{"id":586,"date":"2002-06-15T13:25:43","date_gmt":"2002-06-15T21:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/06\/15\/one-year-in-seattle\/"},"modified":"2019-11-27T09:03:59","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T17:03:59","slug":"one-year-in-seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/06\/15\/one-year-in-seattle\/","title":{"rendered":"One year in Seattle!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:16080,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.cityofseattle.net\\\/tour\\\/union.htm&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20230930182755\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.cityofseattle.net\\\/tour\\\/union.htm&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-14 03:54:21&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-26 17:15:55&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-26 17:15:55&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:16081,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.barstop.com\\\/gorge&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20251207121529\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.barstop.com\\\/gorge&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-14 03:54:29&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-26 17:15:52&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-09 08:53:27&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-09 08:53:27&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:7785,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.bumbershoot.org&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20210126141135\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.bumbershoot.org.\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/bumbershoot.com&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 19:27:48&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-21 11:21:20&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-26 17:15:56&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-31 22:44:08&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-04 19:49:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-08 07:09:33&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-14 05:54:26&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-18 15:15:10&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-18 15:15:10&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:8570,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/chat.yahoo.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260127022521\\\/https:\\\/\\\/chat.yahoo.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 14:04:56&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-24 05:33:54&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-28 12:58:13&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-01 01:29:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-04 05:11:18&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-07 07:15:59&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-11 16:51:50&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-15 09:10:39&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-19 00:41:39&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-19 00:41:39&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:16082,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.wilwheaton.net\\\/mt\\\/archives\\\/000948.php#000948&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20120609051545\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.wilwheaton.net\\\/mt\\\/archives\\\/000948.php&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-14 03:54:31&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-26 10:37:53&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 22:51:02&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-14 21:01:20&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:true,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-14 21:01:20&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Today marks my one-year anniversary of escaping the hellraiser chains of Alaska and moving to Seattle! WOOHOO!<\/p>\n<p>Well, okay, technically according to my post when I <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/05\/the_point_of_no.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: The Point of No Return\">bought my plane ticket<\/a>, the actual day of arrival was the 17th, not the 15th. However, I just now figured that out, and I&#8217;ve had the 15th in my head for a while now, so I&#8217;ll just go with that. Because this is my website, and my life, and I can. So there. Bleah.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been a good year. The usual ups and downs of day to day life, sometimes with a bit more stress due to the new environs and the general issues of transplanting one&#8217;s life, but overall, pretty good.<\/p>\n<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/06\/made_it_to_seat.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Made it to Seattle\">my arrival<\/a>, I spent a nice relaxing first few weeks couch crashing with Dez, Casey, and Chad at their apartment in Ballard. Seattle was having an unusually gorgeous summer at the time &#8212; 80-degree days and sunshine for the first couple months I was here &#8212; enough that even I was able to put some color in my skin! Casey gave me my first real look at just how different of an environment I was in when he took me to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cityofseattle.net\/tour\/union.htm\" title=\"Seattle Virtual Tour: Lake Union and Gas Works Park\">Gas Works Park<\/a> to watch the fireworks over Lake Union &#8212; literally <em>thousands<\/em> of people had turned out, and it looked almost like the entire population of Anchorage was in this park. I know it wasn&#8217;t that much, but there sure were a lot. Very different from anything I&#8217;d seen before &#8212; and very, very cool.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2001\/07\/graphics\/shannonapts.jpg\" title=\"The Shannon Apartments\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Shannon Apartments\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2001\/07\/graphics\/shannonapts-thumb.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" align=\"right\" \/><\/a>Just less than a month after my arrival, I got into my first Seattle apartment &#8212; a tiny little one-room studio that I soon dubbed &#8216;The Shoebox&#8217; right near the intersection of Pike and Broadway. The Capitol Hill district of Seattle is known as one of the central areas for much of Seattle&#8217;s &#8216;counter-culture&#8217; scene, and living within easy walking distance of Broadway, one of the main drags in Capitol Hill, was a blast. Theaters, clubs, bars, restaurants, and all sorts of funky little shops all within easy walking distance! I bounced between job searching, exploring, watching movies, and <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/07\/bring_out_the_g.