A Good Life

kushandwizdom

Trivia Night

Team Assiniboine (it's a mountain in Canada, heard of it?) united for another successful game of Tuesday Trivia at the 8th Street Ale House in Hoquiam. We came out on top in the U.S. History round through no help from me. Oh wait, I knew one answer. What did Yankee Doodle call the feather in his cap?

Macaroni.

We came in second place in the movie round. Henry loves his Crunch 'n Munch.

The loot.

We'll be back next week for music trivia!

Back to Work

I recently started listening to a podcast called Back to Work. It took me a while to realize what the purpose of the show is. I mean, I realized it probably had something to do with working or business or something, but why was it called "Back to Work?' Sounded a little boring to me.

What finally hooked me was their show titled Vocational Wheel where they discussed a listener's so-called "quarter life crisis." I tend to have a quarter life crisis on an almost annual basis, so an entire hour and a half discussion on the topic really peaked my interest. After getting sucked into their (sometimes franticly) entertaining conversation style, I naturally felt the need to listen to every single one of their episodes from the beginning. I've made it through 10 so far and one recurring message has stood out dramatically.

Both of the guys in this podcast would be considered "inspirational" types. They have a lot of great advice and people (like me) spend hours listening to them talk about how to get stuff done (and other less useful topics), but I think their best advice is that inspiration doesn't get anything done.

Seems an idea fraught with irony... and potentially a dangerous thing to tell your faithful followers...

...but for some reason, this just clicked with me.

I've been in the midst of my yearly quarter life crisis and trying to figure out how to make my skills and resources work for me rather than pulling me in so many different directions and causing me stress. I want to find ways to be more successful, especially with the projects I already have in motion, yet I have been finding it difficult to move on many things. I was seeking inspiration when really I should have just gotten back to work (ohhhh... now I get it).

Merlin Mann says in his podcast that new ideas don't come from some external inspiration... they come from doing work. My favorite analogy he makes is that it's like someone who is always asking for tips on running but never actually goes out running... you're never going to get better at running. Run or move on to something else because, really, you're wasting your time worrying about something that will never happen. If you want to be a writer, stop spending all your time buying new notebooks and just write something.

I tend to be a big picture thinker. With big life decisions, I like to have everything figured out before I move forward. Sometimes, when I can't figure out the big picture, I just forget about the whole thing and move on to something else. I'm starting to realize how much this sometimes hinders my success. Sometimes a project gains momentum and I start to doubt the plan, freeze up until I can find my inspiration, then get overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do.

My big light bulb moment of the week. Do work. How did it take me 28 years to figure this out?

[My other fave advice from Back to Work: Count your priorities, if you've got more than two, you're going to need more hands.]

Get Lucky

Remember When I Used to Write?

I should do that again....

Coolest thing EVAR?!

via Unconsumption

Genius

via DudeCraft

Purity Ring - Fineshrine

I've listened to this song at least 10 times in the last 24 hours and this video reminds me of the vivid dreams I  often have, though thankfully they don't typically involve plane crashes.

Purity Ring - Fineshrine from Young Replicant on Vimeo.

A Place at the Table

A Place at the Table

This looks like a great new documentary investigating the hunger issue in America. Nothing gets me more riled up than a good documentary about our terrible food industry...

The Weekend

Having friends visit from out of town is usually a really great excuse to spend an entire weekend eating and drinking, so of course I was happy to have my friend Steve pay me a visit. I'm not sure whether he finally decided to visit because I am fun to hang out with and he missed our days of playing Settlers of Catan at Portland pubs and Tuesday night karaoke or... he just really wanted to eat some free chocolate at the Chocolate on the Beach Festival.

After I took him on a walk around my historic neighborhood to stretch his legs after his drive up from Oregon, we grabbed my friends Eric, Nikki and Henry and headed for Pacific Beach. It's about a 40 minute drive from my house to this little beach town on the North Coast, so when we arrived, we were hungry and excited to get some chocolate! I tried chocolate granola (yum) and some dark chocolate bits from Blissful Wunders truffles (bonus - Steve bought one of the giant truffles and shared). There was also a booth that had Lavender Raspberry syrup... it was super delicious.

