GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Notes

  • My Bread (and Pizza), December 2021

    I spent November on a bad run.

    It was completely self-inflicted. I’ve always wanted to develop the laziest possible process for making sourdough so I kept trying to use old dough to start the next loaf several times. (I also tried this last year with the same dismal results).

    After a month of gummy loaves, I returned to the basic process. Use a clean starter and refresh it a couple of times. Once the starter is popping, then mix the dough. I also went back to my usual 2% salt after trying a low salt mix.

    Unsurprisingly but reassuringly, the results also returned to their old success.

    My boy unwittingly trolled me when the first good loaf came out. He looked at the big poofy thing in the oven and asked why I started making mommy’s (yeasted) bread. He was so surprised at this new development that he repeated the question several times, even though I kept explaining that this is what my sourdough should be.

    By the way, the bread was also as tasty as it looked. Going low salt is might be good for blood pressure but a few grams makes a huge difference.

    With multiple refreshes per loaf, I now have a bit of starter floating around. However, it’s not a big deal. Weekend pancakes can eat up a lot of starter for breakfast and we’ve also started making pizza for lunch.

    The pancakes have been covered several times before, but the pizza is equally as simple. Take 150g of starter (1:1 hydration) and add 75g of flour. That changes the dough to a 2:1 ratio (67% hydration), a pretty standard mix for bread. Let the dough proof for as much time as you have available. Spread the dough out on an oiled cast-iron skillet. Throw on the toppings (cheese, oil, and miscellaneous veggies) and bake at 350 for about half an hour. Once the pizza is stiff, take it off the skillet and let it bake another 20 minutes on the rack.

  • Dixit (2 player cooperative, Mike Zielinski)



    I’ve used Dixit cards to play with my girl many times. We would admire the art and pick out the cutest cards.

    However, we’ve never played Dixit as a game.

    A few months ago, I searched boardgamegeek.com and found a cooperative variant which deals twelve cards in two rows (six on each side). Each player places a token pairing each of their six cards with the other player’s six cards. We then score a point for every pair that matches what the partner selected.

    This is a good game.

    It’s a really interesting exercise to pair up the cards and compare your mind with your partner. I suspect this is something that we can play long after the cute wars have ended.

    Highly recommended, we went through the entire deck (five packs worth). And we actually scored 6 out of 6 on our last chance!

  • Dixit (Cute Wars)

    It is impossible to play Dixit with a child. They don’t understand the balancing act of giving away just enough information so that only some people will correctly guess your clue.

    But beautiful cards must be played.

    So we invented a variant called Cute War. As the name implies, this is a variant of the old card game War.

    Pull out a Dixit deck and twelve poker chips (six for each player). Split the deck in half for each player.

    Every round, flip a card over. Instead of comparing numbers, discuss who flipped the cuter card. The winner takes both cards.

    If there is a stalemate, a player may offer a chip to buy both cards. The other player may ante their own chip. They may raise each other. If neither player offers a chip or they stalemate at a tie, then flip over the next card and judge accordingly (winner take all, of course).

    After someone has won a match, the losing player may offer a chip to buy one of the cards from the winning player. The winning player may accept the chip and give up the card. Otherwise, they must counteroffer with an equal quantity of chips. The losing player may take the counteroffer or up the bid, back and forth until someone acquiesces.

    We never go through the deck more than once so there isn’t ever truly a “winner”. This is more of an activity than a game – the chips add a gamey patina but are really just a way to crystallize someone’s valuations.

    One day, we’ll get around to playing “real” Dixit. Until then, we have fun with this opportunity to plumb the aesthetic preferences of my daughter.

  • OPM.21 (notes on) Find Your Why, Simon Sinek, David Mead, and David Docker, 2017

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    (notes on) Find Your Why

    Sinek’s first book was a TED talk that was bloated to book-length. This is the book that Start With Why should have been.

    The first chapter of Find Your Why is a perfect encapsulation of its more famous predecessor. The rest of the book completes Sinek’s “why-how-what golden circle” concept, fleshing out the idea within the standard structure of the self-help genre:

    • Introduction: Sell the Concept (Start With Why)
    • Body: Instructions for the reader actualize the Concept in their lives.
    • Conclusion: Reiterate the Concept with final encouragements.

    The Find Your Why method asks you to recount the moments in your history that lit you up inside. Then you process these memories with their method to develop a why statement formatted as:

    TO <blank> SO THAT <blank>.

    “TO inspire people to do the things that inspire them SO THAT, together, we can change our world.”

    Sinek’s own why statement

    Unfortunately, the Find Your Why process requires a partner for half a day to talk about yourself and probe your memories. I generally avoid self-realization exercises (even though my experience with Golden Parachute was fairly illuminating), much less burdening those around me.

    The authors claim their process isn’t possible to execute by yourself, so I’m not going to try. But if I were to take a stab doing their program, I would first try it on my own to probe the weak points of their method, before forcing an acquaintance (spouses aren’t recommended for this exercise) to participate in my navel-gazing.

