Urban Planning, ABCrepes, and biking

Hello again,

I wanted to tell you what in the world I have been up to, because I feel like I have not done that in some time.

Well, I am still in school (huzzah!) and closer to realizing my dream (huzzah!). What is that you ask? I am on goal to get my degree in Urban Planning with minors in Comm and Econ. My plan is then to apply to Grad school and either get my Sustainable MBA or a Masters in Urban Planning.

Planning is so frigging cool, and to think I would have never found out about it had I not enrolled in school again after all this time. With any luck, I will be able to help plan cities! I can't even begin to tell you how cool that sounds to me. Even if I just get to work on some important part of city planning, like sustainable planning, or transportation issues, that would be so cool. Can you imagine that? Design a sustainable business and utilities part of the city. Or, build a mass transit system that will decrease costs and increase revenue in the downtown area. My brain is weeping with joy at these concepts.

AB Crepes

So one thing that is readily needed and abundant in college towns is affordable tasty noshes, and Bellingham is a little light in that area which I am surprise at. Mostly pizza and beer joints, a few fast food places, and then
some late night places like long time champ of late night food. Pel' Meni. Pel' Meni is a small place with a limited menu. You can get either potato dumplings or beef dumplings, or a half and half combo. It comes with some olive oil, paprika, cilantro, a half slice of rye bread and a small serving of sour cream. All for only $6. One of the best things about this place is they have a record player and I would guess over 100 records to choose from that anyone can put on and play.

But a new place has opened up, and is open late, and offers the same price point. Variety is the spice of life, and AB Crepes is that place. Opened up just recently in downtown (which needs some help here) by a couple of WWU students, AB Crepes is a crepe joint. They offer the traditional nutella variety but also some others, like a Mediterranean vegetarian and breakfast ones with eggs and whatnot on them. They even have a gluten free crepe batter you can ask for. And they are open late with a walk up window, so you can just swing by on the way home and get one to go.

I had to try it, so I went there and got the gluten free Mediterranean one. It took awhile as they did not have any gluten free batter prepped, but it was well worth it. The gluten free crepe held together! That itself was a complete shock. The fact that it tasted great and was moist as well, just outstanding. The fillings were plenty and tasty. Overall the crepe was huge! Lucky for me I was pretty famished that day and ate the whole thing, telling myself it was okay, I earned it. Plus I had to walk home so that would help with the digestion of it all anyways, right? (Kidding, of course I am right).

I recently became some what employed again, which is great. As a starving student I needed that. Other than the fact that I now have some pay coming in and some benefits, it also allowed me to finally tune up my bike. It needed it very badly and now, now it rides so smooth that I want to ride it everywhere. I realized as well, that it is like my horse and I have been neglecting it. I will forgo the logic I used to come to the horse comparison, least I sound crazy and scare you off. Never the less, biking is great. Check out this video about biking in Portland.



Polar bears are epic indeed.

It would be great if every city could achieve this sort of rider friendly space. I can't recommend to you highly enough, if you don't bike, start doing so now. It is so much fun.

Anyway, I need to get back to studying for finals. Yes I will be publishing more. Yes I will be taking Summer classes. Yes I will try my best to eat more food and take some pics (although were I live now has a terrible kitchen that is overused and messy all the time. Really makes it hard for me to get motivated to cook in it). I will also get some batteries and take some pics again. I miss posting my OG shots.

Also, I just realized that I have some people (you all) that read this blog from all over the place! Leave a comment!

Also have to give a shout out to Good Capital, a socially responsible investment firm. Check them out.

Until next time...

Cafe Rumba and Canon

It has been awhile, faithful blog readers. To be honest, I have not found anything super exciting to be blogging about, but I recently was able to get out and about and had some divine encounters with awesome cocktails and food.

I visited Seattle a couple weeks ago and met up with a dear old friend of mine. With him, my girlfriend and I went to Canon bar and drank some concoctions of amazingness.

