A Coffee-House Discourse

If you’re looking for a good coffee shop with a great environment and all the amenities for a wireless professional - Sydney’s is the place.  Being the cheap-skate that I am, I loathe the notion of paying for parking so when I find a cool and hip spot with plenty of FREE parking, then my choice is made up.  There are some other great shops not far from here (Urban Grind, Sips & Kranz to name two)…but those require an act called “feeding the meter”.  Ew.

Sydney’s is located down under the 405 bridge just outside of the Pearl District here in Portland, Oregon.  It has that old brick warehouse feel with tall ceilings, hardwood floors and tall sliding doors that they open on warm summer days.  (for the curious ones - the address is 1800 NW 16th Ave, Portland OR)

It’s a perfect location to escape the distractions of the home office.  Maybe I’m strange but I’ve always been considerably more productive in places like these.  At home, it’s too quiet and there are too many things that often pull my attention from where it should be.  Here I can zone right into work while I sip on my dark cup of java.

As a side-note, while it may seem weird to be writing a blog FROM a place I refer to as an “escape from distraction”, the truth is that I’m designing some large-format posters and there is an especially large vector file that is rending in the background.  I thought I should take advantage of the few free moments and write this.

I’ve had a chance to think more about my last entry and I’ve wavered back and forth whether or not I should remove it.  When I think about the words I wrote - I read something that may be more ideal for a personal journal and not a public blog.  Maybe I’ll leave it there - maybe I won’t.

Looking back at another past entry, it was great to be asked about the theme/message of “information detox”.  I was a bit taken aback when my good friend Mike mentioned it (at this point, it still amazes me that anyone actually reads this).  It’s an interesting phenomenon although I’m not certain just how universal the issue really is.  I can speak for myself and say that it’s been uniquely refreshing.  It is possible to KNOW TOO MUCH.  What does all the knowledge give you besides more things to occupy your mind-time and sometimes we get overloaded with the wrong kind of information - information we can do nothing with.

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