Like A 3 Year Old On Drugs

Meet Gus.


Gus is our new kitten.

Gus is the most hyper thing we've put into our house to date. He has more energy than the two of us + our two other cats put together. Plus, he's a bit nuts.

Example:


Here's Gus in the sink, fearless of water, ready to pounce on a towel.

Need I say more?

Steven's Weather Vortex

Want to read more about weather in Seattle, and weather events around the globe? Don't trust the likes of TV weathermen like Jeff Renner? Head on over to Steven's Weather Vortex.

Seriously, Steven knows his stuff. So much so that he's getting a PhD in it. Subscribe and get the low down on weather.

I Will Build An Airplane First Before Flying Delta Again

This Thanksgiving we chose to travel back east, both for doing the family get-together but also to celebrate our niece's first birthday. We flew Seattle -> Atlanta -> Chattanooga, because it ended up being cheaper than a direct ATL flight (and Chattanooga put us closer to our destination).

The flight there was fine. On the way back, the adventure began. Here's the story, in four acts.

Act 1 - "But I can drive myself!"

We're getting ready to head back to the Chattanooga airport on Sunday. I check the flight status of the Chattanooga -> Atlanta leg, and it's getting more and more delayed, and we're worried about missing our Atlanta -> Seattle flight. So we call Delta and ask whether we can just drive ourselves down to Atlanta and take the second flight. "Yes," the answer was, "if you're OK paying $130 a person on top of your ticket price." Reason: the SEA <-> ATL direct flight is more expensive than the one that adds the Chattanooga leg. "Switching" to a direct flight would cost more (even though we'd be in the air less time and driving ourselves down to Atlanta, and even though we had confirmed seats on the Atlanta flight).

On principle we decided to not do this, and instead drove up to Chattanooga.

Act 2 - "Where's the plane?"

We arrive in Chattanooga, check in, go through security, and then wait at the gate. No plane was at the gate when we arrived. 5 minutes later, we hear the following announcement: "OK, folks, sorry to inform you, but the flight to Atlanta has been canceled." Reason: weather issues down in Atlanta (rain, fog).

So, we go back to the ticketing agent in Chattanooga. They have some trouble getting us seats on a Delta flight back to Atlanta the next day, so we say "what about other carriers?", aware of Rule 240. Soon, we get a 2-leg, 2-carrier flight out of Atlanta, leaving in the afternoon: Delta from ATL -> Dallas, and then American from Dallas to Seattle.

We get a confirmation number for the Delta flight. "What about boarding passes for the American flight?" I ask. The ticketing agent told me to not worry, and to check in at the American gate when I got to Dallas.

Delta then proceeds to pay a taxi cab $250 a person to drive us to Atlanta, where upon
we get picked up by family and stay the night. Yes, that's $500 to get us to Atlanta, when we could have driven ourselves.

I call Delta on Sunday night again, just to make sure about the Dallas check-in. The person on the phone assures me that we'll get boarding passes for the ATL->Dallas leg, and then American will issue us boarding passes for the second leg when we're in Dallas.

Act 3 - "Where are our seats?"

The next morning, I call American just to make sure things are peachy. American indeed finds our names on the flight from Dallas to Seattle, but doesn't have seats for us. "Wait," I said, "2 people at Delta told me I did!" Nope, sorry, the flight is overbooked. At best, we're standby. They tell us to call Delta.

We call Delta, and the Re-Issue desk guy tells me that we never got confirmed on the American flight. Reason: Delta and American don't have linked computer systems. While the ticketing agent may have been showing free seats on the American flight, she should have actually picked up the phone and called American and gotten a confirmation, as this Re-Issue guy was trying to do for us now.

However, there were literally no free seats in the air on any carrier, at any time, through any city for Monday. The earliest he could do for us was a Tuesday 7 AM departure from Atlanta, with a 25 minute layover in Salt Lake City. We grudgingly agree.