Canon is nothing short of genius as far as bars go. Seattle, this is a shining star you have. With some of the best bartenders in Seattle (if not the country) tending there, mixed the ambiance of an era gone by, and stiff drinks to help ease the pain of living in these woeful modern times, Canon is by far one of the best things to ever happen to any drinking scene anywhere, period.

Located at 928 12th Ave in Seattle, WA, the unassuming store front hides well the powerhouse that it really is. I really don't feel like going into detail here about the great bar tenders, there are tons of articles on them already, but I will say that Jamie Boudreau owns it and Murray Stenson is employed there. There are other capable tenders as well but I am unacquainted with their names.

Their drinks are many, and the mixing is great if not perfect. The bathroom is the best in all of Seattle. Seriously, I could spend hours in that thing.

I had a Canon Cocktail, of which it was made of I can't recall but I assure you it was splendid. Sitting on the corner of the bar are old drink/cocktail books. I am always interested in new drinks and lately have tried a Boss Tweed and a Rapscallion; both are strong and taste good.

I picked up the top book and flipped though it to see if there was anything in there that I might want to order, and I ran across this number, the Bennett Cocktail.

So of course I had to have one. I asked the purveyor of drinks working behind the wood bar top if he could make one of these, and he casually glanced at the page and said "Yeah, no problem."

A few minutes later and I had it in my hand. It was either the two drinks prior to this one, or the fact that I may have drank it too fast that led to me not capturing it in a photograph, but who am I kidding, it was both those things.

A great evening all in all, and a place I would visit again on my next Seattle visit.

Cafe Rumba

I was wandering around Bellingham a couple weeks ago and ran across this new Peruvian deli in town called Cafe Rumba. It was closed when I walked by, but mentally noted their business hours to make a visit when they were open.

I do not regret this in any way shape or form. Antonio and Marco are great hosts and the food they prepare is outstanding. It reminds me of Paseo, but Peruvian instead of Caribbean. Whatever, they both serve delicious pork with a sauce on amazing bread.

I am in love with their chicha morada, a purple corn drink that is out of this world and from what I can tell healthy for one as well. I asked Antonio and Marco if I could buy it by the gallon, and they said yes which made me extremely happy. They also imparted to me that they get the ingredients for their chicha back from Peru as they can't find ingredients here to make satisfactory chicha. I didn't ask to see their invoices as I took them at their word about this, and why shouldn't I. A new business in town could hardly lie to a loyal customer who buys in bulk from them, could they?

As far as music goes, I have not been out much these days. Between the study load and the lack of funds being a student, it is prohibitive. Besides, this is Bellingham, and I am not sure how often well known bands get up here. But I guess that is the thing about this smallish, sorta quaint liberal hippy town; there are new bands every week here, home grown, and one of them might turn out to be the next Death Cab for Cutie or Posies.

Oh well, I guess I can start seeing shows once I get a little more free time (Summer, I'm looking at you) and have some more resources available to me.

Until next time, keep your chin up.

Pickwick, Hot Bodies In Motion, & Reva Devito

So I broke my musical Bellingham virginity by going to see a show at The Wild Buffalo. I wanted to get out, do something, all this studying and being a shut in only doing chores and homework was wearing away on me.  Not that I want to be a complainer and bitcher, but it is kinda lonely up here in the ham. My friends Peter and Jessica did make a stop up here one Sunday to say hello, and I appreciate it. It's just different now, and I'm still working out if it is a good thing or not.

Okay, The Wilde Buffalo is a little bar venue downtown that had $5 pints on tap, or Rainier tall boys for $3. Guess which one I went for.

I showed up early to case the joint, see if there was some advantage to certain areas. It was only about half full so I had room to move about and see what was what. The place is really short on chairs and stools, standing room only for certain. Or dancing room only if you prefer.



Reva DeVito = hot funk soul goddess from Portland, totally stole the show. Even though they opened they just laid it down in such a way it was going to be hard for anyone to top them. The keyboardist played some sort of tube thing that I think is a talk box.

