Bowie Restaurant Project: (33) Mi Hacienda

Mi Hacienda is now closed.

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

Mi Hacienda, 6133 Highbridge Road

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 11/27/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 3
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Mi Hacienda is a Mexican Restaurant in the Shoppes at Highbridge -- in other words, it's in West Bowie off of Route 450. It's the best Mexican food we've found in Bowie, and it's gone over fantastic with the kids. They enjoy the tamales or just eating rice and beans, and they always leave stuffed. (Toddlers can be picky eaters, so it's nice to feed them somewhat "unusual" and see them respond with enthusiasm.) The meals that Christina and I got were also very good.

Much of what I said about Monterrey applies here, only a bit more so. It's authentic, non-chain Mexican food. It's a bit tastier than Monterrey, although maybe not enough that I'd travel twice the distance from work when I have to get back for an afternoon meeting. The decor, especially around the bar, is very nice, and a step up from Monterrey.

I think this is probably our new go-to Mexican place in Bowie, and it will probably get added to the stable of places I offer to take interview candidates.

Isotropic: Down to Level 13

Since Michigan had a nice lead against Ohio State, I thought I'd get in some Dominion games on Isotropic while I watched. The lead is now gone, and my enthusiasm for Isotropic has somewhat dimmed.

The guy who runs the site changed the leaderboard so that only the past 30 days of games count. That means my rating is based on only 18 games, and my level has dropped to 13. Because I don't have time enough to play that many games in a 30-day period, and because my rating will fluctuate based on what drops out of the 30-day window, this will be my last update on my Isotropic level unless the administrator heeds popular request and reverts the change.

That's probably just as well, since none of my isotropic updates have gotten more than 5 page views -- this blog doesn't have a huge readership in general, but my average is much better than that.

Anyway, to make this more general, I think there are advantages to having a site like this run by an interested amateur rather than a company. The complicated skill system is probably not something you'd see a big company doing, and there has been an emphasis on getting the gameplay right over flashiness. But a downside is that he can make unilateral changes like this without having to worry about losing business to negative feedback.

Well, I won my game of Dominion, and, oh, look, we just got our lead back.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (32) Villa Pizza

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

Villa Pizza, 3864 Town Center Boulevard

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 11/25/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 2
Pre-Foursquare Visits: I don't think so
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5 stars

Apparently the Villa Pizza chain is the descendant of a restaurant next to the old Ed Sullivan theater. Also, it looks like Sbarro has a similar Manhattan pedigree. That said, I'm glad Bowie ended up with the former for our mall pizza option, because this place is head and shoulders above Sbarro. By that, I mean, the pizza is edible.

The standard meal is a slice of New York-style pizza, a side (e.g., ziti or a salad) and a drink. All are reasonably tasty, and I'm going to give it 2 1/2 stars on that basis.

Still, I can't recommend eating there unless you're already determined to eat at the food court. Why? Well, if you're going to get a slice of pizza or some pasta in a quick-service environment, you're maybe 1000 feet away from Three Brothers, which is a superior option. If you have the time to sit down, you're even closer to Uno Chicago Grill. T.J. Elliott's and Cetrone's Pizza are both better options for pizza or pasta, though neither are by-the-slice or in the mall. Of all the pizza-serving Bowie restaurants, I think the Pizza Huts are the only ones I might recommend behind Villa Pizza. Which is to say, it's not bad, but you can do better.

19th Level on Isotropic

Just a quick note to mark my ascension to 19th level on the Isotropic Dominion server. I lost a game, dipped a level, regained it, then played 6 games against Ben next weekend. I guess the algorithm figures if you win 5 out of 6 against a newcomer, that's worth something. My estimated ranking is still climbing, to 37.129, but most of the benefit came from the plus/minus dropping to 17.445. It looks like I'm in striking distance of 20th level with one or two more wins, but a loss is always possible to send me back down...

Bowie Restaurant Project: (31) Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin Robbins

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin Robbins, 6101 Highbridge Road

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 11/17/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5 stars

It's a Dunkin' Donuts. And a Baskin Robbins. But for our purposes, mostly a Dunkin' Donuts. Is it a restaurant? Sure. It features a counter and a few tables, and you can get such things as tuna salad sandwiches as your meal. I'd even argue that donuts (or certainly bagels) count as meals for breakfast, so it's definitely a restaurant.

It's the only Dunkin' Donuts in Bowie -- there was one next to California Tortilla, but it has since closed. Sadly, it's the only restaurant you can really get a bagel at in Bowie. Although that gives it some points, that's a sad commentary on Bowie.

I got the aforementioned tuna salad sandwich, because Christina had found a coupon. It was good, and surprisingly filling, although I don't expect to end up here for lunch much in the future.

In the end, 2 1/2 stars, as the sole representative of a decent cut-above-fast-food chain. It would get an extra half-star for being the only place to get bagels in Bowie, but it would then also lose that half-star for the ranting Cowboys fan who used the term "Deadskins" approximately 20 times in the five minutes I was in there. He seemed like he hangs out there a lot.

I also submitted this restaurant as a waymark in the "Dunkin Donuts" category.

Foursquare takes it to another level

In January 2010, and January of this year, I wrote about foursquare, and how I was enjoying its "gamification" of my everyday travels. I was going to save another reflection on the topic until January 2012, but this week foursquare introduced a new game feature that I'd like to take time to consider -- badge levels.

In January, I said that the badges -- icons given as rewards for certain types of checkins -- were probably my favorite part. Unfortunately, after you play for a while, you collect most of the badges that you're going to see, and that part of the game stagnates. Occasionally, it provides for some fun -- when I was in London in September, I was desperately trying to connect to the ferry's wi-fi network to unlock the "I'm On a Boat" badge. But most of the badges fell into the categories of easy or too hard.

Foursquare has revamped that by introducing the concept of levels for what they are calling their 24 "expertise" badges. Now not only do you unlock the "Ski Bum" badge for going skiing a few times, but you have the potential to get up to 10th Level Ski Bum by hitting (I think) 45 different ski areas.

They combined this change with the introduction of a few new expertise badges and the standardization of rules for the old expertise badges. I think the way they are handling retroactive qualification is by recalculating levels for badges you already have, but waiting to award new badges until the next qualifying check-in.