Act 4 - "Racing to the gate"

The 7AM flight left without a hitch. We ask the flight attendant whether we can get off the plane first, given the very short connection. She declines, saying "Oh, we'll get to the airport early." Turns out that we don't, and we get off near the end of the line of passengers. We run through the airport to make our connection. Fortunately Salt Lake is a small airport and we make it in time.

And, finally, we arrive in Seattle, 36 hours later than initially planned.

Epilogue

Now, the first problem was weather-related. Can't help that. What sucks about Delta is four-fold:
- They couldn't use common sense about letting us drive ourselves to Atlanta, instead trying to milk us for the higher direct flight cost.
- They ended up paying more for us to get taxied down to Atlanta on their dime.
- They didn't reserve our initial re-issue seats on a different airline, like they said they would, and like we asked multiple times.
- They didn't even have the courtesy to let us get off the plane first so we could make our short connection, which was due to their error in the first place.

The final kicker: I asked for some form of compensation for their error. The result: $50 vouchers for a future Delta flight. 50 bucks. That's it.

I'm frankly shocked at the incompetency and low level of customer service I received from Delta. I'm not surprised at all now that they're bankrupt. Their practices are antagonistic to customers, and it's hurting them in the end. If this is how they treat all of their customers in our situation, I don't understand how they're still in business.

See you, Delta. It hasn't been nice.

No More Glamazonia?

In case you haven't heard the news, Glamazonia will no longer be hosting Gay Bingo. Slog post is here, and Lifelong AIDS Alliance's response is here. If you've never been to Gay Bingo, let's say it's a 21+ fundraiser for LLAA, complete with bingo, booze, food, and an entertaining drag queen as the host.

Successful fund raiser? You bet: they consistently sold out, and attracted a diverse audience (gay and straight) willing to shell out money for entertainment and a good cause. But now, with no more Glamazonia, the appeal of the show is being questioned.

Here's a letter I sent to the LLAA in response. Tongue-in-cheek and sarcasm-filled, of course.

David and the Gay Bingo staff,

I recently heard a rumor that Glamazonia was dropped from LLAA and Gay Bingo. I rushed over to your web site to see if the rumor was true, and sure enough, I found your post on the matter.

What great news! I wholeheartedly support your move to drop Glam from LLAA. You see, my kids (Filbert, 5, and Seamonkey, 9) and I love Gay Bingo. We go every chance we get, sitting up front at a queens table, enjoying the sights and the sounds, dressing up in costumes appropriate for the theme, and relishing in the BINGO, of course! My kids love the pizza, and I enjoy the drinks (I can have one now and again, my support group says). But every time that tall, built Glamazonia comes out, my kids start freaking out, crying and screaming.

"Who is that?" they ask me. "Why is she saying what she's saying? Why am I being forced to listen to such harassing language?" (yeah, they're pretty precocious with their vocabulary). I try to calm them down, explaining to them that Glamazonia is just another one of God's creatures, and to remember that not everyone shares the same Puritanical values that our Mayflower ancestors did. But it doesn't quiet them down one bit. Sometimes I'm forced to give them a sip of my Long Island Iced Tea to keep them quiet and let the other people at my table enjoy the show. An outrage, that Glamazonia's actions drove me to that!

From the beginning, Gay Bingo has been one of those wholesome family events that kids and parents alike could enjoy together. Like the Zoo events at Woodland Park, or the Village Children's Center down near the Space Needle, or the Krazy Klowns Horror Freak Ride Show 2000 (that's still around, right?), Gay Bingo has been the place to enjoy some safe, G-rated fun with kids and "kids at heart". When Glamazonia took the helm, however, things went downhill. I couldn't believe the stuff she was exposing my innocent kids' virgin ears to. And her language! Gosh-diddly! Often, my kids have to run to the safe clutches of one of those nuns, the Sisters of…oh, you know, those saintly women. I thought those nuns would keep Glamazonia in line, what with their religious, cloistered upbringing. But I guess Glam was just there to do whatever the heck she wanted.

