Life

General ramblings connected to my personal life and activities.

July Seattle Flickrites Meetup

by

Had a very pleasant time at the inaugural Seattle Flickrites Meetup tonight. I showed up just a bit after 7pm and hung out until the last of us left just a bit before 10pm. Not a bad turnout for a first gig, either. Eight of us ended up showing up: Weave, studiozoe, Voodoo Zebra, ChrisB in SEA, me, Tom Harpel, Shaylor, and kreminem.

Conversation bounced between the requisite gadget ogling, podcasting, and various Flickr groups and personalities, but by far the most popular topic for the evening was the “Seattle (n)ice” syndrome. Much (good-natured) fun was had at the expense of the only two “native” Seattleites in the group as we laughed about the inability for either of them to just pick up and do something without at least a day’s notice — bare minimum. A few days is better, if a week or two of warning can’t be given first. Otherwise, they’re just too busy doing something…even if it’s nothing at all.

My photos from the evening are up, and more are starting to appear: ChrisB in SEA‘s, Tom Harpel‘s.

iTunes “Push Upstairs” by Underworld from the album Beaucoup Fish (1999, 4:34).

Phobic

by

I’ve mentioned my fear of flying in the past. Earlier today, Steven Frank wrote about his battle with the same phobia — and from the sound of it, he was hit by it far harder than I was. If you’re phobic or know someone who is, this is well worth reading.

This part, in particular, sounded very familiar, describing perfectly what I’ve gone through every time I’ve gotten on an airplane in the past few years:

With no apparent rhyme or reason, my own brain conspired to make me absolutely terrified of flying. Not like those fakers who say they need a glass or two of wine to unwind before boarding. No, I’m talking clenched to the armrests, heart pounding, stomach doing pirouettes, and jumping in unconditional horror at any sudden noise or movement, with no rest or respite until back on solid ground.

I was also immune to statistics and facts. You could explain to me until blue in the face that I was 23,000 times more likely to die in a car accident on the way to the airport, or that there are better odds of being struck by lightning than being a fatality on a commercial airline. It wouldn’t make any difference. They call them irrational phobias for a very good reason.

Steven was eventually unable to fly for about five years, and has only now just made his first flight since the phobia hit its strongest point. As another person battling this same fear (as I mentioned briefly in the last paragraphs of this post), I can identify with his situation all too well — forcing yourself into confronting a phobia head-on is not an easy thing to do. Congratulations, Steven…and best of luck for the future.

iTunes “Father Lucifer (Sylkscreen)” by Amos, Tori from the album Jackie’s Strength (1999, 4:32).

A long, long time ago…

by

…no far away galaxy, though. Last night I got an e-mail from Kathleen, who’d stumbled across my Gigs photoset while looking for an old friend of hers. She was kind enough to send me an old photo from Gigs and said I could go ahead and post it along with the rest of my pictures from the club.

The picture was a fairly low-quality scan (a 216k 318×226 .bmp), but I’ve done what little I could to clean it up in Photoshop, enlarging it 200%, tweaking the levels, and running an unsharp mask filter on it. It’s still not pristine, but I’m still thrilled to have this drop in my lap.

Update: Kathleen was able to find the original photo and re-scan it at a higher resolution, so it’s much easier to see now. Turns out I was at a point where I was going through an ill-conceived attempt to actually grow out my beard….

Gigs Music Theatre, Anchorage, AK

I’m guessing this was taken sometime in 1997 or so. That’s Ray (DJ Happyjack) sitting in front. From left to right on the couch, we’ve got Lydia, Kathleen, me, Kate, and Rebecca (who was going by Apple at the time). Casey‘s lying across the back of the couch. I’ve got no clue who the guy on the far right is.

Thanks again, Kathleen!

iTunes “If I (Alien Trauma Edition)” by Lizette & from the album & So… (2001, 6:41).

Bad Timing

by

There’s a guy who works in the mailroom just down the hall from me who greets me every time he sees me by calling my name out in kind of a sing-song fashion — “Mi-chael…!” It’s a little odd, but not really a big deal.

Unless he does it as he enters the restroom, while I’m standing at the urinal. Suddenly, my name is echoing from tile wall to tile wall, and, well, as delicately as I can put it, all bodily functions immediately cease. That’s just not a good time to be startled.

Shmoe.

Bite of Seattle 2005

by

End of the Rainbow, International Fountain, Seattle Center, Bite of Seattle, Seattle, WA

A small photoset of shots from wandering around Saturday at the Bite of Seattle. Not my usual onslaught of pics this time…I just wasn’t as into it on Saturday as I am sometimes. Still managed a few decent shots, though.

