Hummingbirds in Cap Hill

Mudslide

Easy played a great double-header Sunday against Badger and Pan-Galactic Groove Squad. Both games were great, both games won by 3 points or less, and Huckin' came out on top both times--nice! Also, everyone from all the teams had great spirit.

The only downside came in the form of a large mud pit in one of the end zones, which I dove into headfirst on a layout. Normally, this wouldn't be any kind of a problem, but apparently this field had been recently fertilized. With very fresh fertilizer. Like, fresh from the cow's arse fresh.

This resulted in some less-than-glorious nicknames for the remainder of the game, including 'Stinky,' and 'Mr Poopy-Pants.'

It also resulted in the following cheer:

Charlie Brown had a dog named snoopy
If you lay out, don't slide in the poopy

When Nevin plays he wears a jock strap
If you throw, don't throw toward the crap

Pan-Galactic's hot like a skewer
Too bad Jay layed out in the manure

Ah, the poetry of ultimate. It just goes to show that all great art is born of suffering.

A day about town

Today was a normal Saturday, I made some calls, got a haircut, went shopping.

Before I get to that though, I have to say one thing: banks are evil. I am deeply unhappy about bailing them out in the way that we are. The last time things were this bad our new President had this to say:

"[T]he rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failures and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men."

-FDR

Hell, yes, and thank you, Franklin for saying that better than I ever could. That is exactly how I felt talking to Chase last week.

Two months ago I made a payment 4 days late. I got dinged with a $40 late fee, plus I had to pay interest on my charges for that month. Fine, whatever. The next month they charged me interest on my purchases again. Long story short, that is how it works. Miss a payment one month, pay interest for two months.

I don't know how that's not illegal, but it's definitely evil. Revolution is looking likelier by the day, so those that are gonna be first against the wall better watch their step. Do you really want to die in a blindfold because you screwed your own customers for a few measly bucks? Was it worth it? That's all I'm saying...

Speaking of new Presidents, the Acme Barbershop was all abuzz about the inauguration. Curt, my regular hair-cutter, told everybody that once Obama is inaugurated, gas will cost four cents-a-gallon and cars will emit perfume & flowers. Brian, my hair-cutter from today, muttered, "I don't know what the fuck that's about. Sometimes I wish I were deaf." Ah, topical banter in a barbershop--just like in the movies!

I don't do a lot of shopping, but it was more interesting with my iPhone. Borders often sends me coupons for 25% to 30% off an item, so I wandered around Borders trying to find something I want that is less than 125% of its price on Amazon. It was not easy. I bought a $45 book (Beautiful Code,) and an $11 CD (Fab Four Suture.) Then I realized that Amazon employees and most of the rest of the country don't pay sales tax on Amazon. Considering that, my net savings was $5. It took me about an hour in the store, and an hour in transit to save that $5.

I guess it's obvious that brick & mortar stores are hurting, but that really threw it into sharp relief. A lot of people have smart phones, and it's incredibly easy and cheap to shop online, so who will buy from these stores anymore? Only people who have time, an obsessive desire to save, coupons for a steep discount, and cheap public transit. (Gas and parking would more than cancel out my savings. Counting my bus fare, savings from today was $3.50.)

In addition to my $3.50, I also got a front row seat to several protests being held on the same block downtown.

There were Christians:

Zionists? (I couldn't get a good picture of the last flag, but I'm pretty sure it's a firefighters emblem, so I really don't know what this person was about.)

And Iraq war protesters. (Not pictured. I did give them a thumbs up though.)

It's ironic for someone to yell, "Jesus loves you!," very angrily at everyone who walks by. It reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw: "Lord, please protect me from your followers."

Frankly though I don't think they're any less effective than any of the other groups out there. I don't want to be mean to the Iraq war protesters, whom I sympathize with, but if massive worldwide demonstrations didn't prevent (or even slow) the war, then handing out fliers on the corner isn't going to end it.

That's okay. This year when I was in California during the Prop 8 battle, I decided that protesting isn't actually about convincing anyone. It's just an outlet for people who care about some issue or another, because they have a voice and they want to be heard. I totally get that. I do blog, after all.

Why have one name when you can have two?

Apologies for not posting since, (gasp) October. I guess the spirit hasn't moved me, or I've grown tired of calling out the Democrats for their obvious fakery.

This morning I rode the bus. I forgot my book, and I didn't feel like listening to the iPod, so I just sat there and took it all in. Lately I've been musing on the nature of perception & consciousness (sorry, no big insights here) but for some reason everything seemed like I was seeing it for the first time. Perhaps because I don't usually ride the 60 to work.

Bringing it back to the title of the post, this is what I saw at one of the stops on the way to Beacon Hill.


Tee-hee. It seems like the second guy they hired to make the English sign came up with a different answer, consistency be damned. This was probably a smart move, since careless white people such as myself will never notice, and everyone in the Hau Hau/How How can read the Chinese and doesn't give a damn what the letters say.

The thing is, unlike the rest of the 60 route, I've seen this sign on an almost daily basis for the past four years. For whatever reason, today I actually looked at it.

I wonder what else is out there that I haven't been seeing?