Thanks again for dropping Glam. I assume now you're in the market for another host. May I suggest Casey Treat? He's great with groups, and he could even add some group prayer to the event!

Another (Graphical) Reason To Quit Smoking

I don't smoke. In case you do, and you need some more motivation on why you should quit, check out a video of the amount of tar distilled from two packs of cigarettes. Now, think about that stuff in your lungs. Yummy.

Death To Polystyrene

We recently bought a bed from Crate & Barrel. We had the bed delivered last Friday, and it came in two boxes. Assembly was easy (no IKEA-like lengthy error-prone manuals). And the bed, plus mattress and foam topper, is quite comfy.

So why am I miffed at C&B? Because those two boxes the bed came in were filled to the brim with polystyrene foam (Styrofoam, in other words). 5+ bags of it, when broken down into manageable chunks. And, our recycling won't accept polystyrene (which I can only assume is the norm for most cities and municipalities).

This seriously put a dent in my opinion of C&B and how "with it" they are in terms of eco-friendliness. And yes, that's becoming increasingly important to me, as I think it should everyone on this planet.

Welcome to the 21st century, Crate & Barrel. May I direct you to some alternative packaging options that can be recycled, in place of polystyrene?

Orange Savings Account Is Far From The Best APY

I've seen a rapid increase in the amount of TV advertisements that ING Direct has been sponsoring. They pitch their Orange Savings Account, which has an APY of 4.20% (as of this writing).

Now 4.2% is a great APY considering what your corner bank typically offers. But it's far from the best.

Bankrate.com has a nice list of high-yield savings and money market accounts, and they show over 40 offerings that are better than ING's, many of those with no min balance, no fees, and low or no minimum to open.

Why not spend some of that TV budget returning more interest to your account holders, ING? You've got about 4 dozen horses ahead of you right now.

The Cost Of Driving

About $3.60 for a gallon of (premium) gas*.
About a gallon to commute to and from work.
About 240 workdays a year (excluding holidays and vacation)

That adds up to over $850 a year.

I need to take the bus more often.

*My car calls for it. I'd do the cheap stuff otherwise.

Stop The Political Telemarketing!

This weekend, my phone has been ringing off the hook. You'd think I was featured on some TV show, and people are calling to comment on the smashing shirt that I wore or something. No. Instead, people who are paid by political campaigns to call registered voters have been calling me, urging me to vote for their candidate.

Now, the interruptions are bad enough, but what's worse is half of these calls are recordings. They're not even willing to sit a real human on the other end of the line, but instead want me to listen to a computer spouting a recorded message of support from a local public figure.

Next time someone calls, I'm going to inform them that I am seriously considering voting against the candidate who they are trying to get me to vote for. I know, I know, "you have to play the game" politically, and if you don't make these calls and your competition does, then what?

I'll tell you what: how about your platform & promises be enough to carry you through an election, instead of relying on last-minute "please please vote for me!" calls?

And the reward for this election season being over next Tuesday? The run-up to the 2008 elections, of course, and the never-ending rhetoric, ads, and mud-slinging that will accompany them. I feel like I'm already done with those elections, and they're still a year away.

Seattle Voting Guide: The Name Game

OK, so it's time to elect some more people to office. In the past, we've done a picture-only analysis and a web site analysis. This time, we'll go for names. That's right: word association, word roots, or other gut reactions to people's names. Hey, from a guy who gets his last name mispronounced most of the time, I can relate.

King County Prosecuting Attorney
Bill Sherman. Hmm...Sherman. Hey, wasn't that some sort of general guy? Wow, that's pretty cool. Satterberg? Sorry, doesn't ring a bell.

Name Game vote: Bill Sherman

King County Assessor
What? Noble vs. Nobles? That's way too close! Can't...compute...difference.

Name Game vote: write-in "Noble(s)"

King County Council District #6
Pope is very holy. But Hague sounds like Hogue, the winery. Redemption vs. sin. Well, that's easy.