Okay…who washed their car?

by

For the past week, we’ve had gorgeous high-70’s to low-80’s sunshine throughout Seattle, with more predicted through the weekend and on into next week.

So how come I woke up to grey skies, rain, and “possible thunderstorms,” according to Weather Underground? Some fool must have gotten the urge to wash his car yesterday. Everybody knows that that’s the surest way to bring on a sudden burst of rain!

Ah, well…I’ll just keep my fingers crossed for the weekend. This weekend’s the Bite of Seattle food festival, so I’ll likely be wandering around the Seattle Center for much of the weekend, camera in hand. As long as nothing unexpected crops up, I should be out at the Vogue on Saturday night, too — things have been so busy lately that I haven’t been able to get out dancing as often as I like, but I need to get some bouncing in when I can.

And to close (for the moment, at least), a shot I took yesterday at Westlake Plaza of people camped out in the sun on their lunch break.

Lunchtime, Westlake Plaza, Seattle, WA

Bag’n’Pipe Hoppers

by

Bag'n'Pipe HoppersOne of the local street performers I enjoy running into is the Bag’n’Pipe Hoppers. Actually two performers who team up together from time to time — Don P. Scobie on bagpipes* and Jesse Bishop (or Bishnutz) on drums — their combination of traditional Scottish piping and modern hip-hop beats is always fun to stumble across.

Last Friday evening while waiting for the Half-Blood Prince to come out, Prairie and I took a wander and found the Bag’n’Pipe Hoppers playing at the corner of 4th and Pine. Their playing had attracted a small crowd of onlookers, including a few b-boys breakdancing beside them, so I grabbed my camera and recorded a few minutes of video.

May 2010 Update: Though the Bag’n’Pipe Hoppers are no more, Don has gone on to form a new outfit, Nae Regrets. Worth checking out!

  • Prairie’s especially fond of running across Don (a.k.a. “the hot bagpiper guy“), whether or not he’s playing with Jesse. Her only complaint about the performance we saw was that Don wasn’t wearing his kilt. :)

Acid bath

by

The front steps of the empty section of the Convention Center that was being used for the temporary Seattle Central Library were being washed off today, sending streams of water running down the sidewalk. As I walked along, I started stepping over the rivulets, not for any sane (if somewhat stupid) reason like not wanting to get my shoes wet…

…but because somewhere, in the back of my brain, I’d decided that it wasn’t really water, but streams of acid running down the street that would eat through the bottom of my shoes and into my feet if I accidentally stepped into one.

Some days, it’s really hard to remember that I’m 32, and not 12.

iTunes “Auzonomous (Hot Tracks)” by Quinn from the album Roadkill 2.1 (1993, 6:23).

Potter potter potter…

by

The Box ArrivesOpening the Box
One copy out...Our copies of Book Six
Prairie, Arboretum, Seattle, WAMe, Arboretum, Seattle, WA

And with that, it’s done! Our copies arrived about 11am this morning. After opening the box, we packed up picnic supplies and headed down to the Arboretum, spread out a blanket under the shade of a Madrone tree, and got to reading right about noon. Amusingly, Prairie and I read at almost exactly the same speed, so we were within a page or two of each other the entire time — sometimes one of us would be slightly ahead, sometimes the other, occasionally stealing glances at the other’s page numbers to see whether they were giggling or gasping at something we’d just read, or something we were about to read.

Five hours later, we were both within a few chapters of the end, but our bodies had finally started to complain about having been camped out on the ground for the entire day. So, quite reluctantly, we marked our places, came home…and dived right back in.

By 7pm, we were done. Prairie closed her copy just a couple minutes before I closed mine, and waited for me to finish. A few minutes of talk about the final events in the book, and then — after our long, stressful day of lying around in the shade reading — it was time for a nap.

And now, a long, long wait for book seven to arrive…

iTunes “Who Do You Want to Be” by Oingo Boingo from the album Best o’ Boingo (1983, 3:21).

Everything old is new again

by

A random comment on a Flickr photo led me to do some digging, and after reading this summary of Seattle transportation efforts, all of a sudden it’s no surprise that we’ve seen such ridiculous controversy over our (finally under construction) light rail and (eternally beleaguered) monorail plans.

The essay is replete with examples of ideas, controversy, failed starts, cost overruns, tax packages…any of this sound familiar? From the look of it, it’s amazing that Seattle has anything at all to support those of us who — for whatever reason — eschew automobiles for other forms of transportation.

Completely randomly, another discovery I made: did you know that Seattle has its own flag? I didn’t, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it flying anywhere.