For example, when they made the changes, I ended up as a 3rd Level Jetsetter, 1st Level Swimmies, 2nd Level Bookworm, and 1st Level Baker's Dozen. (OK, I'm going to have to work on terminology here.)

Today, however, when I checked in at California Tortilla, I was immediately promoted to 5th Level Hot Tamale -- as a result of checking in at 20 different "Mexican spots". I went back and looked, and I could only find 19. Seven of them are fast-food type places, so that seems a little funny, but I guess it counts. For the record, 11 are in Maryland, 7 in California and 1 in Delaware.

I guess this points to how the game portion of foursquare works better than the recommendation aspect. Supposedly the concept of levels was developed partially to signal whose tips you should take more seriously. But for all I know, the 10th Level Hot Tamale has been to 45 different Taco Bells, in which case I really don't want to take his advice.

The concept of badge levels is not original -- I've seen in on Untappd (aka foursquare for beer), but I think it'll promote more foursquare use, more exploration ("ooh, if I check into a new pizza place, I can level up") and most importantly, more fun.

Project Bike to Work: New House

Project Bike to Work: New House at EveryTrail
EveryTrail

For the first time since we moved to Bowie this summer, I broke out the bike and took it to work. It's now too late in the year to do this on a regular work day -- I don't have enough daylight to stay at work late enough. But yesterday was Veterans Day, and I had some hours to make up, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

It actually worked pretty well. The GPS receiver cut out a couple of times on the ride in, but it looked like it took 21 minutes to get there, and 25 to come back. Not bad, since 25 minutes was my old commute by car. It feels like it was more uphill on the way back, but the elevation data I got is a little bit all over the place, so it's hard to tell.

It adds less than half an hour to my round-trip commute, which means, weather permitting, it'll be worth doing on a regular basis. One thing I find funny is that the last 90% of today's trip is the last 20% of my ride from University Park from last year's Bike to Work Day. I hadn't realized that until I looked at the old map.

I also like the route because it's a reasonable one to take by car. It's nice to be on 30-mile-an-hour or less streets for all but a little part near the end, and it saves on gas to take a direct, but lower-speed route. There's an alternate bike-only route I hope to try some time that involves a trail for a few minutes, though -- that could be nice.

It was a bit cold and windy on the ride -- I don't appreciate the burning sensation the cold air produces in my throat. But it was good to do this, and I hope to start exploring more of the area by bike.

Up to 17th Level on Isotropic

Last week, I blogged about playing Dominion on Isotropic and getting to 16th level. Since then, I have only had one chance to play again. Yesterday morning, I got up, and everyone else was asleep. Further, Jack and Christina were asleep in the family room, which limited what I could do in terms of the noise I could make. So I started up a game of Dominion.

The game featured two cards I know pretty well: Treasure Map and Lookout. Treasure Map gives you four golds if you get two copies in your hand at the same time, and Lookout, among other things, allows you to trash unwanted cards -- the only one in this particular set that let you do that. Those two cards are in the second expansion (the sixth has just been released), so I suspect my opponents were looking for more novel plays. I got the Treasure Maps on turn 9; my opponent who went for them didn't hit the jackpot until turn 14 (clearing out the junk really helps you get the Treasure Maps together). My opponent didn't buy a Lookout until much later; by the time he played it once, I already had played mine 3 times.

There were other factors -- I made good use of Jester, one of the newer cards -- but in the end, it wasn't close. I finished with 41 points, the guy who was late to the party on both Treasure Maps and Lookouts got 22, and the other guy, who tried a different strategy, hit 17.

As a result, I climbed up to 17th level. My plus/minus actually increased by 0.01 to 18.909, but my estimated ranking went up from 35.195 to 36.217.

I figure if I only post when I gain a level (or, let's say, drop five), I'll keep this blog from being overwhelmed with Dominion posts. (And keep it being overwhelmed with restaurant reviews.)

Bowie Restaurant Project: (30) Three Brothers

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

Three Brothers, 15485 Excelsior Dr

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 11/10/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: I think, once.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I ended up rating this place higher than I expected. Three Brothers is a Maryland-only chain, so, like California Tortilla, it ends up getting rated higher than a national chain. Further, it's one of the only places in Bowie that sells pizza by the slice. (Villa Pizza in the food court is the other that comes to mind.) I think every town needs pizza by the slice, so even though Three Brothers isn't my favorite, it gets points for that.


For my review, I called ahead and ordered a slice of mushroom pizza and a chicken parmesan. Probably too much food, but I wanted to try both the pizza and another menu item. The pizza was OK -- like most pizza by the slice, the mushrooms looked dumped on as an afterthought. The chicken was pretty good, and it came with a side salad. If you want great Italian food, go to T.J. Elliott's  instead, but this place isn't bad.


What cemented the third star, however, was the drink selection. Since I was doing takeout, I had intended to bring my own drink from home. I've long been in search of a decent artificial sweetener. The latest thing I'm trying is stevia. Splenda and other artificial sweeteners are now believed not to contribute to weight loss, but stevia has promise because -- I don't know, something about blood glucose levels or something. Anyway, the problem is that people who are interested in stuff like that often look for caffeine-free beverages, but I personally need some caffeine. Fortunately, there's Vitaminwater Zero Drive, which is sweetened with Stevia but still has plenty of caffeine.


I forgot my Vitaminwater Zero and was resigned to having a Coke or something, but lo and behold, Three Brothers stocks VW0 Drive. Good for them. It's a solid place, in my mind, to get a takeout Italian lunch (or eat there, if you don't have a place to be). If I have more time, I'm going to T.J. Elliot's, but this isn't bad.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (29) Dairy Queen/Orange Julius

DQ/OJ is now closed.

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

The outdoor entrance

Dairy Queen/Orange Julius, 3878 Town Center Blvd

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 11/3/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 2
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Yep, just hot dogs

It's not exactly a Dairy Queen. On my first visit, I came back to work with a "Dairy Queen" bag, which caused a co-worker to talk about how great their hamburgers are. Not an option here -- the only "Hot Eats" available are hot dogs.

When I defined minimum standards for what constitutes a restaurant, I should have anticipated that some establishments would just barely clear the bar (I'm looking at you, Starbucks). If you want to, you can meet someone at DQ/OJ for lunch, order up some hot dogs and a Blizzard and sit at the food court and eat it. The hot dogs, while above 7-11 standard, are nothing to look forward to, though. You'd be better off with the ones at Five Guys across the street.

