Notes from the cubicle

I don’t have a lot to report, hence the lack of updates recently. Between my mother’s problems, worries about a couple other friends, and a partially successful attempt to undermine my confidence, the “quiet space” I got from my jaunt to Big Sur has become fairly noisy again.

I need to find some nice place—ideally, one that isn’t 100 miles away—that I can camp out more regularly, to sit and think and, ideally, to work. I need to be poking more at the new MUCK project, along with some writing that I’m overdue in returning to, which means that a place with free wifi access is desirable, too. (Being completely unplugged definitely helps in finding quiet spaces, of course.)

I don’t know whether the places I’m looking for don’t exist in the immediate “neighborhood” or I’m just better at bumbling across them in other towns, although I’m honestly suspecting the former at this point. I might try Barefoot Coffee Roasters again, but as cool an atmosphere as they have, they’re frequently not so quiet and their wifi is not free. Panera usually wins despite getting very loud when it’s busy. It’s places like the Ugly Mug in Soquel, or the Seabright Brewing Company in Santa Cruz, that I’d really like.

Actually, the Seabright Brewing Company could get really expensive, not to mention encourage me to drink way too much. But it’s a great place.

I think tonight I’m going to go out for a moderately good dinner. Nothing unduly expensive—and in fact, probably nothing fancy, as I’m leaning toward the Texas Roadhouse. (If you’ve never been there, think Outback with a Texas schtick. While it definitely piles on the faux-Western, the food’s been noticeably better than their faux-Australian competitor’s.)

A music meme

This is stolen randomly from shaterri:

Go to Music Outfitters and select your birth year, to look at the top 100 songs that year. Copy the list into your journal (behind a cut). Put the ones you’ve actually heard of in italics. Bold the songs that you like. Underline your absolute favorite.

( Well, here's the top 60 from 1967... )