Favorite Software Interaction

You open up your favorite application. For simplicity's sake we'll call it "Adobe Dreamweaver". Immediately, you get a message stating "there's an updated version, would you like to install it?". You click "yes". Installation process begins. Warning message appears "cannot update this program at this time because the following applications need to be closed: Adobe Dreamweaver."

that rocks.

Like an Elephant...

Are you one of those people who can't remember what you had for breakfast this morning, but can remember the specifics of an insignificant conversation you had 20 years ago? Do your friends tell stories about the old days, only to have you correct them because they don't remember the details correctly?

This is my life. Mostly it's good, but when you remember everything, you remember EVERYTHING. Yes, even the embarrassing details. And it's not easy being the one who remembers every line from movies like "The Cheap Detective", and "Straight to Hell".

Could be worse, I suppose. But I will never, ever recite every line from "The Holy Grail" or "Spinal Tab" in a ridiculous British accent.

Pops Update

Since my previous post, Pops has not been in the neighborhood for one single performance. Maybe he's just letting things cool down a bit. Maybe his feelings were truly hurt. Maybe I need to pop the champagne cork.

I would do just that, except that Pops was just 1 piece of a large puzzle. At 2am on a freezing Monday morning in January, I had to contend with some of the loudest conversations known to man outside of the Cyclops last night. Where does it stop? Do I schedule an appointment each night to speak with the night owls about how they should shut up?

Though I consider the results of my battle with Pops to be a small (probably temporary) victory, I'm going to have to concede defeat on this one. I figure a box of earplugs will carry me through until the condo sells this spring, especially since a high-powered rifle is not really an option.

The Elusive Land of Nod

Here I am at 2:58 on a Thursday morning. The night started out blissfully enough. Hit the pillow at about 10:00. Fell asleep soon thereafter. Then it started. Pops was up to his shenanigans, playing that empty water cooler he calls a drum and howling away with stray drunks on 1st ave. I was asleep when it happened but had dreams of ripping him a new one from my balcony. Then I was awake. He stopped for a bit, but when he started up again, it was the last straw. I ran down to the street and told him to knock it off in pretty uncertain terms, and reasonably enough, he did just that. But then that's when the adrenyline kicked in. Now I'm typing a message to the world rather than sleeping, and in just a few hours I'll need to get ready for work.

Damn I hate insommnia, and damn I hate Pops!

And for tonight's special...

Still not going out on any limbs with the photos. I took a picture of my dinner tonight - Thai Basil Salmon with Rice. It was hella good! Maybe I'll just turn this into a photo diary of the food I eat.

Shortcake Biscuit

My snack. Tonight I took my photo of my snack. I got home from working out, was hungry, had no idea what I was going to shoot, and there it was... a shortcake biscuit on a plate.

Today was busy. I finally broke down and bought a new network card for my computer. Maybe now I can use the internet for a few minutes without having to reset the router, search for available networks, repair wireless networks... the whole routine. Anyway, perhaps tomorrow I'll have some time to shoot something interesting.

Chilly, and the ground was icy today. Almost a third of the way through winter. Woo hoo! Also, today marked my 7 month anniversary at Expeditors. Can I push it to 12?

Just Me

Not to creative yesterday. I met Lauren at the Owl and Thistle for a drink after work, and by the time I got home Leilani needed some computer support and all I could really do is snap a few photos of myself:



On another note, while at the Owl and Thistle I met with the owner, Jack Geary, as my parents' friend Bob MacFarlane knows him from his days of playing at the Lamplighter in Bedford NH. That took me back! Nice guy. Liked my Patriots hat.

Geraldine's

This morning, the better half and I drove over to Geraldine's Counter in Columbia City. I've been hearing for years that Columbia City is the up-and-coming neighborhood. After looking at the outside wall and seeing a poster for some shamanistic ceremony being held in the neighborhood, I had a feeling that the neighborhood was probably much different than it was say 10 years ago. But I liked the little town center, and brunch was good. Some crispy french toast and chicken sausage for me, and I was happy.

I captured the picture below while waiting for a table to open up. The little doggie in the foreground is a very friendly basset hound who howled in sadness while his folks were indoors (still just a few feet away). The day was gorgeous. A rare January occasion where it was sunny while not freezing.