The "Cool Treats", while not strictly necessary to be a restaurant, are a nice touch. I was considering let this place drift up to 1 1/2 stars because you can get such interesting beverages with your meal. But I recently decided to require two visits to non-chain restaurants, as well as those chains I'm not particularly familiar with. The quantity of dread I felt after my first visit, knowing that I'd have to return for a second, tells me to leave this one at 1 star. But, hey, at least I am the Foursquare mayor here.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (26) Subway (Bowie Plaza) & (27) Subway (Wal-Mart) & (28) Subway (Bowie Town Center)

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

I'm taking Martin's suggestion of lumping several venues together when they are part of the same chain. But I can't bear to work my way through all of the Subways without giving myself the satisfaction of checking some reviews off my list.

I was going to tie together the Wal-Mart Subway and the Food Court Subway into one "Subways inside Other Buildings That Are Not Gas Stations" post, but then I discovered I had never gotten around to reviewing the one in Bowie Plaza. So, here are three reviews in one post.

Subway (Bowie Plaza)

Subway, 6928 Laurel-Bowie Road

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 10/18/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 3
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5 stars

It's a Subway. Parking is easy, it's busier than other Subways I've seen (except the one in Wal-Mart), and the inside seems roomier than other restaurants in the chain. But other than that it's standard-issue. If you're going to go to a Subway in Bowie, it might as well be this one. Since it's the closest one to my house (by a minute) and it has decent parking, I'll probably go there a fair amount.


Subway, 3300 Crain Highway

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 10/31/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1

Subway (Wal-Mart)

Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

It's a Subway. Inside of a Wal-Mart. As a Subway, it's fairly standard-issue. But it's inside a Wal-Mart. That means, if you're there to grab a sandwich, you have to deal with the hellscape that is the Bowie Wal-Mart parking lot. I mean, I'm glad that, unlike the Bowie Target, they're actually using most of their asphalt, but it seems to me that they didn't need to funnel all of the cars entering and exiting the parking lot past the pedestrian zone in front of the store entrance.

Then, once you've finally parked and walked into the store (dodging all of the cars trying to park), you walk a little bit through Wal-Mart to find that the store entrance is half-blocked by people in the Wal-Mart customer service line. The restaurant is busy, and it is hard to understand the accents of the Subway employees.

I am docking this place half a star for being inside Wal-Mart. If you're not at Wal-Mart, you're better off going to one of Bowie's other 6 Subways (well, I've only been to the 4 that aren't in gas stations, so let's restrict ourselves to those). If you are in Wal-Mart, go to one of the other ones, because then you will have the added bonus of having left Wal-Mart. Heck, you could even walk over to the New China restaurant in the same shopping center, if you really don't feel like getting into your car.

I'm not going to drop below one star, however, because it was still a tasty sandwich.


Subway, 3868 Town Center Blvd.

Subway (Bowie Town Center)

Now Closed!
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 11/02/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: Yes
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5 stars

It's a Subway. In a food court. I know I was there pre-Foursquare because I remember arguing with the cashier who wanted to see my driver's license in order for me to use a credit card. (It's a violation of their credit card merchant agreement, but I've stopped arguing the point and found other hobbies.)

Parking is a lot more convenient than a lot of other restaurants in the mall, because much of the available parking tends to be behind the food court. Unlike Wal-Mart, I don't consider being at the mall to be inherently problematic, so I won't dock it half a star for that. In fact, being in the food court is convenient because you can go there with other people who get to choose a different food court eatery (and you can decide for yourself at the last minute to have bourbon chicken instead). The drink machine is behind the counter, which is a bummer if you'd prefer to serve yourself.

It's somewhat different than the other Bowie Subways, but not enough to escape the standard 1 1/2 star rating. If you want to go to Subway, and it's the closest one, there's no reason to avoid it.

---

Bowie Restaurant News

In a previous post, I mentioned the Ravza restaurant, which I noticed when driving by Collington Plaza, and I wondered why it wasn't on the city's list. Well, it's not there any more -- I don't know why the Collington Plaza management still had it on the sign along Crain Highway (for all I know, they still do.)

The Muffin Man Caribbean Cafe is supposed to be opening in 2010 according to the city's guide. The last I'd heard it was going to open in November (2011). Now we're back to January (2012).

World Heritage Update: Tentative Lists

One way for me to increase the number of World Heritage Sites I've visited is to, well, visit more World Heritage Sites. A less obvious way is for places I've already visited to be inscribed on the list. The Sydney Opera House was inscribed in 2007; Christina and I had visited it in 2002. I visited at least three other sites "before they were stars": Brugge, Edinburgh and Jeju.

Besides lobbying UNESCO (that just got trickier), what can I do to increase the odds that sites get inscribed after I visit them? As it turns out, UNESCO now requires any sites to be on a "tentative list" before being nominated. So I can try to visit sites on the tentative lists and then hope they get moved to the real list. This method is not foolproof -- sites may get withdrawn from the tentative lists, and new sites that I haven't visited may replace them. Still, it is a good way at increasing the odds.

With that in mind, what sites have I already visited that are on the tentative lists?

• The Alamo
• Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings
• The Great Western Railway
• Innsbruck
• Shakespeare's Stratford
• Spanish Wine Regions

I thought there might be more, but this isn't a bad list. It looks like the Alamo and Frank Lloyd Wright are near the top of the U.S. list, which would have been awesome if the U.S. hadn't just stopped contributing to UNESCO's budget. Well, I'll keep my eyes out for more opportunities during my travels.

Isotropic

When I first played the card game Dominion, I was "less than overwhelmed". Eventually the game grew on me to the point where a year later, I was playing in a tournament. Other than a weekly lunchtime game, I don't get much chance to play face-to-face. That's why I've been enjoying playing on-line at the Isotropic server.

There's been a long-promised official on-line version, but in the meantime, Isotropic fills the void nicely. It supports all of the released cards (often within hours of their release), and it is in fact used by the game designer and developers to playtest new expansions. There's a nice "auto-match" feature where you can tell it how many players you want to play with, and which expansions you prefer, and it sets up a game with other players.