Hot Bodies in Motion was great as well. A bunch of funky white boys from Seattle and they are pretty dang good. Especially their song "Old Habits", check it out.

Pickwick, a bunch of white boys from Seattle who sing soul, was just okay. Personally I did not see what the hype was about, I mean apparently they were well reviewed in the KEXP countdown last year, but I don't get it.
Something was missing, and I am not sure what it was.

Old soul seem to have that certain drive to it. Like a big block V8 rolling down the highway you can't help but go 85mh. Pickwick, while very talented, occurs to me to be more like a 4 cylinder that struggles to merge into  I-5 traffic. It works, but something leaves you wanting.

And just cuz I have them, two more pics of Reva DeVito. I thought that they turned out bad when I took them, that is why I stopped taking photos at the show, but not that I look at them again, they are pretty sweet.

Forever a student

So I moved to Bellingham WA and transferred into WWU to complete my Bachelors degree. It was an exciting and stressful move, but I am no longer living out of a motel and pretty much have the campus and the town figured out...for now.

January 1st is when I made the move, and the weather was great. I took that as a good sign.Then for the next 4 days it was rainy and windy, which was okay I guess. I was surprised to find that it did not put a damper on my joy of being at a new campus. It is pretty spectacular here. Old buildings, great trees, and it is just the right size I think.

Undoubtedly and to not much of anyone's surprise, the library is my favorite building on campus. It has a great study room in it with old, weathered desks that just scream "many smart people have studied here". But I am sure other, more notorious things have gone on in the library as well. I mean, that's what libraries are all about, right?

This is my view of where I study at on campus. I guess it goes by the name of the "Harry Potter" room.

The town seems reasonable as well, despite what appears to be a rather large number of drifters and vagabonds. There are a number of reasonable eateries and pubs, and most of everything is within walking distance. At least from where I live. Which is about half way between downtown and campus.

I was out on Saturday with some friends we ended up going to a little Irish pub called Uisce. Nothing but pretzels are offered to munch on, so I ate before hand. It was packed with some swanky dressed college aged people and older people were there also. It was rather crowded and my party could only find a small table by the dart boards. Some people, who were playing at said dart boards, asked if they could use our table to rest their beverages upon while they played, to which I agreed only if they agreed that every time they lifted their drink after having set it down they owed us a round of drinks. I was of course joking, and they knew it and we became fast friends. They actually did buy us a round of drinks and invited us to play a round of darts with them. It was very jovial and splendid.

That wasn't even the best part of the night. I ran into two friends of mine that I used to work with at PCC some five years ago, in an Irish pub, in Bellingham WA, on a Saturday night. It was great to see them and catch up. An amazing coincident to say the least and, again, I took it as a sign from the Universe that I as in the right place doing the thing I was supposed to be doing.

A short time later we wandered over to The Copper Hog, of which I had heard of and was keenly interested in. It was great, the kitchen is open late, and best of all they have bone marrow on the menu for only $8. Bone Marrow! The best stuff on the planet! It was just amazing. I mean, the only way it could be better is if the animals the bones came from were grass fed and raised local, and they could have been for all I know.

The rich, buttery marrow was warm, easy to spread on the small bread that came with it, and oh so satisfying after a night of drinking and playing darts. The best bits were two slices of bread the bones were resting on, just catching all the goodness that seeped out of the bones, soaking up all that nutritious good stuff. Man, what a treat.

I have a good class load this quarter, taking 4 classes at 15 credits. They are fairly standard so far, with lots of good reading assigned. My English 202 class, Writing about Literature, is great. We are reading these books:

The Hobbit
The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft
Pontypool
Habibi (a graphic novel)
Threshold
Ready Player One

I did not buy a copy of the Hobbit as the library had a really neat old 1966 edition that I just had to read. I have already read Habibi over break by a shear stroke of luck. It is another graphic novel from Craig Thompson who also penned Blankets. I highly recommend both of these works as they are amazing.

