Chopstork

I’m in Munich. I was gonna have dinner at the Hofbrauhaus. I got distracted by the Japanese restaurant next door. Food I know with a waiter I can speak to. Too hungry to decipher a German menu. Except the staff were the wrong variety of Asian. So I still got my Japanese meal, with a German beer, but with a Vietnamese atmosphere.

Stopped in at the Augustiner Bierhalle after. I don’t know an Ale from a Lager, let alone a Vollbier from an Edelstoff. The first thing on the menu would be too obvious, so I went with the second - Dunkel Radler. Was pretty sure Dunkel means dark. Waiter said, “Radler?” I said Ya. Beer came, all frothy on top. And then it was sweet?!? Uh, what did I just order? One of those fruit beers? Kind of. I consulted the trusty phrase book. Radler is “biker.” “Radler is a refreshing mix of beer and lemonade, invented in Munich for cyclists on hot days.” It was pretty good actually, once I got over the surprise. Refreshing indeed. Black Adders are too sweet for me, but this was just right. I’m gonna compete with little Timmy’s lemonade stand this summer.

By the time you finish reading this, I will have vanished without a trace, with houseplant in hand.

And then I shall practice my ninja rolls.

My new marketing campaign for what I work on at— uh, work. (see: lolcats)

A few days before I came home (Japan) mom sent me an email:

The other day we found a store who had a good Ninja outfit (they didn`t look like just cheap Holloween costumes). If you are interested in buying one remind us to take you there while you are here.

Score. Of course I got one. …But you won’t ever see me in it.

Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

Update: a demonstration

via laughing squid

I had a burrito for dinner. The “big burrito” at Baja Bean on the corner. I think it ties Atomic Burrito* downtown for the worst burrito I’ve ever eaten. I never liked mexican food before I graduated college (and moved to SF), except for tacos at home. Now I know it was only because the burritos suck in Charlottesville.

*Atomic Burrito does have good fish tacos though. Uh-huh-huh, I said fish tacos … and ate one too.

Wherever you business types out there learned the slogan, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” with attribution to Einstein or Ben Franklin, please stop using it. It’s stupid. I heard it from an important person at work recently to motivate change in the company—hmm, how convenient. And sure is catchy. …Doesn’t seem quite true though, does it?

Well it’s not. First off, neither Einstein nor Franklin said it. No one knows who said it. Someone else did the research for me here. (Hey, teh internets is better than no source at all). The quote appears to be attributed to Franklin for the first time in 2004. Dead for 214 years and someone finally decided he was worth quoting? It’s attributed to Einstein in 1998, and to some football guy, a comic, another football guy, and an author before that.

Second, the statement just isn’t true. I don’t have a copy of DSM IV (psychology bible) to look up the medical definition (some would say the medical definition according to big pharma), or a law text book to look up the full legal definition, but you won’t find any sources that use the definition in question, except for people misquoting Einstein or Franklin.

So doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is not insanity. And vice versa is false. Someone else might have said it already, but doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results … isn’t that just practice?

This would work much better with a tablet.

This I didn’t know… The salmon you buy at Costco or WalMart—Chilean Salmon—is a species of Atlantic salmon that is farmed in Chile. Wait, where’s Chile again?

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And it never existed south of the equator either, until 12 years ago. This can’t be good.