Why do these weekends go by so fast?

Sculpture Park

On Saturday, I wandered into the Sculpture park for the first time, and took some pictures. The day was somewhat clear, but windy as hell, which made it tough to steady the camera on the little tripod. I think the most interesting picture is the one below. Nice use of perspective, and you can sense how chilly it was by the bundled-up walkers, and the cloud formation.

Ima luv me some Mac

So, for Christmas this year I decided to set my girlfriend up with a new system. She had been using a dinosaur of a Dell, and complaining about how slow it is, how it plays a weird sound when the speakers are on, and other stuff on top of that. Her brother and sister are both Mac users and like most Mac users I've met, can't say enough good about their product of choice.

So, she's the pickiest person on earth as far as gifts go. If she didn't ask for it, don't bother, unless it's something really frivolous. This was a huge risk, but I went and got her a Mac Mini. Tonight was the night I plugged it in. Now, she has barely glanced at it, being that she was exhausted from her day. But I must tell you, as the set-up guy, I'm pretty damn impressed. For one, I took her old hard drive out of her PC, put it in a external cradle, and jimmy'd it up. To my pleasant surprise, it recognized it immediately, and I double clicked on it and all her files were there. If this were the reverse situation (on a PC), something would have gone wrong for sure.

After the transfer of her old files was complete, it was time to format a 200GB drive that she had bought a year ago, and use that as her external. So, I put it in the cradle, closed it up, plugged it in, and then went through the process of formatting the thing. I did this a week ago on my own computer, and it took about 1.5 hours for the formatting to be complete. So, I hit the "Go" button, and was prepared to watch a DVD while this was to happen. To my surpise, it was done in under 10 SECONDS. Let me say that again... 200GB drive, formatted in 10 SECONDS!!!

I'm rarely pleasantly surprised when I get under the hood of a computer. What I predict to be a one-hour job usually requires a half a day's devotion, at best. Tonight was a rare occasion where I got everything done, and have some time to enjoy a beer and write in my blog to top it off. Apple, you have my vote. Were I not invested by the hundreds in my PC, I'd switch back in a second.

Below are two photos commemorating the occasion.

Pioneer Square

At lunch today, I wandered over to Pioneer Square to take this shot. I had to do some color balancing in Photoshop, as the original was very blue. I'm thinking it may have been because I left my light settings at "indoor incandescent". Either that, or it was just a blue day in Seattle today. Pretty rainy, anyway.

Dead Before Arrival

Today's pic of the day is me playing dead before hitting the pavement for work in the morning. I knew I was going to be busy this evening, so I decided to get the shot out of the way before leaving the house. Happy that it came out so clear without a flash. You can make out West Seattle and the Sound in the background, and a dead me and messy living room in the foreground.

Evil Trolls

I took more than one picture for my pic-o-the-day today. First, the evil trolls staring out from a window at me during my walk home from work:

This one is also on my walk home. Here, we are on 3rd avenue by Benaroya Hall. In the center, you can see the clock that tells me I'm aproximately 5 minutes late for work each morning.



Also newsworthy, today was the NH primary. The "straight-talk Express" seems to have had an impact on my home state, as MacCain won on the Red side. Still a toss-up between Hillary and Barack, with Hillary slightly ahead. Not sure I have any strong feelings either way, but mostly happy to see Rudy 9-1-1 kicked to the curb. He's injecting those three numbers into nearly every soundbite these days!

Fireworks!

Belated Happy New Year!

Here is a photo of the malfunctioning NYE fireworks at the Space Needle this year.

One Photo Each Day

I was reading my friend Jana's blog, and she had a new year's resolution to take one photo each day for a year (or perhaps for life), based on an article she had read. I have a hard time seeing myself keeping that resolution, but heck, I'll give it a try.

This is a photo I just snapped in my living room. It represents two other resolutions I should make: do more illustrating, and play the clarinet once in awhile.

Having enough trouble staying on top of the eating less and exercising more resolutions, but if you don't try....

Maiden = Bogeymen

So I'm listening to a bit of Iron Maiden this afternoon, and I'm wondering what on earth made these guys the "bogeymen" when they were in their heyday... Their message wasn't particularly evil or radical. There is a song called "Flight of Icarus" which is merely about the old Greek myth. We're not talking Charles Manson here.