Then, we write about the books we have read. Seriously, it is a fun class. The prof is a little wacky, a self confessed gamer (one of the first things he said to the class was that he was addicted to playing Skyrim) and internet junkie, and very much into teaching about literature.

Okay, I am off to study, but here is a little something has been inspiring, funny, and stuck in my head for you all. Enjoy.

I'm on the path, chopping up bodies, hacking, and slicing, and look at me now.
With loyal friends, joining my party, each step I take I'm fulfilling my vow:
Crush your enemies
See them driven before you
and hear the lamentation of the women

ps. Ready Player One is a very good read, especially if you are all into 80's culture. You know who you are.

Revelations! ( a few days late...)

So I litteraly had to stop in the middle of organizing my cluttered goods (read, my whole living space) to capture these couple if epiphanies I just had.


I realized that my life is a mess, and I had not realized how much it was until today. I mean, I could say it is a lull or whatever, but no, not for this long of a duration. It has moved from a lull, period, habit and I guess now you would call it a lifestyle. All the while I am persueing a higher education in hopes of attaining better income so I can attain a different socio economic placement, and I realize my old self defeating habits are just as hard at work as ever. Cluttered mess, disorganized to the point of insanity, procrastinating like I am training for the Olympics, plus a few others, which I am glad to report, do not involve abusive relationships with chemicals either legal or illegal.


The good news is that I saw this mess that is my so called life, and my mild ADHD and OCD that likes to clean and organize, should be able to take care of this. Or at least I know that I need to throw a ton of shit out and keep a simple and clean place, because let's be honest, those few note books that I have that supposedly have great ideas for some comic books just are not ever going to see the light of day.


I have been not taking any responsibility for my life. I have become sloppy and lazy, and even a little slow in the brain (okay, lots lazy). I have become methodical and that is very much not how I want to approach my life.

I have given my word to things and not followed through. For this, I am sorry. Both for not keeping my word and for giving up on myself as someone who keeps their word. That is without a doubt the worst of it all.

So to this end, I shall endeavor to make the needed adjustments as quickly as possible.

But, how did this happen anyway? What causes this life of mine to become so fubared from time to time?

What happened to us?

Pizza, it's the circle of life.

Have you ever noticed how invasive pizza is in your life? I mean, it is everywhere. Even in Congress, who *ahem* ought to be attending to other important matters and not designating what is a vegetable or not. I understand that I, like many other people on the interwebs, am loosely interpreting the ruling, but yeah, that happens.

This strange, odd and round food has had a recently discovered personal impact on my life. You see, I recently became employed (I know, right? It has been awhile) to work as a Culinary Assistant at Columbia Winery in Woodinville, WA.


There, they just serve a few select choices of noshes that involve, mostly, flat bread pizzas. At this new found place of employment of mine, I was having a conversation with a coworker . We were chatting about how we both know some really smart and put together young people and were reflecting when we were their age (oh...my...god...did that just happen?) and what we were doing with ourselves when we were their age.

I realized that back then I was playing drums in a punk rock band in Sioux City, IA and working at Pizza Hut, making pizzas. What am I doing today? Making flat bread pizzas. WTF? Full circle.

I mean, I get that they are not the same thing. Not even remotely. One is a chain of crap pizza boxes, and the other is a fire powered stone oven flat bread making award winning winery. More like "classy" where the hut was "k"lassy...with a k. Polar opposites of the spectrum, but, they both involve round pieces of dough with toppings on them.

I suddenly realized that, just maybe, this was my calling in life. To be a pizza guy, open and  operate a great local beer and pizza place. I mean, it could have been a sign from the universe and really, who am I to deny universal fate?