This being a site by and for gamers, there's a "meta-game" of ranking; it uses an algorithm to determine how good you are based on how well you play against players of various rankings. What I find interesting is that it gives you both an estimated rating and a "plus/minus" error range. Then it awards you a "level" on the basis of the lowest part of that range.

So you start out with an estimated rating of 25 (the average), but an uncertainty of 25. Thus, your starting level is 0. As you play, the uncertainty is reduced -- but as a new player, you may find that your play is somewhat below average. Hopefully, your level moves up over time.

On Sunday, my estimated rating was 33.495 with a plus/minus of 19.492, netting me a level of 14. That's down from Saturday's level of 15. The drop is probably a result of a game Saturday night which was almost finished when I bumped my laptop battery on the side of a chair, turning the computer off and disconnecting a turn or two before the end of a game where I think I was doing pretty well. That's OK, though -- I'm sure I've benefited from others' inadvertent disconnections, too.

Yesterday, during the sad, sad Redskins game, I played three 3-player games. I won the first two, and came in second in the third one. Coming in second shouldn't have hurt me too much -- the opposition was ranked fairly high, and the ranking system counts it as a win over the player who came in third, and a loss to the first-place guy.

Looking at the leaderboard now, I see I moved up to 16th level. Encouragingly, that was more due to my rating creeping up to 35.195, and less due to my plus/minus dropping to 18.899. My total of 27 games is very small. I'm ranked #1609 overall. #1608 has played 577 games, and #1610 has played 1220. So I'm hoping if I can find more time to play, I can move my level into the twenties.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (25) Monterey Mexican Restaurant

Monterey is Now Closed.

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

Monterey Mexican Restaurant, 4449 Mitchellville Road

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 10/24/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 3
Pre-Foursquare Visits: A couple
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Earlier this week, some colleagues were visiting my workplace. As the decision as to where to have lunch came around, some of them bemoaned the lack of choices Bowie offered and talked about going to Chipotle. Since I needed to go there to do a review, I was OK with that, but I raised an objection anyway. If you want Mexican food, and you have the time, why not go to an actual Mexican restaurant?

Because that's what you get from Monterey. You get actual, tasty Mexican food served in an actual restaurant. The food is good, but not spectacular -- if I were craving excellent Mexican food, I'd take the half-hour drive to Sierra's in Beltsville or to the "Little Mexico" section of Riverdale. The service is good, if a bit uneven -- the last time I was there with Christina & the boys, they got confused on the order, and the bill needed correcting. But it is family-friendly, and the prices are reasonable.

Every city needs a non-chain, sit-down Mexican restaurant. You're not going to wow friends or relatives from Arizona or California by bringing them here, but this place is one of two solid options you have in Bowie. It's also a reminder -- Bowie has a lot of Chipotle-level options, but if you let your mind get stuck there, you'll miss out on a few higher-caliber meals.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (24) Panera Bread

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

Panera Bread, 3921 Town Center Boulevard
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 10/18/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: Apparently, since I have a menu in my office
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5 stars

It's a Panera Bread. It's probably a better place to get coffee and a sandwich than Starbucks (I'm currently slogging my way through Bowie's Starbuckses -- review to come later). I don't drink coffee, so I maybe that would be better at Starbucks. But the sandwiches are pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. If I wanted a sandwich, though, I'd probably just go to Subway or, even better, a non-chain restaurant.

What distinguishes this Panera from other representatives of the chain? Like Noodles & Company, it's located on the "Main Street" portion of the Bowie Town Center mall, with the associated annoying parking, but other than that -- not much. It's a generic chain that's a step up from fast food. Since it's the only Panera in Bowie, that earns it 2 and a half stars.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (23) Main Street's Brasserie

Main Street Is Now Closed. 

 For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

Main Street's Brasserie, 14207 Old Annapolis Road
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 10/8/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 2
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

I'm going with "Main Street's Brasserie" as the name for this place, because that's what's on the sign, although their web site refers to it as the "Main Street Brasserie." (The city restaurant guide, which often gets names wrong, refers to it as "Mainstreet Catering.") This lack of attention to detail does not bode well.

The first time Christina and I went there was after seeing a house in the neighborhood. We got sandwiches and soup from the counter and then attempted to feed the kids. Since Main Street doesn't have high chairs, that was a challenge. So much so that I ended up taking my sandwich back to work and eating it there. As I recall, it was a fairly good sandwich.

The second time we ate their food was a result of a question I asked on Bowie Patch, namely, "Which restaurant serves the best burger in Bowie?" We were pretty spoiled living near Hyattsville with Franklin's Restaurant and Hank's Tavern, both of which served great burgers. I have yet to find their equal in Bowie, but someone suggested Main Street. So I placed a takeout order. I knew I had not found the best burger in Bowie when my attempt to order a burger medium-rare was met with, "they cook them all the same way." I'm sorry, but if you won't cook a burger medium-rare, you're not the best burger in town. In the end, the burgers were fairly greasy and neither of us could finish ours.

So it's a mixed bag. The sandwiches were good, but nothing I'd want to make a special trip to West Bowie to enjoy. I might go there if I were already in that part of town (why?), but I'm much more likely to end up at the Chesapeake Grille or the Uptown Cafe. This reticence is compounded by the fact that Main Street is only open Tuesday-Saturday, and only for lunch. The food isn't good enough to cause me to want to keep track of that schedule.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (21) McDonald's (Bowie Gateway) and (22) McDonald's (Bowie Office Park)

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

For this post, I am adopting Martin's suggestion of grouping all of the establishments in a particular chain together.

Five or more years ago, Christina and I decided to stop eating at McDonald's. Because the food is awful, mainly. Before this project, I think I had broken that rule four or five times -- when I was desperate for a bathroom, a Coke, or in one misguided instance, some fries.


McDonald's, 4306 North Crain Highway

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 10/5/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: Yes
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

To have more of a full experience, I decided to go in rather than use the drive-thru. Remarkably, despite the long line of cars idling outside, nobody was waiting at the counter. My order required four pieces of information -- the number, whether or not it was a "meal" (I guess that's the latest version of "would you like fries with that?"), the size, and given that the meal was McNuggets, what sort of sauce I wanted. The order was taken by a McDonald's employee, who was assisted by a manager. Despite the fact that they had two people working on the order, every piece of information was repeated back to me incorrectly at some point.

Open 24/7: A good thing?

