quick post while i'm thinking about it. andy and i went to number 9 park last week. the time before that was the best time i'd ever been there. i had the corn and black truffle "terrine" dish which turned out to be this interesting small rectangular plate with three or so gelatinous long rectangles ("prisms" would prob. be the nerdy correct geometrical term) spread out down the plate, drizzled with black truffle oil and shavings with some bits of real corn thrown in. tasty and one of the more entertaining dishes i've had in a while. i also had a very nice tortelloni with pea shoots and morels. mmm. andy had the lobster gnocchi. for dessert we had the rosewater creme brulee. note to self: avoid food with flowers in them. i always get them thinking they'll be kind of fun, and i just end up feeling like i've just accidentally swallowed a bottle of foot lotion from the body shop or something. this time around i got fries (haha) and olives (what can i say? i felt like having it MY way). the olives were good, although they were drenched in olive oil which i know most people prob. like but which, as i told andy, i see as being like putting peanuts on a peanut butter sandwich or topping your doritos with cheese whiz. i like my olives unadorned. naked, if you will. haha. anyway, the fetuccini with chanterelles was disappointing. andy was also not so thrilled with his skate with lemon aioli (the special). speaking of the aioli, i also had lemon ailoi with my fries which is generally not a bad thing except this was like lemon FROSTING, which was not appetizing. and it took forever (as in i was more than 1/2way done eating my fries) for the waiter to bring me some ketchup. grr. so all in all this gives number 9 park a batting average of about 1 in 4 for me, although andy points out that we've been sitting in the front, and next time we should try harder to sit at the bar so we can get both the dinner and the bar menus. although something that i still can't understand is why you can't have both menus wherever you sit. maybe winnie can explain this to me. and one more observation: the last two waiters we've had at number 9 park have both been extremely chirpy. is this the effect that they're consciously striving for? do they have pep talks before every evening, where they all stand in a circle and chant, "PEP! PEP! PEP! yeeeeeeaaaaaah, PEP!" i can only imagine. i know i'm not alone in having the firm belief that a good waiter should be able to pick up in the first minute of interaction whether or not his clientele want him to make annoying chit-chat. i = a misanthrope, so let me eat in peace, please. it wouldn't be so bad if they were more attentive, but i've found that as in most places there is no correlation between #9 park's waiters' annoyingness and their attentiveness. ah well.

i know i've raved to most people about opera already, but i had to post about the latest release. opera is by far the best web browser i've ever used, and this latest version's fixed the last problem it had which was that it was slow and would crash a little too often. this version is amazingly lightweight, possibly even lighter than internet explorer, stable, and the GUI is even sleeker and more customizable than before. why did i prefer it even when it was buggy? it has all the features that IE and netscape should have added years ago, inc. a great password manager, popup blocker, shortcuts for new blank window and new window that's a copy of the current one, open all bookmarks, and tabbed panes for each window (huge plus). i also love the smart page forward feature, which is great for reading through many pages of text or images, and the mouse gestures, which you can use as shortcuts for options like back and refresh. highly highly highly recommended. when was the last time internet explorer updated? it seems so archaic now. use this referrer link to give me a few cents.

way back when i was thinking about interviewing for microsoft (against my better judgement) i looked up some puzzles online. microsoft is famous (or infamous) for asking not only coding questions but also thinking questions (like "why are manhole covers round?") and puzzles. here's a site called www.techinterview.org that has some good ones if you're ever bored. a couple that i liked:

• a man has a gold chain with 7 links. he needs the service of a laborer for 7 days at a fee of one gold link per day. however, each day of work needs to be paid for separately. in other words, the worker must be paid each day after working and if the laborer is ever overpaid he will quit with the extra money. also he will never allow himself to be owed a link. what is the fewest # of cuts to the chain to facilitate this arrangement and how does that guarantee payment?
• you die and the devil says he'll let you go to heaven if you beat him in a game. the devil sits you down at a round table. he gives himself and you a huge pile of quarters. he says "ok, we'll take turns putting quarters down, no overlapping allowed, and the quarters must rest on the table surface. the first guy who can't put a quarter down loses." how do you make sure you win?

Speaking of Christopher Doyle, I saw Chungking Express a couple nights ago and In the Mood for Love a few weeks ago. Stunning. In a couple weeks, I will be dining at Din Tai Fung in Taipei. Yummmmmm.

haven't been much in the mood to post lately, probably b/c i've been a bit overwhelmed entertaining relatives from korea, worrying about my sister's wedding (this saturday!!), and stressing about moving. i'll be glad when this month's over. on a lighter note, have i already raved about bookcrossing.com? basically they promote releasing books "into the wild" (for example, on the subway), but i've found it's a really great way to trade books i want to get rid of. you can check out the books i've registered or received here. among the so-so books i've read in the past couple of months: she's come undone: mostly skimmed through the last 1/3. about what i expected, i.e. too chick-y for me, but had some interesting bits. the last of the mohicans: this book was sooo slow. only got 1/2way through this one. the waste land and other poems: another 1/2way-read book. mostly irritating. for every 100 lines of eliot's prohibitively obtuse poetry, only about 5 lines gave me a worthwhile revelation. maus: a famous graphic novel about the treatment of jews during world war ii. didn't really add anything new to the already huge body of works about the subject. i'm going to be getting the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe in a bookcrossing trade soon. thinking about rereading the whole series, which i don't think i've read since elementary school. we'll see how that goes.

was in new york this past weekend being a tour guide to my extended family. i did get a chance to see frozen, though, which was worthwhile. not mind-blowing, but it was definitely better than i am my own wife and probably the best play i've seen (or read) in the past five years, with the exception of one flea spare (oh, and private lives). and yes, swoosie kurtz was quite as good as people have said she was, although i didn't find byrne's performance to be that astounding. ran across this place completely by coincidence that winnie and i have been before, called kalustyan's. it's this middle eastern store, and i got two things at their counter that i had last time: a fava bean dish with dill and a lentil/rice dish; both were solid. i noticed that they had a cafe a few doors down. apparently this is a recent addition (february of 2004) according to this article. didn't get a chance to check it out, but i'll definitely be keeping it in mind for next time i'm in ny. also went to a couple of clubs. heaven was really really lame, and the roxy was okay, although the cover was ridiculous ($25). why is it so hard to find a club that plays good music? from now on i'm only clubbing in london and at boston's man ray. haha.

www.homestarrunner.com has just released peasant's quest, easily one of the coolest games i've played in a while. the outline is kind of a mix of zelda where you walk around (but without the fighting) and a text-based adventure game where you use commands like "get berries". the preview of the game is also on the site. there are some kind of tricky bits, but the best thing is it features a very strong bad-like sense of humor. i beat the game last night and feel like i've finally accomplished something with my life. ... or something.