I think like a lot of metal bands of the day, they just sounded angry about whatever they were saying. Think Twisted Sister... They just sang a song about how they were no longer going to take it. They never mentioned what they weren't going to take. Corporate Violence? Intolerable working conditions? Objectification of women? Advertising saturation? It's anyone's guess, but I have a difficult time believing it was any of the above. Maybe just a snarl and an angry tone was enough.

I guess the ultraviolent cover art may have added to them being the devil incarnate.

What a Croc!

Another Seattle institution is vanishing before our eyes. I'm speaking of the Crocodile Cafe, which had shut its doors for good earlier this month. This morning I arose at 6:30 am to capture it before it becomes another Starbucks or Subway. Here are a few angles:


My first visit to the Croc was in summer of 1992, to see Terry Lee Hale, who opened up for Solomon Grundy. Probably one of the more memorable occasions was the night in 1993 that I went with my brother Steve to see Polvo. He was egging me on from across the room and I ended up hurling a glass of water in his direction. I think a few people were upset about being splashed, and one of the employees asked that I not do that again. Probably the closest I've come to getting ejected from a club. Steve ended up hugging Polvo's drummer that night.

My last visit to the Crocadile was to see Joseph Arthur in the Fall of 2006. The Crocadile never changed a whole lot over the years, and never tried to modernize as other clubs did. It was a simple cafe and club where you could go see good bands relatively cheap and in small space. I'm not optimistic about what is to spring up in its place. I'm envisioning someplace safe and comfortable for the yuppies to enjoy an exquisite meal.

Alas, nothing lasts.

Time-killing Strategies

Work is slow. It's the Friday before New Year's. It's way too chilly to go for a walk about town. So what does one do? Today, I've found enjoyment in looking over the "worst film" lists for 2007. Thankfully, not one dime of my hard-earned money was wasted on any of the, though I could have seen myself taken in by the likes of Guy Ritchie's "Revolver". Thankfully, I wasn't.

This quote regarding Eddie Murphy's "Norbit" pretty much sums it up:
"I saw Norbit in a 'black' movie theater...if you're gonna see that movie, that's the way to view it. Some dude kept yelling out 'I'm high as a mothaf__ka and this sh_t still aint funny', which got the biggest laughs"

I know I would have laughed.

Another source of time-killer has been surfing through the archives of The Onion. Here are some gems:

Jon Lovitz and Subway ads: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/49386
Catwoman not being completely awful: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30654
Preemptive raves for Blues Brothers 200: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29684
Robin Williams = imbecile: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38611

I close with this question: why is not enough bad being said about Robin Williams?

Snow

I'm thinking it's going to snow this evening. It's awfully wet out there, and when I was out at lunch earlier, it was pretty chilly to boot. I'm planning on returning to the gym after work tonight after a six-month hiatus (okay, maybe four months). It'll be interesting to see 1. if I can get through a half hour on the treadmill without keeling over, 2. if it's a snowy walk home, 3. if I can get to a changing closet without waiting a half hour.

Smell that Crisp Car Exhaust!

Every night on my walk home from work, on 2nd and Pine, I witness a horse and carriage sauntering through rush hour traffic. People pay to experience some of the busiest streets of Seattle during the busiest time of day this way. Now, I can understand being in Manhattan, and fantasizing that you are in a romantic historical era where friendly gentlemen sweep the streets, children play marbles on the sidewalk, and a salivating dog peers into the window of a bakery, tail wagging behind him... all while you roll through central park in your horse driven carriage. But for god's sake, this is downtown Seattle. All such images are a lie. This place was founded by rough gold-diggers who came into town looking for hard liquor and prositutes. Wake up, the closest thing to a magical era here was the smack-fueled 90's where gunge rockers reigned supreme. All your horse and carriage is doing is clogging up our already over-crowded streets. So take a deep breath of that fresh carbon monoxide tourists! You're living a lie! And your lie borders on abuse for slave-driven horses, while trying the patience of drivers who just want to get home to their families.

I call BS on the horse and carriages rolling through downtown during rush hour.