The food was more or less as I remember it. I might buy some of the Hot Mustard sauce if I could eat it with something other than McDonald's food. The McNuggets tasted faintly of chicken. The fries were good until they got the slightest bit cold.

I noticed that both the lobby and drive-thru are open 24 hours. I almost gave a half-star bonus for this fact, but honestly, you'd be better off if it were closed more often.

McDonald's, 14300 Gallant Fox Lane
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 10/7/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: In the 1980s
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

McDonald's, Gallant Fox Lane

I have memories of stopping here about 25 years ago on the way to The Magic Page, a nearby comic book shop which has long since disappeared. It makes me sad that The Magic Page is gone, but that this McDonald's remains as one of the oldest restaurants in Bowie.

For my modern-day visit, I adopted another one of Martin's ideas. At one point, he was boycotting McDonald's -- except during breakfast. I had fond memories of, in days with less responsibility, groggily stumbling out of the house and stopping by for a Bacon, Egg & Cheese biscuit on my way to work.

So after a rough night with the kids, I decided to treat myself to Second Breakfast at this McDonald's. As with the other one, I decided to go inside for the full experience. Here, however, there was a really long line, and I decided I didn't want the full experience. Now being overcrowded at 10 am (not peak meal time) either means the service is slow, or the demand is really high. I guess the latter should give it some sort of thumbs up, but I couldn't help wishing the people would find someplace better to go.

The drive-thru wasn't super-slow, but it was somewhat puzzling. You pull up to a screen and speaker, next to which is a menu, which did not show the breakfast options. The apparatus says, "Confirm Your Order Here." But you don't actually order there; there's another apparatus you pull up to later which says "Order Here".

Other than that, the ordering experience was fine. The Bacon, Egg & Cheese biscuit was really disappointing, though. I think at this stage in life, I've realized that when you have bacon, eggs, cheese and a biscuit, you've got potential for something really great to happen, which made this meal all the sadder.

This McDonald's also open 24 hours, which means that neither is fulfilling a unique service for 3 am eats. IHOP is also open 24 hours. Though I haven't reviewed it yet, I have to believe you'd be better off there.

So if you win, you can quit your job at McDonald's?

I visited both McDonald's in the middle of their Monopoly promotion. (Tip: the "rare" pieces are always the last ones alphabetically, except for Broadway.) Thankfully, I didn't instant-win anything, so I don't feel compelled to go back to redeem it. But I noticed next to the $1 million prize they were advertising were the words, "No More Second Job." So if you get Boardwalk ("the approximate odds of collecting Boardwalk are 1 in 618,106,200"), you can look forward to...only working one job? Yay, America?

Bowie Restaurant Project: (20) T. J. Elliott's

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

T.J. Elliott's, 6814 Laurel-Bowie Road
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 9/30/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 2
Pre-Foursquare Visits: Maybe once in the 1990s
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I think I finally have the history straight. The Marcos family and another family opened Ledo Restaurant near College Park in the 1950s. Eventually the families parted ways, with the other family holding franchise rights to Ledo Pizza and the Marcos family running the original restaurant and, later, T.J. Elliott's in Bowie. That's why T.J. Elliott's features "Ledo pizza", but is not listed as a Ledo franchisee. There is actually an entertaining court opinion here which details a series of disputes between the two families.

All that's to say, if you like Ledo pizza, you might want to give T.J. Elliott's a look, but Christina's not a big fan, so we take our local pizza business elsewhere (the subject of a later review). I'm OK with that, because the Italian meals we've had at T.J. Elliott's have been some of the best food we've had in Bowie.

Our first visit there was after inspection on our house, where we still had the babysitter booked for a few hours. It was a nice place for a fairly casual dinner, and the clientèle seemed to be a diverse cross-section of Bowie. I tried to organize a dinner there later, but ended up at Uno Chicago Grill after finding out T.J. Elliott's only has two (or possibly three) high chairs. I organized a later dinner with eight adults and two children, and all the adults expressed satisfaction with the quality of food. My lasagna in particular was quite tasty.

The service was a little weak. ("Can I get you a refill on your drink?" 15 minutes later: "Oh, did you want a refill?") Christina attributes this to the inevitable turnover in waitstaff as the school year starts. I'm a little bit wary of adding it to my "places to take an interviewee" list for that reason -- but the food is so good, I think I will. I can now say, "What do you feel like, Chinese food, American food from a place that looks like it hasn't changed in 30 years, or Italian food?"

The only other negative I'd add is the location in a strip mall doesn't really give much atmosphere. I mean, look at the above picture. The inside is nice enough, but not spectacular. Still, it's Bowie -- how much more atmosphere are you going to get?

So four stars -- excellent food at a locally-owned business at a reasonable price. This is one of Bowie's best.

---

This doesn't really count as "Bowie restaurant news", since it's just an observation, but Christina and I stopped by the Crab Galley for dinner the other night to discover that it only does takeout. We're definitely going to try it some time, but -- not a restaurant. So that drops the count from 78 to 77.

Waymarking Statistics

In a previous post, I mentioned that while I had been enjoying waymarking more, geocaching had better statistics. That's still true, but that doesn't mean there are no statistics for waymarking.

BruceS, one of the more prolific waymarkers, has released a list of "Top 10 Contributors by Country". With 132 in the United States, I'm far away from the 2623 needed to make the list. I am, however, #3...in Estonia. Only two waymarkers exceeded the two waymarks I posted there.

There's a similar list for states, provinces and regions from last year. I was #4 on the Maryland list last year, but my totals have only gone from 92 to 100 since then, so I dropped to #5. (On the other hand, I am #8 in South Australia!)

My general waymark-posting pace is way down.  Here are the by-year statistics:

• 2007     1
• 2008     107    
• 2009     48     
• 2010     8     
• 2011     9 

My visiting numbers are down as well.

• 2007     17    
• 2008     266    
• 2009     217     
• 2010     87     
• 2011     27

I think that's because when I'm in Maryland, I'm more likely to feel like I can't spare the few minutes to stop and snap a picture of a potential waymark. When I'm traveling, I usually load the waymarks into my GPS receiver, but often find other things to be higher priorities during the trip.

