I tried dating someone with conservative beliefs in college in the 90s and it was incredibly hard because our values, and hangups, were so different. It'd be impossible now that "conservative" basically means doesn't believe certain people deserve basic human rights.

I thought I was pretty online, but I am definitely not online enough for this

Felt obligated to buy this KISS/Ballentine whiskey for reasons perhaps only @zackdavisson.com would fully understand. Also it was only like $11 so why not.

If it bleeds, it leads. Leads the political narrative to pearl clutching and misdirected panics.

The patron saint of rapists, pedophiles, grifters and fake Christians everywhere.

One thing I love about my current situation is that I can start heading home and then purely coincidentally run into the owner of the Shinjo San Diego burrito shop and talk shop while both of us are partly under the influence of alcohol and my night gets way more interesting.

Thought today would be a typical dreary Monday saleswise but café traffic was up and we did better than our weak Sunday yesterday. Not great numbers, but unusual for a Monday that isn't an official holiday. Sunday's decline made be think today would be worse than usual.

Wouldn't consider today a rousing success, but we're tracking up on sales week over week. I had a surprise last minute "can you help us out without a preorder" roast chicken and potatoes order than helped bump things up a bit. I had prepared a couple of halves of chicken for last minute buyers.

Pretty sure it was one of my most un-rigourous essays during university but I had massive fun writing one essay for an experimental intentional community class. I explored neopaganism while playing with 1970s new age catchphrases. Got a much better grade than deserved, perhaps BECAUSE it was fun.

A pre-Christmas feast at #Nokucheese (@jason.jagaimo.com) 🎄 The eggnog was particularly amazing!

I hope that the vomit patches I'm seeing in front of my station is noodles and not tapeworms? More errant disreputable thoughts.

Is that woman intentionally trying to do a "sexy walk?" Here, of all places, on the first floor of a Don Quijote? Or is she just struggling in heels? Wait, is struggle walking the point of heels? Errant disreputable thoughts in my head on a Saturday night.

People talk about all sorts of cultural difficulties adaptating to living in Germany. The slavish, inflexible attentiveness to rules. The cold dinners. The bureacracy. The difficulties establishing close relationships. For me, in the 1990s, it was the national infatuation with Mr. Bean.

Surreal night overall. Approached by a man from Ghana as I'm passing Marui on the way to the station. He tells me his wife divorced him a few weeks ago, his kid has problems in school, he wants a job but cancer treatment is making that untenable, all while following me toward the station.

Was trying to do some work on the shop's online ordering system after hours, so I let a customer linger well after closing. Twinge of regret indulging her, even though she's a bit of a regular. Before leaving she wanted to introduce me to the Kenshōkai sect/cult (they hang out at the station).

This notion of rapid iteration, doing small units of work and gauging early customer feedback cycles, is based on three things: 1) rapid deployment is possible (we're past shipping CDs, so ok 2) Early iterations deliver tangible value 3) The feedback and usage data informs future work Where's #2?

Looking at the actual sales data for the year (excluding delivery services like Uber) I was surprised by two things: our sales are more evenly distributed throughout the day than I thought , and Wednesdays average only slightly less busier than Thursdays and Fridays (recently it feels much worse).

This - this is how you write a used camera description www.camera-traders.com/products/tim...

A Filipino couple came in just about 30 minutes ago asking after a caramel bar recipe that I made once as a one-off. It didn't sell all that well (at least not quickly) but they were regular buyers. They asked me when I was going to make it again. I finally promised I'd have it by Monday (yesterday)

Tired: Karen Wired: Sarah with an "H" www.instagram.com/reel/DR-vem9...

For my birthday, the kids came to my shop with Hiromi. I made ridiculous oversized burgers (163g), some with smoked bacon (plus one veg version with ganmodoki). I was testing some roasted potato and soufflé sweet potato recipes in my commercial oven, and everything but the chicken ended uo as sides.

Today was the sort of Saturday that I hope for. While not exactly ideal numbers, the café was well utilized, and we had two or three cases when we couldn't fit people in (without awkwardness anyway). And we hit hourly sales averages that, if they held for breakfast/dinner hours, could sustain us.

Big fucking shake

Make it make sans

Can't say I ever expected to see a "That Font was No Angel" headline. But here we are.

