Cartography

I went to a rare maps convention today where vendors from all over the world brought in maps that went back hundreds of years. It's amazing to understand how the world was viewed by people from different time periods and more importantly, how we take for granted what we know about the world today. It was only a couple of hundred of years ago when South America was terra incognito  and people thought Korea and California were islands.

This makes me wonder what we know today is wrong or off. What people see now as truth may only be one side of the story and we still have so much more to discover to understand the world around us better. It was common knowledge what the next town or city was just like how we now know the adjacent state or country. We barely know what's beyond our planet and solar systems and take for granted the world we think we know now. We must continue the search and drive to see what is at the limits of our understanding and not be afraid of what we find. 

Experimentation

I've been late in my entries the last two days and am still trying to make up for it. As a result, I have self-inflicted more stress on myself. It's very tempting to change the rules or relax them a bit when you are your own boss, but I am still holding myself to this level of responsibility to write an entry every day.

This is an experiment and at the end all experiments need to be kept until the end. It is at that point you make adjustments on what works and what doesn't. It's the learning that really matters at the end.  

Friends from different places

I missed my first entry last night and will try and make up for it now.  

It was great to see all my friends yesterday. They came from all different parts of my life - childhood, college, New York, grad school. It's incredible to see everyone come together in one place and get along. I'm definitely fortunate to have friends that I can still go to and catch up despite where I met them. They're important to me and I strive to see them happy. 

Truffles

I spent the day running errands in the city - first to the Apple store to replace a shattered screen and next to the radiologist's office to get some X-rays done. It's never fun to sit in the waiting area of a doctor's office without a phone to pretend that you're too busy to pay attention to anyone else. The magazine selection counted last year's Sports Illustrated Olympic games issue as news. The next best thing was a Bay Area business magazine. The local magazine has what you'd expect from it ads from local wineries, lasik surgery, and roof repairs, stories about local festivals and happenings. One story did stand out.

With fine dining in the Bay Area taking hold, there has been more of a demand for fresh truffles. Truffles themselves lose flavor after a few days so shipping them from Europe was costly and not a good option. Turns out Napa Valley has a pretty good way of imitating French climate. As a result, farmers have cultivated truffles here for the past few decades. Commercial cultivation has only recently started. Like wine, it takes years before you get your batch to sell. Truffles take 7 years growing underground on the roots of oak and hazelnut trees. 

What fascinates me the most about truffles is the opaque nature of the industry and how it actually operates. There are truffle farmers, dealers, and chefs but most of us are really only aware of the seasoning on the dish. Often times, we fail to understand where something comes from and what it takes to get to where it is now.