In the new list of categories, the only category for which I'm "Top 10" (besides those so unpopular that one or two waymarks qualifies) is Maryland Historical Markers. That's a pretty cool category, and I know of two unwaymarked in Bowie that I should be able to get before anyone else.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (19) Hibachi Japan

Hibachi Japan Is Now Closed.
For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

Hibachi Japan, 3856 Town Center Boulevard
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 10/4/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins:1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: Yes
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Every food court in America worth its salt has a bourbon chicken place. What I find weird is that it might be disguised as a Cajun food place or a Chinese food place, but it's basically a place where you can get bourbon chicken, rice and corn in a styrofoam container.  In Bowie, that place is a "Japanese" restaurant.

Now, on the menu, it's listed at "bon bon chicken", but the guy giving out samples of chicken on toothpicks (see picture, lower right) called it "bourbon chicken". That's another feature of these places -- they always offer you a sample on a toothpick. I always try both the bourbon chicken and the non-bourbon chicken (in this case, honey chicken), and then order the bourbon chicken.

The bourbon chicken here is pretty much exactly like the bourbon chicken at every other mall -- which is as it should be. I'm not going to give too high of a rating to a stand in a food court, but given that it plays an essential role in the food ecology of Bowie, I'll give it 3 stars.

Note that you can get other food like egg rolls (at a Japanese restaurant?) You can also get sushi. I'm not sure I would get sushi at a food court. (I take that back -- I have, but it's probably not a good idea.) When I last visited, they had menus sitting out for the East Moon Asian Bistro. So while I don't think there's an actual sushi chef hanging out at the mall hawking bourbon chicken, it's possible there's one at East Moon who's shipping fresh stuff over. But there are other sushi options in Bowie, so I'm not desperate to press my luck.

Bowie Restaurant Project: How to Review a Restaurant

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

At 18 out of 78(ish) restaurants reviewed, I'm about a quarter of the way through this project. The process has been somewhat ad hoc -- for example, where I decided what constitutes a restaurant.

One thing I've been thinking about is how many visits to give a restaurant before writing a review. One visit might not be enough -- I could catch a place on a rare bad day, or I could miss the fact that an establishment is terrible half of the time. On the other hand, this is not exactly a profit-making project, and I don't have the time to eat at every Subway twice in order to establish that it's exactly like every other Subway.

So here are the criteria I've established.

• If it's part of a chain, and I've already visited other restaurants in the chain, one visit will suffice.
• If not, two visits should suffice.
• If the restaurant has table service, at least one of the visits should be dine-in; otherwise, I'll just look around at the seating options and feel free to take my food home.

Reviews for two places I've visited are currently on hold due to the dine-in requirement. Three are awaiting my second visit. Three technically meet all requirements, but I am having trouble forming an opinion and may require a re-visit. One I'm all set on, and a review should be appearing later in the week.

That leaves...about 50 restaurants to go. Ouch. Some are going to be tricky due to the dine-in requirement -- it's not easy dragging toddlers to new restaurants (though it's fun when they love it, as happened at one place this weekend). Some are going to be a pain because they have a dine-in requirement and are so uninspiring that I'm going to have trouble convincing someone to join me for the dine-in, with or without toddlers. (On a related note, see this article "What Does Your Choice of Casual Dining Chain Say About You?" Of the six chains they make fun of, Bowie lacks only a Red Lobster.)

On the other hand, half of what's left can probably be knocked out with a simple willingness to branch out during my lunchtime forays. This conflicts with my desire to pack a lunch more often, as well as the tempting convenience offered by the Uptown Cafe, whose arrival I noted last month. Still, if I end up at one or two a week, the project should move along to its planned 2012 conclusion.

Bowie Restaurant Project: Beyond Bowie: (BB1) Rip's Country Inn

Update: It has since been pointed out to me that Rip's is not actually in Bowie. (Even the City Restaurant Guide is confused on this fact.) I'm renumbering this as my first "Beyond Bowie" review.

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

Rip's Country Inn, 3809 N Crain Highway

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 9/25/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 3
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I am trying to think of how many restaurants in Bowie have been open more than 20 years. Grace's Fortune barely makes the cut. Golden Pavilion has been open since the 1960s, though it recently moved a few doors down and changed its menu. The McDonalds on 197 has been there since at least the 1980s. There may be handful of others, but I'm pretty sure Rip's has them all beat, given that it opened in 1952.

In fact, I think I'd use its age to describe it to someone. In my review of Grace's Fortune, I said it was the only place I could think of to take an interviewee. I think I'll now add Rip's, but ask the person, "Are you interested in a place that looks like it hasn't changed in 30 years?"

Rip's seems like the type of place my grandmother would have liked to eat at; in fact, I'd be surprised if she didn't find herself there at some point the in 1970s or 1980s after a golf or bowling outing in Crofton. It features good, but not fantastic American food. I particularly recommend their burger served "Chesapeake style" -- with crab on top. I don't understand why the dish hasn't caught on in more places around Maryland. When we lived near Hyattsville (yes, there!) I got spoiled by having a couple of places that did really good burgers. I haven't found a replacement in Bowie yet, but Rip's is the one place I've tried so far that I can honestly look forward to ordering a burger.

The service has always been remarkably friendly, and everyone has always been remarkably tolerant of the boys and the ruckus they can cause at a restaurant. Something about the clientèle means that they've been cooed over more than sighed at.

Rip's also features a deli (which I haven't tried), a liquor store (which has a really good selection) and a motel (about which I know nothing). When it was built in 1952, there was no I-95, and US-301 (Crain Highway) was a major north-south artery. Rip's is a throwback to that era, but you don't need nostalgia to want to go there, just a desire for tasty, family-friendly fare.

Nebula Update: All Clear

All Clear by Connie Willis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


All Clear is the second half of the novel Connie Willis began in Blackout. Despite being a fan of much of Willis' other work, I only stuck with this one because it won the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and I've made a project of reading all of them. As I stated in my review of Blackout, it was very disappointing.

All Clear was somewhat better. With Blackout behind it, the conflict is set up, so the reader is much more engaged with the plot. (I'll describe the conflict in a relatively spoiler-free manner as, "Something is wrong with time travel.") Still, the plot feels like high-quality fabric stretched too far...like double-bed sheets on a king-size bed. Willis is not interested in a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo about how time travel works. That's fine, but under those circumstances, there's only so much interest I have in reading the characters speculate about how things work. The bottom line is that it works however Willis wants it to work, so let's get on with seeing what that is.

