I only slept a half-hour last night. And it hit me pretty hard. As a simple example, I went to a session this morning about funding your own startup. Being a diligent attendee, I took notes. And saved them to a text file. There was much gibberish, but the thing that confused me the most was what I named the file: “movie times”. !? What the heck was going through my head? hehe.

Oh well - great mindcamp. Tons of fun, especially once midnight rolled around.

Mindcamp 2.0

polyphasic sleeping
lucid dreaming (mmm)
hunger
3am taco bell run turned 4am McD’s hunt
misty seattle streets
catching a nap on some folding chairs
mindcamp 2.0, baby!

MindCamp 2.0 - cool moment

I’d heard of SubEthaEdit before, but I’d never seen it in action. I was in a ruby session where two guys were presenting. The crowd asked them to do a code demo and in order to do it quickly, they both fired up SubEthaEdit. All of sudden, they were coding simultaneously across the network. Both editing the same file, in different locations. It was amazingly cool! Be sure to keep up on all the pics.

Just a quick hello from Seattle Mindcamp! It’s pretty cool so far - some interesting sessions and people. And it’s just getting started!

I headed into Seattle this evening to meet up with somebody for some sushi, and as I was headed back to my place I realized something. I was on a normal street and saw signs for I-90 East. I took a left onto another normal street that in a few blocks turned into I-90. Why am I posting about this? Because I just realized that I found the end of I-90! At least…the part where it ends on the west coast. For some reason, realizing this hit me as really neat - with the exception of Idaho, a small portion of Montana, and some of Massachusetts, I have traveled across the entire country on I-90. Not too shabby.

Ironically enough, the sushi joint was by Safeco Field where the Mariners play…who happened to be hosting the Chi-town White Sox. The Sox lost by one last night, but apparently whupped ‘em tonight 13-3.

Oh, and the sushi was excellent!

Nine

That’s how many shoes I have out here in Seattle with me - and three of those I have acquired in the short time I have been here already. You saw my soccer shoes. I have another pair of mystery shoes I might tell you about someday that finally arrived. And I just got new hiking boots yesterday.
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And of course, what else do you do when you get new boots, but go for a hike!
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The lovely sales person at REI was nice enough to give me a nice little list of day-hikes I could do, and I hit up one just off the highway called Tiger Mountain. There are 60 miles of trails and more out there, so I’ll definitely go again before the week is out!

As mentioned, I went rock climbing yesterday. What an awesome time! I haven’t been in almost 4 years now and I’ve never climbed outside, at least not with the proper gear. The place we went was called Exit 38 and instead of the rock I posted yesterday, we climbed Gritscone on the Far Side. There are more routes than they show in the picture on that link, but here’s a pic of me climbing Pete’s Possum Palace:
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For those of you not familiar with the 5.x rating system, take a look at the Yosemite Decimal System. I attempted a 5.9 as well and got about halfway up, but there was a slight overhang I couldn’t get past. Bummer…maybe next time. That’s what’s great about this climbing area, though, is that it’s only a half-hour outside of Seattle. So if I wake up and feel like climbing a rock, it’s no problem at all to just hop on the highway and head out into the woods. Not too bad, Pacific Northwest - you have taken my challenge and you are sidling up to the plate with ease.

Today, I need to hit up REI to get some new boots and other random gear. And if you clicked that link, yes folks this Seattle Flagship store is so big, it is actually denoted on Google Maps. It’s so big that it’s the second largest tourist attraction in Seattle, second only to the Market. It’s so big, it receives more visitors per year than the Space Needle. This, folks…is the Mother of all REI’s.

Exit 38 - Write-Off Rock == Where I’ll be in an hour or so.

On rock…

As I’ve moved across the country in life, every area has had it’s comfort food that I yearned for when I left and wherever I move never seems to have it. When I left upstate NY, it was Papa John’s Pizza. There was one in Chicago, but it was 5 miles North of the city and took the dedication of a 45-minute drive to go retrieve. But it was worth it the few times I did that. Fortunately, Papa John’s is out here in the Northwest!

Now that I’ve been out of Chicago for a short while, I’m already starting to miss the classic “Chicago Dog” - yes, those lovely culinary creations with green relish, hot peppers, pickles, onions, and tomato that you can never eat without making an absolute mess of yourself. Just try to find one of those suckers out here in the Northwest, I challenge you! I thought I had gotten lucky when I saw Matt’s Famous Chili Dogs, but alas the location near me was torn down recently to make room for a high-rise. Argh! I’ll have to make a special trip to one of their other locations to satisfy my craving, it seems.

Matt’s Classic Chicago Dog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2.99
A gourmet hot dog served with mustard, diced white onions, sweet relish, tomatoes, Kosher dill pickle, sport (hot) pepper and celery salt.

Now that’s what I’m talking about…

What’s your comfort food that you miss?

Update: I forgot to mention - I also miss Buffalo wings, from both places. I tried to find a good place out here, but eventually had to settle on Rock Bottom. I know where I’m going the next time I’m back in Chi-town!

As I slipped on my old Copa Mundial soccer shoes this morning and pulled the laces tight, one of them snapped. I knew it was a sign…a sign that I need some new cleats! I’ve had these copa’s for a long time…probably since high school. I just read the date on them (05/95) and that assumption is correct! Wow, new cleats are a long time coming. My copa’s are pretty beat up to the point where I burned the ends of the laces together since the plastic fell off a long time ago.

I’m subbing in for some people that can’t play due to Easter tomorrow, so I headed out to grab some new cleats. I was tempted to go with the old standy, copa’s…but instead I picked up some Diadora’s. I can’t wait to get back out on the field!
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I also signed up for another soccer league that plays on turf field so I figured the new cleats would be good for that. Soccer shoes have changed a little bit since the last time I bought them, but I’m happy to see that the classic copa’s are still around!

Time to hit up the town!

Song of the day: “Faster Kill Pussycat” by Paul Oakenfold featuring Brittany Murphy