Reading, Amongst Other Things

Nearly missed today.

It’s easy for me to get sidetracked without a certain target to aim for. This morning I went downstairs with the intent to grab a coffee and return to do some yoga, reading, and writing. Instead, I read my new cookbook and devised a plan for Duck Week — which involves me cooking various duck dishes. Followed by hours of messing around on guitar, ukulele, and piano.

I’m trying to get those skills back, not that I’ve ever been particularly good at them. But, since I always am looking for a good jam and you can’t always have a full drum kit with you or even be the only drummer I’m trying to improve. You could say I’m diversifying my skill portfolio I guess.

Which unintentionally segues incredibly well to the book I started reading today — the biography of Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson of Steve Jobs bio fame. He is well known for reinventing himself and being quite the polymath. Perhaps, minus the politics, he has a skill set I’d love to draw from. If anything, in reading this bio, I hope to find some inspiration to further develop myself and also maybe some good habits to pick up. Not to mention the entertainment and educational value I’ll get from reading about one of history’s greats.

Anyways, it should make for some interesting tidbits along the way. I also currently have Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, and Economics in One Lesson (I think that’s the title) on my night stand. So expect a few references to those as well.

Also, in a recent move, I’ve been allowing myself to stop reading books when I lose interest. Tonight I quit Atlas Shrugged. An ok book, but not well enough written to keep my interest. I wanted to know the ending so I checked it out on wikipedia and the end of the book actually sounds more exciting. So maybe I’ll pick it up again to finish like I did for Infinite Jest.

If you’d like to follow along with what I’m reading or have read OR more interesting to me— would like to share your recommendations, lets’s connect on Goodreads.

Cooking Shows

So since today’s a weekend, I’ve got a lot of time on my hands.. Who am I kidding? I’m unemployed right now so I always have a lot of time.

Anyways, lately I’ve been pretty into cooking, probably because of the addictive effect of both Chef’s Table and The Final Table; both on Netflix. Also in part due to my desire to try making a lot of things I was to exposed to in my 9 month Latin America trip.

To that end, I recently bought two cookbooks from the Aussies of Final Table. The one that’s arrived so far is Mark Best’s. Even though it’s designed to be able to recreate at home, I didn’t have all the ingredients and was unwilling to go shopping since it was already 12:30 and I hadn’t eaten anything.

After some browsing, I picked something I couldn’t make and recreated it and we’ll see how that turns out.

After prepping that, i realized I was hungry so I tried to do something a tad faster. What happened may turn into a mini-series of itself — me trying to cook and share my disasters. What I make tastes good but always looks pretty mediocre. Anyways, I want to get better at plating so maybe that will leak into this blog.

Today’s dish is titled “A Dusty Day in the Southwest”. It’s roasted broccoli w/ spices + chicken/mexican chorizo/corn cooked in the pan w/ olive oil then topped and served with heirloom tomato. Then I garnished it with rosemary, to look like a bush, and peppercorn, to look like dust; cheesy, just like my jokes.

There’s a pic — hopefully these start to improve.

Ok, that’s it for today. I promise I’ll start adding thoughts on news, tech, etc.. and not just do me cooking. I’d rather you come over and try it than read about it.

Cheers.

Let's Get Started

This is the first of my hopefully daily writing practice.

But Brandon, what about finishing your trip notes? Well I’ll get to those when I feel inspired, but I want to start a log of things I’m thinking about and just build this habit.

I don’t know how these will turn out. It’s very possible it will read like a wild rant but there’s also a good chance it will resemble my old reading recommendations newsletter from The Spur Group, which the majority of you won’t know, just trust me they’re amazing. I’m limited a bit on the inclusion of random internet pictures and I might hold off on some more obscure references but we’ll find that out together.

Anyways, this one isn’t particularly exciting but at least I’ve broken the mythical seal.

Topics on my mind this particular morning…

IPAs

In my group chat for the IE MBA I’m attending in January we had a little debate about beers this morning. Many people view IPAs as overly popular and basic. While they have enjoyed their time in the spotlight, I think it’s a slightly incorrect way of thinking about it. While many things can be coined basic, it’s normally a SPECIFIC way of ordering something or buying a SPECIFIC item; pumpkin spice, UGGs, Lululemons, etc.. The beauty behind IPAs is that there is something for everyone. There are thousands of variants ranging from fruity to bitter, strong, weak, etc.. That diversity means that using a whole category as a proxy for basic doesn’t really work. Maybe that’s just because I like them. Anyways, here’s a recommendation for my favorite IPA out there right now, Stone’s Fear. Movie. Lions. Double IPA. See if you can pick it up near you here. First one to buy one and message me a photo will have their beer comp’d by me :)

Consumer “Gifts”

Not sure about my title for this one.. Capital One recently emailed me a thank you for being a good customer. As a result, I had my APY lowered. But, here’s the thing, in my mind, being a good customer is that I always pay off my credit card bills. So in effect it’s a useless gift. My APY could be 1,000% percent, but I’m not going to buy anything I can’t afford. Of course, they may have the idea that they want to lower my APY to get me to spend more but that’s not going to work, sorry fellas.

Also, if you take a step back, I’m actually a bad customer for them. I don’t know what the pay outs are for Visa/Cap One per each swipe, but it can’t be high, they go for volume. A lot of their money comes from charging ridiculous interest on debt. (Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about the CC business)

In conclusion, the email they sent me actually meant: “We’re not making enough money on you. We’ll lower your interest risk so you spend more. You’re a terrible customer, be less responsible.” Maybe I’m just a cynic haha.

Anyways, I love Capital One so no hate. Just some thoughts.