While I think that it would be fun to do something like that, I also think that maybe not right now would be the best to through myself into it. I want to complete my degree (however haphazardness that may be to my sanity) and that is going to take at least two more years. Perhaps then, if I have the right job, I can start doing some planning and tinkering on the side. It is not like I haven't had this idea before. I mean, to be honest, I have tried the whole "chase your dreams and do what inspires you" thing, and mostly shit don't work out the way you think it ought to. So, in lieu of chasing dreams I am keeping my head down, grinding out this degree, and will try to find a slot to fill in society.

But, in the mean time, I am straight not doing well this quarter at CCC. Ugh, I have had no motivation and have had some serious internal struggle going on. It may or may not affect my next phase of learning, currently scheduled to take place at WWU. I know I mentioned taking some other programs more local, but the truth of the matter is that WWU is all set and ready to go, whole UWB and UW would require more work than I am currently willing to put forth. Things change though, or is it the more they change the more they stay the same?

Whatever...

Christmas in Redmond

Summer Time, Autumn time...

Ola everyone.

Yes, this blog is still living, thank you for asking. I hope everyone has been doing well. I have been busy in spite it being summer. I have taking a few classes and have just a few more to take in the Fall before I am complete with this stage of my schooling career.

Since I am a student, it will come as no surprise to you that my funds for both eating well and or out is rather non existent. Same goes for my music seeing these days. I hope to attend the KEXP BBQ this year, it is free but I am sure there is some sort of cap on bodies allowed in for fire code or some such nonsense. I did go, and there was hardly anyone there, which was odd. It was a great day weather wise, and the beer was cold and in the shade.

I have been working on working my school work, trying to become employed (although I have had some luck dog and house sitting, it doesn't really replace a steady income. Also, I have started working with a friend of mine who owns this company. Every Thursday I can be found at the Bellevue Farmers market selling raw food and soaking up some fresh Vitamin D), and doing other random things like attending friends weddings, seeing friends from out of town, and trying to read some books that are outside my current realm of study (currently re-reading Voltaire and anew some Nietzsche).

I sometimes lament the passing of time, as it seems to pass by ever so quicker these days. Guess my mother was right about that one.

And then the Fall happened! Just like that. Well hello there. Yes, I have not updated much this year in general, but really, it was for the best. Lots of things going on, and the blog was very easily going to become a bitch fest of gripes and what not. Not really good for either of us. So, there is that.

Good news is, I am going to blog again. For real.

No look, I am doing to right now. See, told you so.

I did get to see an amazing St. Vincent show at the newly refurbished Neptune theater in Seattle. It was amazing. Such a talented group and they make great music. The drummer was wearing really cool head phones as well, I was inspired and jealous all at the same time.

Out of habit, I went and checked out the merch booth. Of course, they had some shirts that were okay but way over priced, and a few vinyls. I was leaning towards purchasing the first record on vinyl, but once I learned that the most recent album was on limited edition white vinyl, there was really no choice to make. I mean, look at it.

                           Nice day for a, white vinyl. (And no, I have no idea who Chris Jacob is)

Lot's is going on, school is almost over. That is a good thing, right? I mean, I am excited, but I will only have my Associates. I am looking at either finishing up at Western Washington at Huxley, or staying local at University of Washington, Bothell and eventually transferring to the Seattle campus and getting my degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The Yours Truly book, 10th edition was created, and since it's publishing I am proud to say there have only been two errors found in it. I think they were both the printers fault, but I would need to check the proof copy to be certain. And they are small errors at that, and one isn't even visible! It is kind of hard letting go of the club this quarter. Breaking in a new club president, giving up command of the ship, having faith it is all going to work out and be great, man, that is a really hard thing to do. But, Louie C K knows all about life being hard. Not sure Wilfred would agree though.

I was in my good, if not best, friends wedding this Summer. It was a perfect day to be outside in West Seattle. I really was flattered and touched to have been part of their day. Thank you guys so much for that.

Okay, I hope to be updating this often, as I have some ideas about stuff and things I want to share. You know, stuff. And yes, the mid-terms are hard, thanks for asking.

                                  Tyler Durden, I make and I sell soap. The yardstick of civilization.