Name Game vote: Jane Hague

King County Council District #8
Constantine. Hey, that sounds like the namesake of Constantinople (no, not Istanbul). Cool. Potter, while reminiscent of the fantasy series' hero, doesn't do it for me. Wizardry teens vs. a friggin historical anchor and capital of three empires? Try to Patronus that one.

Name Game vote: Dow Constantine

Port Commissioner Position #2
Tarleton is kinda wacky, while Edwards is boring. Wow, this is a tough one. Neither really ring a bell... OK, Wikipedia for the tie-breaker. Whoa, check out that depiction of Banastre Tarleton! What a great headpiece!

Name Game vote: Gael Tarleton

Port Commissioner Position #5
Fisken? That sounds kind of imposing and sly, doesn't it? Like, "He's going to fisken you, watch out." Bryant sounds pretty safe. Plus, they make heating and cooling systems. Who doesn't want a cozy home, after all?

Name Game vote: Bill Bryant

Seattle City Council Position #1
Godden. That sounds quite Supreme Being doesn't it? But Szwaja! Whoa, look at that consonant-to-vowel ratio!

Name Game vote: Joe Szwaja

Seattle City Council Position #3
Harrell. Boring. Velázquez. Exotic!

Name Game vote: Venus Velázquez

Seattle City Council Position #7
Della. Hey, isn't that an actor? Cool. But Burgess, it means elected official! He's practically made for the job!

Name Game vote: Tim Burgess

Seattle City Council Position #9
Clark. Like Clark Howard, consumer advocate! Fenton? As in, the funeral home? No thanks.

Name Game vote: Sally Clark


Remember: vote early, vote often!

How Much Did You Pay For Radiohead's New Album?

You first.

Update: Looks like most people paid $0.00.

Scupltures Of Naked People Are Not The Best Political Platform

Meet Judy Fenton. Judy is running for a seat on the Seattle City Council. OK, Judy, welcome to the race!

But wait, let's see what Judy stands for. From her site:

PUBLIC ART: Parents and teachers work hard to instill safe boundaries for our children, the precious next generation. Public art must not blur and confuse those boundaries!

Hmm...what does that mean? A Seattle Weekly article sheds some light:

Specifically, Fenton is concerned about the fountain at the base of the Olympic Sculpture Park that depicts a man and a boy standing naked facing each other. "We spend a lot of heartfelt time and effort teaching our children boundaries and guidelines, telling them if somebody touches us in ways that aren't appropriate what they should do," Fenton explains. "If somebody sees that statue, it will undo that and confuse them."

...

Ok, Judy, seriously? A statue of a naked man and naked boy facing each other, arms outstretched, is one of the issues you're basing your entire campaign on (and, presumably, one you think is a cornerstone issue that must be resolved in this city)? Come on. Seriously?

Ha! I get it - it's a joke, right? You really meant that you wanted to give more funding to the arts, including naked statue art. Right?

Oh crap, you're serious?

...

OK, then, I can only do one thing. I'm declaring my position on artwork for Seattle. From now on, I believe that all public art depictions of one Judy Fenton of Seattle, WA be barred from display in any public place.

The reason? You see, it scares the hootenanny out of me that someone believes these statues are a problem, and believes it is so much an issue as to run a political campaign on it. And, you see, that confuses me and undoes all the heartfelt time and effort that public art has strived to instill in me. Sorry, Judy - I just can't have that. You know, just like children can't bear to look at statues of naked people.

This Is Exactly What I Don't Want An F-18 To Be Doing

Check out the first picture in this news article. Is that an F-18 flying mere feet above the surface of the San Francisco bay?

Yes, this is kind of neat, until (and I'm going to run the risk of sounding like a parent here) someone gets hurt. Furthermore, it's one thing to risk your own life. But why those people on the water? This seems beyond standard "air show risk" to me, and on into "reckless abandon".

Cupcake Royale Fall Flavors Arriving Soon

Seasonal cupcake flavors are arriving soon at your nearest Cupcake Royale
. Pumpkin, Apple, and Carrot (Cake) options will make the cooler weather a bit more worth it. And, to kick things off, the Ballard shop had some baby cakes available in these flavors, to get everyone in the mood.