We hopped over to Seabrook to get dinner at Mill 109. They were pretty busy, so we took a walk around the new beach town... well, new-ish... the paint is starting to peel on some of the houses.... After dinner, we cruised down to Ocean Shores to taste beer at the Elk Head Brewery Taproom and we each guzzled a pint and snacked on some of their complimentary pretzels.

Steve, enjoying his brew from a tiny mug.

Leave it to my friends to spend most of the day discussing what we would make if we were hosting a chocolate festival. Some ideas: a chocolate salad, chocolate burger, and a beer with a chocolate bar in it.

Eric's rendition of the chocolate bar beer... our new chocolate gang symbol. We also had to give our gang a name. B.E.N.S.H. (Britta, Eric, Nikki, Steve, Henry). Srsly... we are so fun. Right?

We had planned to have a karaoke night, but we were still craving chocolate, so we ended up heading back into town and stopping at the grocery store for chocolate wine, chocolate Chex Mix, 50% off Valentine's Day candy and Salsito's (it's like a chip and salsa COMBINED). Then we spent a few hours snacking and watching videos of goats yelling like humans and cars doing tricks.

On Sunday, we managed to visit Billy's for lunch (because it was a major breakfast fail.. can we get a place that will serve me some eggs after noon?), Tinderbox Coffee for an afternoon pick me up, Westport Brewery for some more beer tasting and Trivial Pursuit, and Thai Carrot for dinner all within about 8 hours. Not bad.

Wine + Music = Best Decision Ever

I am of the belief that many of the best decisions I've ever made were made in a very short amount of time. I think this is one of them: I just bought tickets to Bottle Rock Napa Valley!

I'm pretty much dying for a vacation and Napa Valley is one of my favorite places, so attending this festival just made complete sense to me. The Sasquatch music festival has been such a topic of conversation lately among my friends who hope to go as well as those of us who have gone before. The lineup was tempting, but the thought of spending 4 days in the desert with a heavy crowd of drunk teenagers... not so much.

So, when my friend Nikki mentioned this, I was ready to hit the road! Too bad I have to wait until May because I'm ready to go now. Can't wait to drink wine, lounge on a lawn with my t-shirt quilt and listen to some awesome music. Most excited to see these guys:

Hope to see you all there... cheers!

Local Zine

All y'all should get yourself a copy of this sweet zine, Tumblehome.

Why Aren't You Here Right Now?

Gray's General Store

520 Simpson Ave

Hoquiam, WA 98550

Let's Be Awesome.

Dream House

I have found my dream home. It's small, clean and has a nice view.

via You Are My Fave

Just Living: Step 3

Hopefully you've got your priorities and values all figured out (or at least have given it some thought, let's be real), because it's time for the next step and its a doozy.

Taking inventory.

Yep, you have to make a list of EVERYTHING YOU OWN. Down to that last bar of soap. The easiest way to do this is to create a spreadsheet where you can list the item, the location and how often you use it.

The key here is to make the list and then set it aside. We'll get back to this later.

My old, incredibly tiny studio apartment in Portland. Who needs dresser pulls that actually attach or art in their frames?

Good luck!

Worry Less

 

Aimless Radiance / Champagne Princess / Arch Daily / Black and Type

The Plague of Bad Customer Service

Warning: this is a rant. I don't believe ranting to always be an acceptable form of writing, but sometimes I feel so strongly about something... I can't help it.

Within the past few weeks, I've had some interesting, nay, unacceptable experiences at local bars and restaurants and it has led me to the conclusion that we have a plague of terrible managers among us.

I believe this plague infects managers of eateries to completely ignore the fact that they work in a customer service based business. They begin to see the customer as the enemy... Someone who seems to come in asking for a glass of water, but obviously is really there to take the staffs' happiness away. Once a manager is infected, it will inevitably seep into the rest of the employees and will leave customers feeling uneasy and... quite honestly... ripped off. Terrible Yelp reviews may be a side affect.