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Bring out the gimp!\">slightly damaging myself at nightclubs<\/a>, and basically took advantage of the job-free days to enjoy summertime in a new city. My friend Holly, who&#8217;d moved to Seattle from Anchorage a couple years back got ahold of me, and invited me out to a couple parties with <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/07\/a_talitribe_par.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: A Talitribe party\">her and her friends<\/a>, and started introducing me to people other than ex-Alaskans.<\/p>\n<p>The job hunt took longer than I was hoping, causing my first real <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/07\/is_this_going_t.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Is this going to work?\">moment of stress<\/a> &#8212; however, the next day I got a call for <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/07\/ive_got_an_inte.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: I've got an interview!\">an interview<\/a>, which ended up <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/07\/job_details_mor.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Job details, more books, and monkeys\">going well<\/a>, and within days I was officially <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/07\/im_employed.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: I'm employed!\">employed<\/a>. So much for stress, huh?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2001\/08\/graphics\/seattleview04.jpg\" title=\"My office building from 73 stories up\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"My office building from 73 stories up\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2001\/08\/graphics\/seattleview04-thumb.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" align=\"left\" \/><\/a>So, August found me working in <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/08\/impressions_of_.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Impressions of work, and lots of movies\">downtown Seattle<\/a> at Aurther Andersen&#8217;s offices. I did get the occasional distractions from returning to the day-to-day drudgery of regular work, as Casey and friends drug me out to a <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/08\/pie_ghosties_sc.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Pie, Ghosties, Scots, and naked girls (kinda)\">Bare Naked Ladies<\/a> concert out at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.barstop.com\/gorge\/\" title=\"The Gorge Amphitheater\">the Gorge<\/a>, and towards the end of the month, <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/08\/kev_drama_queen.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Kev, drama queens, and Bumbershoot\">Kevin visited for a weekend<\/a> on his way from Tennessee to Anchorage.<\/p>\n<p>September started well with a <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/08\/bumbershoot_01_.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Bumbershoot '01 - Friday, Aug. 31st\">long<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/09\/bumbershoot_01__2.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Bumbershoot '01 - Saturday, Sep. 1st\">weekend<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/09\/bumbershoot_01__1.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Bumbershoot '01 - Sunday, Sep. 2nd\">at<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/09\/bumbershoot_01_.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Bumbershoot '01 - Monday, Sep. 3rd\">the<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bumbershoot.org\/\" title=\"Bumbershoot!\">Bumbershoot<\/a> music festival. Then, of course, <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/09\/how_far_is_this.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: How far is this going to go?\">everything went boom<\/a>. The first <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/09\/it_all_keeps_ge.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: It all keeps getting scarier\">rumblings of political upheaval<\/a> started, right-wing religious leaders got <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/09\/i_dont_even_kno.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: I don't even know what to say to this\">very stupid<\/a>, and things across the nation got just a little bit nuttier. In what proved to be a short-lived bit of escapism, I broke my long-standing boycott of television to check out <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/09\/to_boldly_go.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: To bodly go...\">the new Star Trek show<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>October started off fairly slow, and I spent a lot of my free time working on <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/10\/a_sunny_saturda.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: A sunny Saturday afternoon\">new mixes<\/a> for my DJ propaganda page. I got <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/10\/job_frustration.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Job frustrations\">annoyed with my job<\/a>, and towards the end of the month Rick made it to Seattle and my parents came by to visit <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/10\/one_very_cool_w.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: One very cool weekend\">on the same weekend<\/a>. November continued in the same vein until mid-month, when I <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/11\/junet_and_caro_.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Junet and Caro, 'shrooms, and small worlds\">met another ex-Alaskan<\/a> while hanging out in the <a href=\"http:\/\/chat.yahoo.com\/\" title=\"Yahoo! crack\">Yahoo! Chat Seattle rooms<\/a>, and by the end of Thanksgiving weekend, <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/11\/what_a_weekend.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: What a weekend\">Candice and I were dating<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I finally got my DSL connection installed in early December, and soon discovered that I could find some of my earliest Usenet postings on the Internet &#8212; back in <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/12\/its_astounding_.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: It's astounding, time is fleeting...