Anniversary Trip: Seaplanes & Orcas

Actually, our anniversary isn't for a couple of weeks, but last weekend was good weather for a day trip, and I've been plotting this for a while. Jenny knew that Saturday was a surprise day-trip, but otherwise I played my cards close to the vest.

Me: You should wear long pants, and bring a raincoat. It might be cold. Bring your camera. It's not dress up, but there is a meal involved. Oh, and it might be slippery. And we're not going to exercise at all. Oh no--I've said too much!

Jenny: ??

Luckily that was not enough information to go on, and my secret was safe until we rolled up to the Kenmore Air terminal at South Lake Union. Needless to say, the flight was amazing. We were about a hundred feet off the water the whole time.

Below is the route we took. The squiggle out by Friday Harbor is our jaunt in the whale-watching ship.


That picture pretty much sums up why I love the Northwest. We are surrounded by mountains.

Right when we got to Friday Harbor we passed the Ferry from Anacortes and I caught the fly-by on video.


We had a nice brunch in town, sipped mimosas by the water, and then headed back out on the water. We caught up with L pod, one of three resident pods, on the other side of San Juan Island. The whales were very close at times, and we saw several of them breach.

While we were checking them out, L pod headed offshore to meet up with K pod. (The naturalist thought there may have been some inter-pod mating going on.) Based on the sizes of the pods, there may have been more than 60 animals in the water. They put a hydrophone in to listen and it sounded like an Orca cocktail party.

Apparently pods don't meet up all that much, so we were really lucky to see that. The flight back was at higher elevation so not as thrilling, but we had great views of Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier. Like any good Seattlite I salivate at the sight of Rainier, so this more or less put me in a Northwest-loving coma. A perfect sight to come home to.


All told, it was a perfect day. I can't think of a better way to celebrate a great two years together, or a better person to spend it with.

Shi Shi Beach

Memorial-day weekend Bob, Joy, John, Jenny and I hit up the Olympic Peninsula for some beach camping.

Three months later, I uploaded the pictures:

It's a short hike, but when we got there a ranger hassled us about not having a bear barrel. (He also carded us because we brought wine.) John volunteered to go back to town and get one as long as someone came with him, so we did the hike three times that day. We're basically world-experts on the Shi Shi Beach trail now. (It's pronounced shy shy.)

So that was an important lesson, bring something to keep out bears, like this fine TrueValue paint bucket, pictured here.

I think the bucket would have slowed the bear down by maybe two minutes, but it seemed to make the ranger happy.

The other thing we learned was that Bob hasn't figured out s'mores yet:Hang in there, buddy!

On our way out we went to Cape Flattery, one of the Northwesternmost points of the continental U.S. It's about a 10-minute "hike," and very pretty. If you're in the neighborhood, definitely check it out.

David Sedaris at Amazon

One of the perks of working at Amazon is this thing called "Amazon Fishbowl." Basically, visiting authors and musicians come by to talk or perform and sign stuff. A lot of people come through but so far I've only seen They Might Be Giants, and Lewis Black. (Also, Russell Simmons.) Today was David Sedaris. The line to the big conference room was out the door , around the lobby, and down the hall. Jenny and I were near the front of the line, and we barely got seats.

Seeing him in person was a bit surreal. I've heard his voice so many times on NPR that it's impossible to imagine him as an actual person, and having him there didn't help that much. Surreal or not, he was hilarious. A lot of his humor is in the delivery, and it's even better in person.

I've never been sure how much to believe of his stories, so when he told us that he works with a charity that provides helper monkeys to quadriplegics I was skeptical, but maybe it's for real. Anyway, this is what he looks like:Some of the authors who speak at Fishbowl are very effusive about how great Amazon has been for them, but not David Sedaris:

"I have never been on Amazon. I have no idea what it looks like. I know that people order stuff on there but I have no idea how."

He also mocked authors who are obsessed with their Amazon ranking, and who write reviews of their own books. He offered up this review of his latest:

"The type is so small. I coudln't hardly read it! The author's picture is so ugly!"

Then he took questions from the audience. There was a lull so I asked about the promo for his interview on KUOW this morning, which described him as "one of the most humane writers alive." He hadn't heard it, and he was kind of puzzled. He said I must have misheard.

A better question was about writing about his family, and whether that causes problems. His response,

"People will come up to [my older sister] and say 'I know all about you.' They don't know anything about her. Except she has a parrot... and she had her first period on a golf course."

Hopefully that's funny to someone reading this who wasn't there. Like most of his writing, you have to picture him saying it.

By the way, this is my first post where I explicitly mention my employer, Amazon.com. This means I'm now operating under the External Communications guidelines which state that I must:

make it clear to your readers that the views you express are yours alone and that they do not necessarily reflect the views of Amazon.com.

Since I have to do that, I might as well express an opinion which does not necessarily reflect that of Amazon.com. Hmm... let's see here... Okay, here goes:

• The title of Russel Simmons' new book, Do You!, sounds kinda filthy.

Please note that Amazon.com does not necessarily agree with the above--but they might!

"It goes from the Cheesecake Factory to Hooters"

--Seattle Post Intelligencer's D. Parvaz on the eminent usefulness of the new streetcar.