“Everyone is my teacher. Some I seek. Some I subconsciously attract. Often I learn simply by observing others. Some may be completely unaware that I’m learning from them, yet I bow deeply in gratitude.” — Eric Allen

I almost missed today. Almost. It’s damn near the ending of the day, but I’ve been going nonstop since the morning. I’m only able to make this post today because I’ve taken public transportation.

Because I’m riding public transit rn.

And by public transit I mean I’m actually on a toilet at a new-to-me burger joint… but I’ll be in a MAX in no time.

Even then, I’m pushing the wire of my self imposed three posts a month goal. I’m curious how I’ll get this post done and posted before I’m engrossed in a different slice of reality for the rest of the evening.

It’ll probably involve some sort of rapid writing using my fingers tapping a touchscreen. Probably. At least it is so far.

And by no time I meant 3 hours after I started writing this on a toilet after a burger.

I went to a karaoke party with some friends and coworkers and friend workers. It’s close to time to meet, so my friend and I started our commute to the karaoke joint. A few blocks away from the office we see smoke.

Coming from what looks like a palm tree.

A palm tree… in Portland, Oregon.

No one else was around except a few pedestrians and some dude that was having a spirited conversation with himself.

So we pull over, I call 911, and we proceed to take pictures and videos and have some dude that’s very likely homeless, or pretending to be, talk to us in English, then Portuguese, then talking about Portuguese in English.

I was on hold, waiting for 911, for about 5 minutes as the wirey man danced around and talked about what he was talking and about and seeming pretty pleased with himself.

911 answers. They know about the fire. Firefighters are on the way. On cue, we hear a fire truck and the fighters of fighter pull up.

That’s something you don’t see every day.

You know what I really like? The glottal muscles.

After karaoke I decided to walk back to the office to pick up half a thicc sandwich that I forgot in the office fridge. And pickup ice cream. From a new place a few blocks away called Bell & Cow.

It doesn’t have many reviews yet. These are my favorite kind of places. So I decide to pay them a visit.

When I get there I meet a man named Jacob. Jacob opened up Bell & Cow three weeks ago. Things have been going so good he almost seemed overwhelmed. But overwhelmed in the best kind of way.

The kind of way that is driven by desire rather than duty.

His passion for his product and his place was fun and infectious. You can tell he’s out a lot of effort into building his dream business.

We chatted briefly before he iterated through what his stock was.

He shared how he made the ice cream there. How response had been overwhelming. How he was expecting to be primarily delivery-based at first but the physical footprints have been his main means of money.

He shared how he’s excited for the future. How it’s exciting. How it’s emotional. How it can be amazing. How it can make him cry.

He shared how gratifying having his dream realized is. I fucking love that kind of passion. So I bought one of each of what his baby business is selling.

This is premium ice cream. Which means it is priced as such. Which I’m totally cool with.

I was not expecting to be buying so much all at once.

But I felt compelled to help him with his business. And treat my belly in the worst kind of insulin rollercoaster sort of way,

I love ice cream. So much. Damn big sweets and their udderly addictive products.

Holy fucking shit. I was driving on the way home and when I turned on the car it was NPR interviewing some dentist that has some podcast about the sugar industry and how

I’m gonna leave a review on Google Maps though. I’m pretty sure I’m gonna like the product he peddles.

What’s that thing called where you know something is questionably for you hit you do it anyway?

Coming back to the tree fire earlier. I’m here on the MAX right now, finishing tapping out this post, and the dude that was talking to himself earlier by the tree is now sitting next to me.

What a curious day.

A burning tree and a dude. Karaoke. Too much ice cream. The dude. And then a discussion on the reason sugar is bad.

And tomorrow I get to learn more about Kubernetes in a hands on class.

Woo.