Part timer didn't show up when she should have today. Apparently overslept. Was too busy to respond to Line messages when she finally checked in. She asked if she could come in after the lunch period but sales were weak and I just tried to keep up solo.

you know how i know im a 44yo dad? how much i laughed at this shit

*avoids taking tiny shortcut home from the train station because a young woman turned off there, just so she won't have to worry if I'm following her* *proceeds to take the marginally slower route, see her turn into my building 30 meters ahead* Brain: "Oh, shit, that was ineffective."

An amusing (frustrating) mishap with Square tonight killed reporting just as I was about to record a cash deposit to the bank. I figured it was just an anomaly until a customer came in search of cheesecake. Then it kept warming me I had no wifi and wouldn't take any transactions other than cash.

My wife had been asking me why I hadn't turned on QR code ordering on Square. Other than the new monthly fee, I knew there was a ton of work to translate the menu into something that was usable by even patient customers. And uploading photos (which square used to capriciously rotate 90 degrees).

Pretty brutal week. Also peaked at my equivalent sales this week last December and my Friday sales were actually 20% better then (during preopening with no signage, when sandwich orders were not yet routine and we almost panicked when they came, and we were just starting to serve drinkable lattes)

Not today, Satan www.businessinsider.com/mrbeast-movi...

look I’m not an evangelical but “a guy calling himself the Beast wants control of your earthly wealth” feels like some kind of sign, no?

My wife: "is the building package delivery locker access card in the usual place?" "Yeah I put it there a few days ago". *She picks up card, goesto dining room* "Do you want me to pick up a package downstairs? I'm still dressed, though only in a tshirt, but more than pajamas" #husbanding #空気読める

I should probably not drink when I'm depressed by weekday sales that barely exceed my preopening sales last November but fuck it's disappointing

Took some time to procrastinate on actually far more important things yesterday to rebuild my shop's website. It many rough edges, but finally show's the shop's hours, some pictures, and information about how to get here, plus our reservation link and our nascent web store www.nokucheese.com

Embarrassing mistake this morning. I was a bit busy prepping a bunch of things, then started working on some paperwork and web stuff while our potato rolls were baking. Time blinded. 9:30 and the oven hadn't beeped yet (should've been ready at 9). WHAT? The oven was set to bake our rustic loaves

Everyone is getting upset about the data centers. They pollute a lot and use a lot of energy and will eventually be very ugly/huge vacant buildings. And I understand being mad about that. Until you consider the state of the lazer tag industry at this moment, and how much help that sector needs.

No value, no villain, no vision. Sounds like the tagline for the earnings call of a collapsing appliance retailer

Fucked up as we started to get moderately busy again and forgot to order milk and a couple of small things before 5. Technically the milk I can get anywhere, but the higher fat one we use for coffee isn't available and the retail price for other full fat milk is a bit higher than my wholesale price.

3 reasonably solid days of sales in a row only to face... a Monday. A slower than slow Monday. The "why even open" kind of Monday. Although 3pm brought in a small flurry of traffic that makes things ever so slightly less painful.

Twitter is dead. There's only Bluesky... and LinkedIn Shitposting. www.linkedin.com/posts/melpla...

I always thought it was a way of curing boredom on the day after Thanksgiving (I usually preferred to go jogging and maybe to a movie or something, like the December 25th or 26th Chinese restaurant and a movie routine some family members did once a lot of them scattered from the Seattle area)

Just messaged my baker assuming she'd read it tomorrow. Basically "we did have more leftover bread than really justifies taking you up on your offer to come bake tomorrow but I finished super late and I want to get an extra hour recovery time". Her 10:09 reply implies she gets less sleep than I do.

This Shonda Rhimes-produced reboot of The West Wing keeps getting more and more ridiculous

Kakunin: The ancient Japanese art of double- and triple checking to make sure an action is allowed, makes sense and is as intended. While often infuriating, sometimes it saves your ass. Like when I atypically ordered 10 kilos of chicken instead of 1. Or mistakenly ordered the wrong kind of pump.

I feel my generation was the last to experience a lot of literature with themes like "mother died in childbirth", "family member died of consumption," "disabled by polio," "permanently disfigured by smallpox" and having those stories reinforced by family oral histories. It's easy to be conned now

Rough Sunday. Last weekend we had steady café traffic. Yesterday was fairly busy. Today was merely a trickle, basically like a slow weekday. And I was left with a lot more bread, even after strategic discounting. Oof.

Tonight a semi-regular customer came in and made multiple orders (a happy hour plate, wine, cheese plate, a couple of additional glasses of wine, and then several focaccia to take home. If I could get ten people like that a night I'd be a lot less worried about making rent and payroll.