Overheard At Peet's Coffee This Morning
Emp 1: How many days are there in February?
Emp 2: Umm... twenty eight.
Emp 1: Really? So short!
Emp 2: Yeah. Took me hella long to remember that.
Out of nowhere: "Ah -- long distance! Use your cell phone."
7×7 Knows Nothing Of SF Cafes
Last week 7x7 magazine published their list of their favorite coffee shops to "sit down, plug in and plug away. Here are seven of [their] favorite spots for free browsing and good coffee."
Their list:
- Coffee Bar
- Caffe Trieste
- Café Que Tal
- Tazza D'Amore
- Java Beach Café
- Sugar Café
- Café Muran
Now, I'm not normally one to nitpick, but this list is terrible. San Francisco is one of the best cities in the country for café hopping, but if you only read 7x7, you'd never know it.
Cafes & Good Eats In Boston
C and I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 2003-2005. While there, I worked from home 70% of the time, so I became quite familiar with the best places to sit and work around town.
We also explored a bit, and developed a circuit of favorite places to eat. Generally speaking, we don't like to spend a lot when we eat out, and have tasty food as our primary objective. What follows is a compilation of recommendations that we've sent to friends over the last couple of years, as they've traveled to the east coast for weddings or to visit friends. Enjoy!
A Sign The Composition Works
From The Plantation To The Penitentiary
I've generally been in an internally beastly mood while prepping for the Bar Exam. I find it's helpful. If I'm too at peace, I get complacent while studying. Though relaxation allows for Brawny-like absorption of rules and elements, over time that relaxation also draws in anxiety, which builds and festers till it paralyzes. I'd guess that a mongoose experiences the same euphoric calm before it realizes it's been ended.
So instead, I've chosen snarling aggression as my study mode. To keep me in the mood, I've been listening to a lot of angry music: conscious rap, beats by The Rza, passion-imbued compositions. It also follows that I've been avoiding jazz - normally effective study music as so much is sans lyrics - like the plague.
This morning, while studying at SF's Best Neighborhood Cafe, I turned on some tunes to escape the enraptured yells from a trio of preschoolers, at once shouting for Tour cyclists to "go faster!" while marveling that they could ride so close together and, not understanding what they wanted, shouting for the riders to "crash and break their necks".*
Headphones on, my thumb spins through options on my iPod. Let's see... Genre will quickly filter for mood. Hrm. Jazz? Well then. Who's here? No, no, no, no, Ah. Wait... Wynton Marsalis? I'd forgotten. Haven't listened in a long time. Sure, why not. Give it a go. Perfect. Exactly what I wanted. Which disc is this? Tap to illuminate screen, and... Of course: From The Plantation To The Penitentiary
And what have I been studying all morning? Criminal law. I guess Wynton hit his mark.
[* Have the little tikes already seen Michael Bay's "work". Did they think a bike would burst into a giant fireball if it crashed? If only Hollywood would think of the kids when letting guys like Bay make movies...]
Putting a stake through Corps(e)
So. I was reading (for fun) in a cafe today. Two women were sitting at the table next to me, studying for their Corporations exam. Wow. So annoying.
First of all, they were studying out loud. OK generally, but in this case one girl was...
- Not using her indoor voice,
- Facing me instead of her study partner, meaning that she might as well have been using a megaphone on top of her already-too-loud voice,
- Absolutely dominating the conversation, Shaquille-style - I mean her study partner barely got a word in edgewise in an hour and a half, and
- Speaking with that most annoying of accents, the snobby San Franciscan, where everything? sounds like? a question?.
Second, they had no idea what they were talking about. They weren't stupid, just too intent on hearing themselves speak to stop and think for a minute.
What's that? You'd like some examples? Thanks for asking...
- They decided to "skip that, um... partnership stuff? because, um...there's like, no way? he can test us? on that like right?"
- Could NOT get their heads around insider trading. I mean, is the difference between Chessman (where the family phone trees news and someone winds up trading on the info) and the inside-trading printer really that tough to suss out? (At this point, I almost interrupted to explain because they were getting it all *wrong*. Only reasons I didn't explain were that I was really, really annoyed, and because there was a slim chance they would be competing for grades with some friends.) "But, like, what's the duty? um... how are we supposed to know what the duty is?! like, how does the um fiduciary duty? fit in here?"
- "Like, I'll like never understand how people only study? you know? for like the last week of the semmmmmmmester. in law school?"
- "What's like, the deal with reliance investor reliance? Does that put the burden on the company?"
- "I'm going to ignore this policy stuff?"
OK. Done venting. To my friends still studying and busting their behinds for their last-ever law school exam, I say best of luck on Corps. No, better yet... I want to see your impersonation of Ghandi. Well, you know... if Ghandi was really pissed off.
Kill that thing.