Do You Want 5 Gallons Of Sweet Tea With That?

Someone ate a record 21 pounds of grits, winning the first World Grits Eating Championship. I like grits and all, but 21 pounds? That seems both challenging and disgusting at the same time.

I love how the article has to define what grits are. I suppose there are still some uninitiated folk out there. For the record, grits with cheese and bacon is delectable.

Greek Festival = Greek Eats

This weekend was the annual St. Demetrios Greek Festival. The festival is a great chance to get together, learn about Greek culture, see some people dance and play music, and have a good time out of doors.

OK, but the real draw is the Greek food. Roast lamb sandwiches, souvlaki, gyros, and pastries of all sorts.

True to form, we started with the pastries this year as we were waiting for people to arrive. We shared a flaky, moist Kataifi and a nice Galatoboureko. After various savory dishes, we ended with some Loukoumathes and took some Melomakarona for home (so what if it isn't Christmastime?).

Every time I attend a festival, my baking aspirations wake up a bit. Then, I realize it takes a good bit of time to make all of these sweets. OK for a weekend here or there, but those tend to fill up quickly with other activities. What is an aspiring baker to do?

I know. Blog about his delight at eating Greek food yesterday, while stuffing his face with those leftover Melomakarona. Στην υγειά σας!

Wake Me When It's Sunny Again

It's weird - I thought I had tabs on when the summer was over and fall set in around here in Seattle. But it feels like summer ended early this year. Consider:

• It's 6:30 PM and it's cloudy and rather dark outside.
• The temperature is 62 degrees right now, but the overnight low is 53.
• The 10-day forecast has our highs in the 50s.

I could have sworn that in years past, it wasn't until October that we had this sort of weather. Hmm, maybe those are just wishful memories.

OK, at least we have a bounty of fall produce to look forward to, not least of which is no less than a gazillion varieties of apples. And cider. Yum!

Drinking And Dining At Smith

We recently decided to eat and drink at Smith, a relatively recent (but by no means new) addition to the 15th street strip on Capitol Hill. I'd been there once before for a beer, and the menu looked interesting. This time, we were going to sample the kitchen's wares.

Decor
I describe Smith's interior as Tweedy English Hunting Club crossed with hipster. The exterior presents some dark awnings that cover large open windows and doorways. The interior is heavy in wood, and the walls are filled with taxidermied deer and fowl as well as paintings of people in regal poses. There are booths, 4-top tables, and large 14-top tables that can seat large parties or seat smaller groups communally. While the decor may be a throwback to times of old, the music is definitely caught up with the times, thanks to the modern jukebox near the entrance.

Drink
Come for the beer, stay for the liquor. Smith boasts a variety of American, British, Irish, Mexican, and Belgian brews, both on tap and in bottles. And they have a full bar, which is more broad than deep (as in, they don't have 10 single malt Scotches, but they have more than one).

Food
Here's where it gets interesting. The cuisine is full of rich dishes that seem to span the Chunnel between London and Paris. Here's what we had:

• Fried duck leg. As good as it sounds. Super thick, seasoned fried batter covering a large thing and drumstick of delectable, dark duck meat. Very flavorful.
• Devils on horseback. Dates stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in what I believe was pancetta. A wonderful combination of sweet, salty, and tangy.
• Beer potted cheese. A thick, creamy cheese spread accompanied with homemade cracker to spread it on.
• Summer vegetables. Green and white beans, tomatoes, and peppers sauteed in an anise butter sauce.
• For dessert, a very thick, rich chocolate pot du creme.

The good news is that we only sampled about a sixth of the menu. Some dishes are more adventurous (pig's feet, head cheese), while some look more familiar (pasta, pork sandwich). If what we had is any indication, Smith's kitchen is an excellent mix of wonderful flavors with a not-your-usual-pub-fare spin.