I give this book 3 stars versus Blackout's 2 stars because it really comes together in the second half. I know you can't just cut out the first 3/4 of the Blackout/All Clear story and get something coherent, but I wish an editor had made her figure out a way to do it. It's touching, well-written and interesting -- everything I've come to expect from her other time-travel books. But I arrived there with a bad taste in my mouth of slogging through hundreds of pages of backstory. A shame.

So now I've read all of the Nebula Best Novels from 1992-2010 (also 5 from the '80s, 6 from the '70s and 1 from the '60s). I've started Stations of the Tide, the 1991 winner. I probably won't continue in chronological order. I'm continuing on an e-book kick, but not all of the winners are available in that format. Also, the 1990 winner is Tehanu, the fourth Earthsea books, and I want to re-read the first 3 of those, but I'd rather check them out of the library and save a little money. We'll see when I get to that; I will probably pick an earlier winner instead.



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Car-Free Day

Car-Free Day, London, 2000.

When I was in London on September 22, 2000, I came across road closures for something called "European Car-Free Day." As I was walking, the road closures didn't bother me, but I found the concept amusing enough to cause me to snap a picture.

Fast-forward to 2011, and I was inspired enough by Car-Free Day to pledge to go car-free (or at least car-lite) on that day. Since I haven't gotten my bike together at the new house, and since rain was in the forecast, I decided to try taking the bus.

According to Google Maps, I could walk for 0.9 miles, take the bus for 6 minutes, then walk for 1.3 miles. So I consulted the bus schedule and headed out so that I would arrive at the stop 5-10 minutes before the bus was scheduled to be there.

Car-Free Day, Bowie, 2011.

Metro has a feature called NextBus that allows riders to punch in the stop number and find out when the next bus will be arriving. I figured that would be good to know, so when I got to the stop, I punched in the number on my phone, and found out that the bus would be more than 45 minutes before it got there! At that point, it would be about the same amount of time to walk, so I hiked the 3.9 miles to work. There is one segment between the residential part of Bowie and the office park that lacks sidewalks and is fairly unpleasant (a part I'd need to walk even when taking the bus), but other than that (and the mugginess), it was a nice enough walk. It took a total of an hour and a half.

On the return, I figured out how better to use NextBus. I consulted the site from my office computer and allowed a generous 40 minutes to leave the building and walk the 1.3 miles. So when I saw that a bus was 40 minutes away, I left my desk and headed out. Things went much more smoothly that way, although until the moment that the bus showed up, I was suspicious as to whether I would actually see it. There were probably around 15 people on the bus, so I was glad to see the route gets fairly heavy use. Only one other person got on the entire time I was on the bus -- I suspect almost everyone was coming from the New Carollton Metrorail station.

What did I get out of it? I learned how to use Nextbus better. I learned I'd much rather ride my bike, even if there was going to be some rain. I learned that the bus is available as a backup, even here miles outside the Beltway. I learned I can walk more than 6 miles in a day, but it's nice to be able to soak in a tub at the end of it. And I learned that going car-free isn't just some crazy European idea.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (17) Uno Chicago Grill

Uno Chicago Grill is now closed.

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

Uno Chicago Grill, 4001 Town Center Blvd

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 9/9/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: A couple
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

It's an Uno Chicago Grill. By which I mean Pizzeria Uno (the chain's former name). It's a Chicago-based deep-dish pizza restaurant from the 1940s which franchised heavily in the 1980s and 1990s, and then changed its name in an effort to sell people things other than pizza. I have somewhat of a soft spot for it because of the Ann Arbor location, which is located near campus, and which I visited fairly frequently twenty-some years ago.

The fact that it's a convenient location for college-age kids to have a not-too-fancy, not-too-casual night out probably says something, but I'm not sure what.

I had met Christina at this location before for lunch. The ten-minute guarantee on some of their lunches (including, I think, pizzas) is handy. Our most recent trip there, however, was in a much larger group. On short notice, I was putting together a Friday night dinner for nine adults and seven children (the oldest of whom is 3). I called a local, family-owned restaurant and had to convince the woman who answered the phone to be willing to take a Friday night reservation -- only to learn they only had two high chairs.

Definitely a family-friendly restaurant
(Disclaimer: the people pictured do not constitute a family)

Uno's was happy to take the reservation -- although, as it turns out, they only had five high chairs. I managed to talk them into borrowing two from a nearby restaurant. All in all, they did very well with the gathering. I have a bias to believe that a local establishment has a natural advantage over a national chain, but here the chain acquitted itself very well. The back-to-school discount we got since one of our party was a teacher was a definite plus.

The food was not as good as I remember it from college days. To preserve my memories, I'm going to decide it's due to a decline in the chain over the years, rather than the unrefined palate of college students. Nothing was bad, but nothing stood out as wonderful either.

Still, it's a solid destination. The kid-friendliness earns them a total of 3 stars.

---

Bowie Restaurant News

By the way, I've changed the link at the top of the post to point to a more straightforward list of links to all the reviews, rather than a reverse-chronological set of blog entries. If you prefer the latter, you can always click on the tag "bowierestaurantproject" at the bottom of any of the posts.

The former KFC location

I had previously reduced the count of Bowie restaurants to 79. Investigation has determined that the KFC in Bowie Plaza has closed, so the number is down to 78. The three unlisted restaurants (two new, one mysteriously omitted) will be added either when the new guide comes out, or when I run through all listed restaurants.


One of the 78 is the "Muffin Man Caribbean Cafe" in Hilltop Plaza, next to the Chesapeake Grille. The guide says it is "Opening 2010", but it has shown no signs of life. Now comes word that it's going to be opening in November (2011). I hope to review it soon afterwards.

World Heritage Update: Greenwich

I've been to more World Heritage Sites in the UK than any other country. That's a reflection of the fact that I've been the UK more than any other country except the US, and there are a lot of sites in a relatively compact area in the UK. There are 28 in the UK, of which 22 are on the island of Great Britain. Four of those are even located in Greater London, but until this month I had missed out on one, Maritime Greenwich.

View from "Octagon Room" in Observatory

With several hours between my arrival in Paddington Station and when I had to catch a train out of town, I decided to head in to see it.

