Critical MAS » General

Freeway Park in Seattle

MAS — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:00:00 +0000

There is a hidden park that almost nobody in Seattle knows about. It is called Freeway Park. It is downtown and above the I-5 freeway. I took this photo of cars driving north on the I-5 going underneath the park. The park has free WI-FI too. Have you been to Freeway Park?

My Ugly Cell Phone

MAS — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 15:00:54 +0000

With sound quality as crisp as the signal from a distant AM radio station, why would I ever upgrade?

Stocking Up On Almond Butter

MAS — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:00:47 +0000

Costco sells a 26oz container of Creamy Almond Butter for just $5.75. They last a year and hold 4,370 calories. Almond butter tastes better and is more nutritious than peanut butter. I bought three and will cycle through and replace them going forward. Perfect survival food. Nutritious, tasty, cheap and portable.

Life After XM Radio

MAS — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:39:01 +0000

After almost six years of listening to satellite radio, I gave it up and returned to regular old terrestrial radio earlier this year. If you want to know the reasons, read Why I Am Not Renewing My Sirius XM Radio Subscription. How am I holding up?

Here were the channels I most listened to on XM Radio and my new substitute.

XM Radio Channel	Seattle Solution
XMU 43 - Indie Rock	90.3 FM
BPM 81	89.5 FM
Real Jazz 70	88.5 FM (when NPR isn't on)
Soul Town 60	MP3s
1970s Pop	104.5 FM (partially) and MP3s
Opie & Anthony, Ron & Fez	Podcasts

For the most part, I am pleased with the substitutes. KEXP 90.3 FM is a great station and as a result I listen to more indie rock these days. My biggest shock turned out not to be programming, but sound quality. I miss the higher quality sound of satellite radio. I am strongly considering getting HD Radio. Going from XM to FM is like going from FM to AM.

Note that this post is not an endorsement of XM Radio. They are a bunch of criminals. Read the 40+ comments on Filing Fraud Charges Against XM Radio before you sign up and hand them your credit card number.

Top 6 Reasons We Can’t Be Business Partners

MAS — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:31:41 +0000

I get asked frequently to help others on business projects. In recent years, I have started declining most offers. Although I have not learned the qualities of a good business partner, I have isolated a few qualities of poor ones.

Failure To Respect My Time – If you are frequently late to meetings or scheduled phone calls, you do not respect my time. If you do not respect my time, you do not respect me. We can’t be partners.
Unresponsive to Email – Email is my chosen form of communication. When you don’t respond to me, I assume you have better things to do. I’m placing more value in the partnership than you. We can’t be partners.
Incomprehensible in Email – See The Email Rant. Email isn’t hard. If you haven’t figured it out by now, we can’t be partners.
Telling Me What I “Should Do” - There is a local coffee guy that continually tells me what I should be doing with my websites. He doesn’t know 10% of what I know about websites. He is transparent in his desire to manipulate me for his interests. If you are quick to tell me what I should do, we can’t be partners.
Always Busy – I have found the people that most often say they are busy are extremely poor at time management. The truly busy don’t sit around telling the world how busy they are. If you are frequently saying you are busy, we can’t be partners.
Social Networking Parasite – I’ll post further on this topic later, but I have found those that spend the most time social networking are empty suits. No substance. We can’t be partners.

One day I will figure out what a good business partner looks like. Until then, I am perfectly content doing things on my own.

Urban Hike – Between The Bridges Edition

MAS — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:20:52 +0000

Since moving to Northgate it has been a while since I’ve done a Seattle urban hike greater than 10 miles. Today I tackled one of my new favorite areas, which is the Seattle side of Lake Washington between the two bridges. Along the way I checked off two more places on my Seattle Disloyalty Card.

Total distance covered: 14.05 miles.

Happiness is a Warm Gun

MAS — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:55:58 +0000

Photo Glock 19 by KLaFaille

This past Saturday I finally got around to doing something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. I went to a gun range and fired some pistols. Before heading to the range, I spent several hours doing classroom instruction from a certified NRA instructor. I should be getting my NRA Basic Pistol certification (or is it a card?) in the mail soon.

At the range, I fired two 9MM (Ruger and Glock), a 22 and a .40 caliber Glock. The 22 was too small for my hand, but I enjoyed the others. Someone recently asked me if there was any other reason besides weight lifting on why one would would do grip strength training. Shooting a .40 caliber Glock might be a reason. Maybe being able to close a 167.5 pound Captains of Crush single handed helped me handle that Glock? Couldn’t have hurt.

Near Heart Attack on the Freeway

MAS — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:58:36 +0000

This morning I made a lane change behind an 18 wheeler and looked up to see a man hanging from the back of a moving truck loaded with boxes. Just before I had a heart attack, I realized I was looking at a photo painted onto the back of a truck.

I should probably start wearing my glasses when I drive during rush hour.

Worst Latte Art Etching Ever

MAS — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 23:57:27 +0000

This post has been moved from Coffee Hero. It was originally written on March 11, 2010.

Inspired by Joerael Elliott of Dubsea Coffee, I grabbed a toothpick and tried my hand at latte art etching. Isn’t it lovely?

Tea MacGyver

MAS — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:43:49 +0000

This post has been moved from Coffee Hero. It was originally written on December 22, 2009.

Brewing loose leaf tea when your mug is too big for your steeper.