\">February of 1994<\/a>. I&#8217;ve been doing this for a while now, haven&#8217;t I? Anyway, I got to go to the <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/12\/catch_up_downti.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Catch up: Downtime, Pigface, Godhead, Gravity Kills, Concrete Blonde, and Alaska\">Pigface concert<\/a> at the EMP and hang out with a bunch of old friends from Anchorage, which was an interesting combination of very cool and very bizarre at the same time. I also hit my <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/12\/six_months_in_s.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Six months!\">six months in Seattle<\/a> landmark &#8212; it really doesn&#8217;t seem that long ago. Of major importance to my &#8216;geek life&#8217; was finally <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/12\/site_fixed_new_.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Site fixed, new addy, and LOTR\">buying the djwudi.com domain<\/a> for my website, where it now resides.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2001\/12\/graphics\/sorc_wudi_kev.jpg\" title=\"Kevin and me at Son of River City Billiards\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Kevin and me at Son of River City Billiards\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2001\/12\/graphics\/sorc_wudi_kev-thumb.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" align=\"right\" \/><\/a>After surviving the <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/12\/back_in_anchora.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Back in Anchorage\">single most frightening plane ride<\/a> I&#8217;ve ever been on, I landed in Anchorage to spend Christmas weekend <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/12\/christmas_in_al.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Christmas in Alaska\">visiting family and friends<\/a> &#8212; and Candice, who was also in Anchorage over Christmas break! It made for a fun break, but running around in 20 below weather on Christmas Eve <em>definitely<\/em> reminded me of some of the reasons why I&#8217;m glad to be living in Seattle now!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2002\/01\/graphics\/nye_fireworks_07.jpg\" title=\"Space Needle goes BOOM!\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Space Needle goes BOOM!\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2002\/01\/graphics\/nye_fireworks_07-thumb.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"150\" align=\"left\" \/><\/a>2002 arrived, and I rung in the new year with Candice, Chad, Don, Tim, and Rick, at Tim and Rick&#8217;s apartment downtown. <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/01\/chads_birthday_.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Chad's birthday, and a few links\">Chad had a birthday<\/a>, and I <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/01\/free_associatio.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Free association, job possibilities, and haiku\">muddled my way through life<\/a>. I got to <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/01\/flaming_down_br.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Flaming down Broadway\">see the Olympic Torch<\/a> come through Seattle on its way to the games, which was a treat. Seattle surprised me by actually <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/01\/it_does_snow_he.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: It does snow here!\">getting some snow<\/a>, and I closed out January by getting to <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/01\/still_in_hollyw.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Still in Hollywood\">see Concrete Blonde perform<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since I had started working downtown I&#8217;d been watching a skyscraper being built just a couple blocks away in amazement, and finally found out a little bit about those <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/02\/you_couldnt_pay.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: You couldn't pay me enough\">amazing cranes<\/a> they use. <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2002\/02\/graphics\/parkseneca_west.jpg\" title=\"The Park Seneca from the west\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Park Seneca from the west\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2002\/02\/graphics\/parkseneca_west-thumb.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" align=\"right\" \/><\/a>I also started hearing rumblings from my apartment manager about the <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/02\/possibilities_o.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Possibilities of moving?\">possibilities of moving<\/a> when he switched to a new building. He&#8217;d just accepted a new position, and invited me along to move in and give him a hand with building maintenance as a weekend job to make a little extra money &#8212; it sounded good to me, so I told him that I was game, and we started working on that. I made a list of <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/02\/seven_things.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Seven things\">seven things I was grateful for<\/a>, after reading a post on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wilwheaton.net\/mt\/archives\/000948.php#000948\" title=\"WWDN: Flamenco sketches\">Wil Wheaton&#8217;s site<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2002\/02\/graphics\/kittylittercake.jpg\" title=\"The kitty litter cake\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The kitty litter cake\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2002\/02\/graphics\/kittylittercake-thumb.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" align=\"left\" \/><\/a>Casey turned 30, and Dez made him the most amazingly wonderfully disgusting cake I&#8217;ve ever seen in my life. Dez, quite simply, rocks. R &#8212; A &#8212; W &#8212; K <em>rawks<\/em>. I discovered that my move would be a bit <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/02\/i_knew_it_would.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: I knew it wouldn't all be good news\">more expensive<\/a> than I hoped, but nothing I couldn&#8217;t cope with. I finally found a <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/02\/new_blog_name.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: New blog name\">name for my weblog<\/a> worth sticking with &#8212; &#8220;The Long Letter&#8221; &#8212; and ended February with a look back at where I&#8217;d been at <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/02\/where_were_you.