Oshyan - Outland - Page 2 of 2

Mind and Body-Altering Parasites

I recently gave a short Ignite-style talk at Synapse Synopsis, focusing on a favorite subject of mine: Mind and Body-Altering Parasites.

I’m not entirely sure why these creatures and behaviors fascinate me so much. I do love being surprised by nature, and seeing adaptations that seem almost improbable (like leaf-mimic insects, for example), so that’s probably one aspect. I also think we can learn a lot about how our own bodies and minds work through seeing how these creatures are able to manipulate their host organisms. Last but probably not least, there is a morbid fascination here, perhaps my version of what horror-movie-lovers feel when they get a good jump scare. I get the willies reading about these things, but I still love it! I’m not a horror movie fan though. ????

The “personal card”

Over the past few years I’ve found myself meeting a lot more people at random out in the world than I was used to for much of my life. Some have given me their numbers, or friended me on Facebook, and some have given me their cards, both business and personal. It became clear that leaving the onus on the other person to reach out and provide contact info was needlessly limiting, so I decided to put together some kind of personal identity item I could hand out. I found myself potentially a little in-between business and personal, wanting to be open to and potentially showcase my skills and experience, or at least interests, but also to keep it casual and open-ended, as functional for a new potential work contact as for a possible date. And I didn’t want to carry two cards. So…

Trailblazer Tavern

Thursday
1/31/2019

Main Dining Room

Rating 6/10

https://www.michaelmina.net/restaurants/san-francisco-bay-area/trailblazer_tavern/

I’m kicking off this food review section of my website with a random recent restaurant visit, Michael Mina’s fairly-brand-new Trailblazer Tavern, a Hawaiian restaurant in San Francisco, located in one of the Salesforce buildings. The format and layout of these reviews will no doubt change with time. Here’s a first stab at it…

Obispo

Thursday
1/9/2019

Front Seating

Rating 7/10

https://www.obisposf.com/

A simpler review today since I don’t have a lot of photos and didn’t try the food at Obispo. This is a new rum-focused bar+restaurant from Thad Vogler of Bar Agricole, and one that has been in the works for some 5 years, if you can believe it.

I generally try to give a place a couple of months to sort out the kinks before I visit. I figure that’s likely to give me the best and most representative experience. But a couple of friends wanted to try Obispo for a meet-up in early January, shortly after the opening in December 2018. So I broke my rule, and in general I’m glad I did.

Dealer’s Choice #2 – The Reboozening

Recently I held the second iteration of an improv cocktail event I created, which I’m currently calling “Dealer’s Choice”. People come to my house and I make them random drinks based on ideas I’ve had in mind or have been playing with. I had a couple of infusions made from backyard herbs, rose geranium, lemon-balm, fig+dill vermouth, and had also procured some candy caps which were fun to play with. Continue reading “Dealer’s Choice #2 – The Reboozening”

The Ignorant Tourist

I’ve decided I’m going to attempt to write some travel-related posts here. I recently went on a couple of trips and found myself running into all kinds of things I wish I’d known before I went, or was fascinated to learn along the way, and some of it seemed worth sharing. So I’m hoping to combine sort of specific, destination-oriented “travel tips” with “interesting/weird facts about” type of stuff. We’ll see how it works out. Continue reading “The Ignorant Tourist”