $389/mo with Cobra coverage.
http://www.lifewisewa.com/pdfs/C21_1530.pdf
http://www.lifewisewa.com/pdfs/005082.pdf
http://www.lifewisewa.com/pdfs/012198_01-2004.pdf
http://www.lifewisewa.com/visitors/product/overview.html
http://www.lifewisewa.com/pdfs/02AD0477_LWWPLWIndDisclos5.pdf
I found a really useful investment property calculator tonight while looking for info on how depreciation actually worked. I built essentially the exact same calculator in Excel during evaluating my Colorado property, just had left depreciation off.
In fact my spreadsheet just has a few enhancements to take into consideration variable property management fees, tax loss carryovers, dealing w/ estimated property value vs price paid, and more fine grained entry of expenses.
Heading to Sayulita, Mexico in February this year and staying at Villa Amor, a small resort 35 miles North of Puerto Vallarta. Look forward to a week of exploring various towns around the area and experiencing non-commerical Mexico whenever possible.
I found out that the US distributor for one of my favorite dessert wines from Spain (Toro Albalá Don PX Gran Reserva is based in Seattle, Classical Wines near Golden Gardens Park. I'll have to drop by next time I'm there and pick up a few different vintages.
Hemant Bhanoo sent me his excellent recipe for Methi Chicken:
Ingredients:
Garnish:
wash and cut chicken into cubes, and place in a baking dish. using a fork, stab the chicken pieces repeatedly (from all sides).
As you add each of the following ingredients; rub them into the chicken using your fingertips.
- copious amounts of grated ginger
- spoon on the yoghurt and
- sprinkle on the dhanya+jeera powder, and the methi leaves.
- sprinkle some salt and red chilli powder to taste.
You want to make sure the yoghurt is mixed well with the spices. You also want to rub the yoghurt/spices into the chicken as well as possible with your fingertips (the fork-stabbing helps you rub spices into the chicken).
If you have time, cover with plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge to marinate for a few hours (it should be okay to leave it for upto 24+ hours)
If not, cover with aluminium foil and put in an oven preheated to about 350.
after about 20-25 minutes, remove the dish and turn the chicken pieces. The yoghurt might have separated slightly to leave some water in the dish. That's okay.
When the chicken feels like it's almost done (use the stabbing-fork to test), then put back into the oven for about 10 minutes without the alumnium foil. This will give it some color, and possibly dry up some of the water.
squeeze some lime on the onion/chicken when serving.
PS: To make a pretty tasty chicken curry (if you prefer that consistency), you can add some oil in a wok (there should be enough oil to coat the onions) and fry up some finely chopped onions and garlic (about one large onion for one of those 3-breast packets) on medium heat until the onions become translucent. Turn up the heat, and then spoon in some of the yoghurt from the marinade. Let the onions cook a little in the yoghurt. If you fried the onions enough before, you should now start getting towards a pasty consistency. Now throw in the rest of the chicken/marinade and give it a good stir. Once it's all mixed up, lower the heat again and cover + stir occaisionally until the chicken is cooked. As with the baked version, you may want to leave uncovered for a while if the gravy is too watery.