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Where were you?\">important dates in history<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>March, in theory getting in towards springtime, brought an <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/03\/seattle_snow.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Seattle snow\">unusually heavy snowfall<\/a> to Seattle. Well, heavy for Seattle &#8212; as an ex-Alaskan, I was pretty amused by this. America hit the <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/03\/tempus_fugit.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Tempus Fugit\">six-month anniversary<\/a> of the 9\/11 attacks, and took a moment to look back on things. I added a bit to my net-infamy by getting <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/03\/i_got_into_as_t.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: I got into As the Apple Turns!\">mentioned in AtAT<\/a>, an Apple-flavored soap opera, and got the keys to <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/03\/i_got_my_keys.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: I got my keys!\">my new apartment<\/a>. I also decided to stop using my @yahoo.com e-mail address, and <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/03\/new_email_addy.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: New e-mail addy\">switched over<\/a> to use an @myrealbox.com address for my public e-mail. Lastly for March, I decided that the new Star Trek show, &#8216;Enterprise&#8217;, <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/03\/byebye_enterpri.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Bye-bye Enterprise\">just wasn&#8217;t worth watching<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>April Fools day proved to be one of the worst I&#8217;ve had in a long time, when I <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/04\/byebye_andersen.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: April Fool's Day\">was let go<\/a> from my position at Andersen. Stress levels skyrocketed, but luckily enough, soon enough I ended up with a <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/04\/yay_for_temp_ag.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Yay for temp agencies!\">two-day posting<\/a> which quickly turned into a <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/04\/im_employed_aga.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: I'm employed again!\">permanent full-time posting<\/a> at the Xerox print shop on the Microsoft campus! Total time of unemployment &#8212; approximately one week. <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2002\/04\/graphics\/candice_me.jpg\" title=\"Candice and me at Bimbo's\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Candice and me at Bimbo's\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/graphics\/2002\/04\/graphics\/candice_me-thumb.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" align=\"right\" \/><\/a>Later that month, I took the opportunity of going with a bunch of friends to see <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/04\/funniest_man_on.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Funniest man on the planet?\">Robin Williams perform<\/a> to make my first public appearance with my brand new &#8216;haircut&#8217;. I&#8217;d had a few people over the years mention that I might look decent if I shaved my head, I finally decided to give it a shot &#8211; and I&#8217;ve gotta admit, I like it!<\/p>\n<p>May 3rd, I <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/05\/lastyear.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Lastyear!\">turned 29<\/a>. I&#8217;m running out of days before I enter my third decade! One of the few stories that I think actually gave the 9\/11 attacks a run for sheer newspaper space devoted to it was the release of the second (or fifth) Star Wars movie &#8212; which as it turns out, I was <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/05\/star_wars_attac.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Star Wars: Attack of the Clones\">less than impressed with<\/a>. In a word &#8212; overkill. There was one weekend of definite ups and downs &#8212; on the one hand, I got to go <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/05\/frikkin_major_t.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Frikkin' Major Tom!\">see Peter Murphy in concert<\/a>&#8230;on the other hand, Candice and I <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/05\/other_changes_i.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Other changes in life\">split up<\/a>. However, we&#8217;re remaining friends, and it was a mercifully drama-free parting of the ways, so it wasn&#8217;t nearly as much of a downer as it could have been.<\/p>\n<p>This month started with a <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/06\/kidney_thieves1.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Kidney Thieves\/KMFDM\">great Kidney Thieves\/KMFDM show<\/a>, and aside from occasional long days <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/06\/i_used_to_have_.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: I used to have fingerprints!\">working on the building<\/a> with Melvin, things have been fairly slow and steady. I got all <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/06\/back_in_the_day.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Back in the day...\">&#8216;geek-nostalgic&#8217;<\/a> at one point, which was fun, but may have been incomprehensible for people not as much into computers as I.<\/p>\n<p>And that pretty much sums up my first year living outside of Anchorage! Hopefully this hasn&#8217;t been too boring to work through&#8230;I&#8217;ve certainly had a fun time living it. Next weekend I get to <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/05\/north_to_alaska.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: North to Alaska!\">visit Anchorage for a weekend<\/a> to see my friends James and Stacy get married &#8212; with any luck, I&#8217;ll be able to see as many of my friends as possible while I&#8217;m up there. Should be a lot of fun.<\/p>\n<p>For the moment though, I&#8217;m going to stop my nostalgic rambling, and get on with the here and now. Until later&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a good year. The usual ups and downs of day to day life, sometimes with a bit more stress due to the new environs and the general issues of transplanting one&#8217;s life, but overall, pretty good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2043],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}