Ye Olde Telescope

The Tube does not actually go to London, rather something called the "Docklands Light Railway" does. For a visitor, it's like the Tube, but with a different kind of train. Nevertheless, when I got to the transfer point at the Tower of London, I was overcome by a desire to approach Greenwich by boat, so I transferred to the Thames Clipper service instead. It cost me a bit of time, but it seemed appropriate.

Once I got to Greenwich, I had time for essentially only one attraction before things closed and I needed to head back to catch my train. I chose the Royal Observatory, and it turned out to be an excellent choice.

The Royal Observatory was founded in order to solve the problem of calculating longitude from a ship, and the Observatory now has an excellent exhibit with a very nice audio guide that tells the story. Despite the fact that the more obvious way to calculate longitude was to have accurate star charts (hence the founding of an observatory), the problem was also solved by John Harrison, a clockmaker who was able to build a more accurate chronometer than anyone had previously been able to carry on a ship. (Pendulums don't work too well at sea.) The story is fascinating, but I won't re-tell it here. (There's a book called Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time from last year on the subject.) But it's pretty interesting to see how an observatory got to be the keeper of the world's standard time.





So that's 50 World Heritage Sites I've visited (more than one-quarter in the UK!), and the last one in London. I'm back up to 5.3%. There are only 3 sites in the southern part of Great Britain that I haven't visited -- Canterbury (a couple of hours from Cambridge, which I may visit next year), Dorset (a couple of hours from where I usually am in the UK), and Cornwall (the very southwestern tip of England). So I'm going to have to start diversifying. I have a chance to be near four sites in the first week in December, but even if I am, it would take a lot of doing to visit them all in what would be a very busy week. We'll see.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (16) Taco Bell

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a collection of all the Bowie Restaurant Project entries, look here.

Taco Bell, 15701 Annapolis Road

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 4/28/2010
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 2
Pre-Foursquare Visits: Yes
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5 stars

It's a Taco Bell. It's a fairly unexceptional member of the species. It's like most other Taco Bells you have been to, except for the particularly scary ones. Based on how I've been rating fast food restaurants in this project, its rating is determined by the question: is it high-end fast food or not?


To answer that question, we turn to a comment a friend of mine made when I became Foursquare mayor of a different Taco Bell, and I commented that I preferred to eat elsewhere, but lacked the time recently.

Nobody WANTS to eat at Taco Bell--myself included. But when you need 4000 calories in under 4 minutes, for under $4, there are worse options!

So, there you have it. 1 1/2 stars.

Nebula Update: Blackout

Connie Willis at 2004 National Book Festival

Blackout by Connie Willis

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I really like Connie Willis. When I heard her talk at the 2004 National Book Festival, she gave an impassioned speech about libraries. She encouraged the audience to check good books out of libraries, even if they weren't going to read them, so that the libraries would keep them around. She said when she asked her library why they had gotten rid of some classic books, they told her nobody had checked them out recently. She responded, "And now nobody ever will."

So I really hate to give this book two stars. Blackout is the latest novel in her time travel series (well, the first half of her latest novel). Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog previous won the Nebula award, and so did Blackout (along with All Clear, the second half of Blackout). Doomsday Book was a tense, enjoyable read (though not one of my favorites), and To Say Nothing of the Dog was a wonderful romp of a book. Blackout, on the other hand, is neither.

I think of this book in three parts. The first, and shortest, goes back and forth between time traveling historians in World War II Britain and the same travelers in their home base of 2060 Oxford. So far, so good; this part is much like the other books. There is some hint that something may be wrong with the time travel mechanisms, and some interesting interpersonal interactions.

The second part of the book consists of the time travelers interacting with the WWII "contemps" (locals). At this point, the book seems to be over-researched. With any period piece, that is danger, but with time travel this tendency becomes worse -- the time-traveling historians know the background behind every event, and often stop to muse on it. Furthermore, it's unclear where the dramatic tension is supposed to be coming from. We already know how the war turned out, and there's scant connection with the stories of 2060 Oxford. What we get instead are slices of life from 1940 (mostly) Britain.

The third part of the book picks up again, as three of the time travelers' stories converge, and there begins to be the hint that whatever is messed up with time travel is going to cause them problems. But it remains a hint, and there's a lot of maddeningly vague wondering, "Did we change history?" from characters who can't quite match up what they're observing with their memories of what was supposed to happen. In other words, the book moves way too slowly.

I still have high hopes for All Clear, and I'm going to read it -- if for no other reason, it won the Nebula, and that leaves to me to wonder, why? My best guess is that, well, everyone likes Connie Willis. My excuse for doing the Nebula novel reading project rather than the Hugo novel reading project is that the Nebulas are chosen by authors, and the Hugos by the fans. The authors, presumably, would have more refined tastes. On the other hand, they know Willis, so they may be biased by how likeable she is. Of course, Blackout/All Clear won the Hugo, too, but I'm guessing many fans like her too -- though the reviews on Amazon haven't been as kind as I might have expected.

One final note. I finished off this book while traveling around London. It was pretty neat to read about Underground lines as I was traveling past them, and see ads for department stores that appeared in the book. A good reminder that only 70 years separate this island from memories of aerial bombings and a strong fear of invasion.



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The Secret of Getting Better at Go

It's been almost five years since I've blogged about go, and even longer since I've written about my online rating.

Going to go tournaments or go club was a major investment of time, and I found that I would rather spend my game-playing time with friends. Of course, with toddlers, I have no time for competitive in-person go, though in a few years, I hope I can teach them and start taking them to compete against their elders.

I have, however, recently started playing online again, after Ben gained a renewed interest in it. Despite the fact that I don't have time to study my go books, or even devote that much thought to it, my rating is now 15 kyu, higher than it ever was before I took a break from playing. It even got to 14 kyu at one point, but it's been bouncing around as it tends to do.

The go server that I use now allows you to plot your rating versus number of games played, rather than just time. That graph for my account is reproduced above. Though there's a fair amount of volatility (including a significant dip when I took up the game again in late 2009), the pattern is clear -- in fact, almost linear.

So what's the secret of getting better at go? Play more games! I don't claim that's an original observation; I think there have even been studies to that effect. But I find it interesting that it continues to hold even in the mid-teen kyu range I have now achieved. I had suspected my go abilities had plateaued (and was just happy to steal time for a move here and there). Since I don't have time to play as much as I used to, my rating will improve more slowly, but it would be really cool to achieve single-digit kyu status some day.