Just a few things I have observed in my small town within the last two weeks:

Sudden changes to prices and offerings without notice
Continually increasing prices and decreasing food portions
Cooks walking out in the middle of dinner/happy hour
After cook returns, offering happy hour prices but then actually just charging the regular price anyway
Unresponsiveness to customer complaints
Charging the price of an entire bottle of wine for just a glass
Ignoring customers for lengthy periods of time
Never ever smiling or saying thank you
Inconsistent food and drinks
Saying the words "I have no idea what that is" when asking about a menu item

Often customers will put up with the occasional bout of this sickness, but after recurring troubles they are likely not to return. No matter how good you think your fries are.

I don't want to speak poorly of businesses online (though I have no trouble of telling you my experiences in person) but I will tell you that there are some places locally which have not been infected and I would hope that you might give them preference when deciding where to go in the near future, because they are welcoming and believe that the customer is always right.

Lunch
Ann Marie's
Billy's
Mazatlan
Ocean Palace
Luna Rana
Thai Smiles
Taqueria el Jalepeno
The Oriole
Viet Hoa
The Seagate
Casa Mia (late addition, by request: I actually rarely eat there because I'm not a big fan of Italian food, but they are good people)

I believe these businesses are worth my time and money. Eating out is not cheap and I don't feel like giving my money away to people who don't seem to even want it. If there was a restaurant that had the most amazing food in the world, I might put up with terrible customer service... MIGHT. Probably not. Sometimes I think I'd rather go to McDonald's and get a smile with my cheeseburger than put up with some of these things I have seen recently. We live in a small town and a fragile economy. I do not want any business to fail, so ultimately it just makes me sad to see the poor judgement of business owners and their employees.

Please note: I have yet to find a bar that I actually want to hang out in very often. A place without live music (I don't hate it, but I often go out to talk with friends), decent prices on drinks, dark and loud enough to give you a little anonymity, the potential to become a "regular," no tvs, and comfortable seating. If anyone wants to open a place like this, I will do your marketing in exchange for a bar stool with my name on it. I'm not kidding.

Mountain Climbing

A few days ago, I launched this project of introspection in the pursuit of justice. I'm hoping you've decided to at least consider your answers to the challenges I'm putting forth. As a reminder, here's what I posted up a few days back.

Step 2: Become aware of your Core Priorities

What do you spend your time doing weekly? Daily? Hourly?

Thinking back over the past 2 or 3 years, what are your top 3 priorities?

Who are the most important people in your life?

What would you stop doing, if you could?

What is one thing you would never stop doing?

What are the top 3 or 4 values you hold about life and living?

I've had a couple of really interesting conversations in the last few days that have actually left me a bit more confused about my priorities and values, so I decided I better actually answer these questions for myself. Here's what I've decided.

I like mountain climbing.

Not actual mountain climbing (in fact, please don't take me anywhere that requires real hiking boots), but figurative. I like challenges and it's my main motivator in life. I think it might sound weird, but that is my priority... keeping myself challenged. This probably makes my life difficult and I often choose the hardest way just because... not always the smartest decision, I suppose, but it's how I roll.

I value living an authentic life. I don't want materialism or my pride to ever be my source of happiness because it can so easily fade away. I value creativity and new ideas. I also value the people in my life and surrounding community. I stay up nights thinking about how we can make our community a better place to live, work and play. And nothing frustrates me more than people who are careless with the people and environment around them. This is important because I think ultimately, it will determine where I finally settle down (hopefully where I am now, but this depends on how much progress can be made in the next few years).

Of course, I have very tangible priorities (my business, becoming financially stable, simplifying my life) and I am constantly trying to find new ways to improve these things, but ultimately I can only continue these things as long as I feel challenged and the freedom to create.

(art print via Leah Flores)

Web Design and SEO

Is there any more daunting task than trying to build an entirely new website? It needs to be visually appealing while also inserting all of the necessary info in order to maximize SEO while ALSO making the point of converting website visitors into sales.

So, I'm drinking some wine tonight and working on all of this.

Some helpful links for those working on their own web projects:

15 Point Conversion Checklist

BoostSuite