    If you’re curious about discovering your why, and if you have someone who owes you a big favor, it’s worth checking out. And even if you don’t, this is the better of these two “why” books.

    I listened to this book at double speed, taking two and a half hours to “read” while doing chores. I don’t regret this minimal investment, however, if I were to do anything further, I would need to get a printed copy. I can’t imagine running this elaborate exercise without a visual reference. Then again, I haven’t felt any urge to find my why so over the past few months, so it is unlikely it will ever happen.

    Even though I’m meh about both of Sinek’s “why” books, I very much enjoyed his other books Leaders Eat Last and Infinite Game. They are both excellent reads.

    ~

    A Question

    Is the whole “why” thing is overrated?

    Hit reply and let’s chat!

    ~

    A Few Links

    ESPN occasionally commissions a great essay. This is a lovely portrait of a Will “Akuna” Robinson, a veteran who has hiked the three great trails in the United States.

    Self help books may be a contemporary route to self knowledge, but I wonder if traditional wisdom books may be a better path. If my hunch is correct, I’d recommend Ecclesiastes, Dao De Jing, Analects, Bhagavad Gita, and Havamal. If nothing else, these have stood the test of time.

    … and a photo.

    Supersonic Wing Wind Tunnel Model – A three-quarter rear view of a wooden Langley display model in January 1958 showing the radical twist and camber of a supersonic arrow-wing design. Note the cobra-like raised nose at the upper right and the cambered, drooped trailing edges of the 75-degree swept wing. These features were inverted in the first seal design by Modarelli. (NACA L-00502), January 1958

    ~

    Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!

    Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting!
    Justus Pang, RA

  • The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943

    I don’t do recreational sadness.

    Bomani Jones

    With this motto, I’ve avoided the Little Prince.

    I must have read this book way when. How else would I have known this is a sad book? I think my parents had a copy.

    After watching the movie, I borrowed a copy from the library to read it afresh.

    The book is fully deserving of its acclaim. It is a heart-aching fable with spare watercolor sketches.

    It is a subtle and nuanced meditation of childhood and the loss of adulthood (unfortunately, the movie bowdlerized the message by shoving it in your face).

    Grown-up normalcy is shown to be absurd.

    But.

    Only an adult would see the message.

    That said, I’m not going out to find more recreational sadness even though this book was totally worth it.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

  • Little Prince (Movie), Mark Osborne, 2015

    This is a lovely film, especially the sequences that mimic a stop animation with paper cutouts. Maybe a little heavy-handed in its fear of adulthood, but it means well.

    Growing up isn’t the problem it’s forgetting.

    As an inveterate planner in my current job, I must admit that I was impressed with the big board that Mom made for tracking her daughter’s summer of achievement. However, her mistake was not in planning out the current summer, but in scheming for the next summer.

    Maybe the problem is planning.

    Planning and forgetting are synonymous with avoiding the present. It’s important to have an idea for the next couple of days, but peering beyond the haze is a futile task. Even worse than wasting time, you’re overlooking the richness right in front of you.

    Give yourself room.

    Mom’s other mistake was not planning slack in her schedule. Along with indulging the farce that one can divine what’s around the corner, having no fluff time is a recipe for overlooking the important.

    Don’t plan too far, give yourself time to smell the roses, and maybe growing up won’t be so bad after all.

  • Nuts and Raisins

    Last year, I discovered the perfect cereal mix – puffed wheat, raisins, and nuts (such as walnuts or pecans). This works great with yogurt or whole milk. The nuts provide complex notes while the raisins give a bit of tang, and the ensemble is backed up by the fatty heft of whole milk. This has become a breakfast staple (along with my bread, of course).

    I recently simplified this combo into an elegant snack – nuts and raisins.

    I stumbled into realization when we toasted some unsalted pumpkin seeds. With my family’s history of high blood pressure, I’m careful with salt, but these seeds needed something else. I had some raisins and voila, I had a new snack from the pantry!

    You’d think that all the years of store-bought trail mixes would have led me to this pairing much sooner. However, this discovery was only possible because we’ve been on a detox of unhealthy foods since the pandemic started. Aside from the occasional frozen pizza, every meal we’ve had for the past year has been home-cooked. Admittedly, we’ve bought our share of snacks in plastic bags, but even these have been limited because of the cold rationality of shopping online instead of being waylaid on the path to the checkout lane.

    It’s impressive that toasted nuts and raisins can result in an elegant combination of tanginess, umami, and fat. It’s all the more satisfying when this magic mix was discovered organically.

    After the initial draft of this post, I’ve come up with a second simple “magic mix”. Ground black pepper, garlic, and olive oil can be applied to almost any savory meal to good effect. The label on the pepper container states that it is a product of Vietnam, which invariably makes me marvel at how far we’ve progressed since the age of exploration, kicked off by the Portuguese search for an alternate trading route to break the Italian monopoly on spices. It still amazes me that these mundane kitchen ingredients were worth so much that men would devote years of their life traveling the high seas to obtain these basic goods.

  • OPM.19 (notes on) Enter Sandman, Drumeo and Larnell Lewis, 2021

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    (notes on) Enter Sandman, Drumeo and Larnell Lewis, 2021

    This is an impressive display of craft. Drummer Darnell Lewis has never listened to “Enter Sandman”, so he listens to it once and then plays it. No problem.

    His active listening during his first listen is a masterful example of analysis on the fly.

    Watching this video brings back fond memories of starting a new project when I was in private practice. The air was filled with possibilities as we were briefed on the program. This excitement would be viscerally manifested during field verification of a building for a renovation project.

    When entering a structure for the first time, the senses would kick into overdrive. The building had much to say, but we didn’t know what was critical, so everything mattered. With such stakes, my perception was on high alert. These moments of crossing a strange threshold were among my favorite as a practicing architect.

    Though less tangible, the excitement of starting a new project also applies to my work as an Owner PM. Any project is a function of invisible forces – state and local regulations and constrained by industry conditions, budget, and schedule.

    Beyond the hard constraints, the OPM is the leader of a new temporary team. My most important task at the start of the project is to grasp and develop the network of relationships within the user group and project team.

    No project is truly new, it is always set within an intricate context. Our first job is to sit down and actively listen before we pick up sticks to make a ruckus.

    ~

    A Question

    What are the moments that make you excited in the course of a project?

    Hit reply and let’s chat!

    ~

    A Links

    My daughter recently took a liking to Linus and Lucy, so it has been playing on loop throughout the past week. Looking up the Vince Guaraldi on Wikipedia, this paragraph jumped out. I envy folks who have settled comfortably into their niche.

    His desire to continually perform at small, local clubs was not due to financial necessity but because he wanted it like that. The monumental success garnered from his Peanuts work resulted in lucrative offers coming in from all over the U.S., all of which he declined. “Once the Peanuts music became famous, Vince could have gone out and done a whole lot more,” Mendelson said. “But he was very provincial; he loved San Francisco, and he liked hanging out and playing at the local clubs. He never branched out from there; he never really wanted to. He’d get offers, but he’d tell me, ‘I just want to do this; I’m having a good time, and I’m satisfied with it’.”

    … and a photo.

    Olive Thomas, Bain News Service, ca. 1915 and ca. 1920

    ~

    Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you next week!

    Stay humble, be kind, and keep experimenting!
    Justus Pang, RA

  • The Bulwark, Charlie Sykes et al, 2018

    I used to go to Huffpo for my regular political web-hackery but their shrill alarmism wore thin after a while. I tried various news sites, but during the 2020 presidential cycle I settled upon the Bulwark.

    I suspect I have more disagreements than similarities with the folks on that site, but they have earned one thing more dear than almost any site out there.

    Trust.

    In a world where many Never-Trumpers heeded the tribal call of their party, these folks have held firm. I might not agree with many of their policy preferences, but they are honest and they have the courage of their convictions.

    The other thing that is quite appealing about their site is the conservative belief on American exceptionalism. I’m not fully bought into the thought, but I have to admit its appeal. It is alluring to think that my own country is somehow special in spite our multitude of faults.

    We’ll see where it goes. I presume we will transition from friends to foes during the administration of the new guy…but at least these folks have earned my respect.

    I wish we didn’t need four years of chaos to separate the wheat from the chaff within our punditry class, but I might as well take the silver linings that I can find.

    Over the year after the election, I’ve found myself following the Dispatch slightly more – I enjoy the cerebral musings of Jonah Goldberg and David French over the continued alarmism of the Bulwark (even if it is justified given the festering fallout from January 6th). Either way, I’ve been slowly weaning myself off the news, it’s all too much so I might as well give my attention to things I can control (or at least respond to in a meaningful fashion).

  • Halloween Costumes, 2021

    We’re still staying home from the pandemic, but the girl still wanted to make a costume for Halloween.

    She was so excited about the idea, she took the initiative by sketching her rabbit costume. Once there was a plan, we just had to execute.

    We started with the mask. It took a few iterations to get it right, but we eventually landed on a template that fit her well.

    Yes, these masks are basic. A piece of paper with punched holes for the eyes, nose, and mouth, using a headband of folded paper. All held together with staples and tape.

    It would have been a lot faster to buy something more sophisticated, but once you make something yourself, it’s truly yours.

    The boy saw his sister’s mask and wanted his own. Turns out their faces are close enough in size, so I used her mask as a template (sans ears) and we shortly had the Monkey King running around the house.

    The kids loved their masks. They spent all week running around as their alter egos.

    This early victory led to further successes. We moved on to paper gloves and then paper shoes (I learned why moccasins have developed their distinctive shape).

    None of the final results are spectacular. The costumes wouldn’t get any likes on social media, but we made something real, together. We weren’t just consumers; we were makers.

    The world will constantly sell you on the satisfaction of owning excellence, the German sports car and the Swiss watch. But I’m starting to wonder if there is deeper satisfaction found in making something yourself, even if it’s mediocre.