You can't ask for more than a nice atmosphere, a good beer, and great food. Add to that friendly, unpretentious, prompt service, and you've got a winner. We plan to return to Smith to enjoy more of their fare, donned in our (virtual) tweed jackets.

Buy Versus Build

The last PC I owned, I built. Meaning, I separately purchases the case/motherboard/CPU, the hard drive, the RAM, the CD-ROM drive, the floppy drive, and peripherals. I got to pick the components I wanted, and I ended up saving a couple of hundred dollars over a comparable pre-built machine from the likes of Dell or HP.

It was time for a new machine. So I had to weigh the options again: buy one outright, or build one like I did before? This time, I went with buy. Frankly, I don't have the time to spend putting everything together and making it work, and there's hardly a price difference these days. If I were building a high-end gaming PC there probably would be a difference, but not so much for a mainstream PC that I'm looking for.

The inner geek in me is crying a little tear for not assembling my own PC this time around. But I'm also secretly looking forward to having a box arrive with a PC that's pretty much ready to go as soon as I pull it out.

Carmageddon Is Over

That's right - this Saturday all northbound lanes of I-5 are open! The news folks need another excuse now for not reporting real news.

On that note, I should write about something more noteworthy, too. We just got back from a little camping trip out near Westport (outside of Aberdeen), on the coast, so maybe I'll write about that. After we rest up and get some grub, that is.

Things That We All Need And Want, If 11PM Television Commercials Are A Good Indicator

• Cars
• Brand-name pharmaceuticals
• Makeup
• More cars
  
• DVDs of television shows
• Fruity shampoo
• Trucks
• Fast food
• Oprah
  

Carmageddon, Day 9

So now that section of I-5 is down to two lanes. And the result? Some slowing, of course. But no "backups to Tacoma" that we heard on the news for several days leading up to the construction.

Do you know what really makes traffic slow in this region?

1. Take a fender bender between two or three cars.
2. Set that on the side of a busy road.
3. Watch as every single driver slows down to 20% of normal speed as they take their time watching people write down insurance information for each other.
   

Grr...

Carmageddon, Day 5

Today, on the WSDOT traffic map, I actually saw two little red squares right under the I-5 construction area, indicating heavy traffic.



Two! That's like, what, a half mile of slower than normal traffic? Gasp!

Yeah, it's been a pretty normal commuting week. By the looks of it, it will stay that way throughout this project.

Carmageddon, Day 3

And the verdict on the first weekday commute during I-5 construction and lane closures? Awesome.

No, seriously - it was one of the best weekday commutes in weeks, maybe even months.

This evening's commute may fare differently, as there's a Mariners home game. If it goes smoothly, I'll probably just stop posting these daily updates since they'll sound like a broken record.

Carmageddon, Day 2

Despite the apparently high risk of traffic jams and the angst and pain that it could cause, we did venture out of the house yesterday in a car. And you know what? I-5 was moving great. There was actually less traffic on the roads than on usual weekends. Southbound coming into the city was the clearest I'd seen it on a Saturday in months!

Our crying-wolf media partners, King 5, admit that it's been smooth so far as well.

I guess the real test will be tomorrow's commute. I still think this has all been over-hyped, and it'll be OK. I may eat my words.

Aww, Shucks

OK everyone, put down those shucking knives. Looks like the great State of Washington has produced oysters contaminated with poisonous bacteria. From the report:

How does V. parahaemolyticus cause illness?

If you become infected you will most likely have watery diarrhea, accompanied with abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, a high temperature and chills.

Mmmm, that's a great thing to look forward to after a half dozen on the half-shell..

Carmageddon, Day 1

Oh no, it's begun!


Interestingly, 9AM and the roads seem to be nice and clear. It is still early, though.

Interstate Armageddon!

For weeks now, local TV and radio reports have raised the flags and rung the alarm bells about the impending commuter doom that is about to befall Puget Sound. According to King 5, the gridlock begins at 10PM! That's right, I-5 will undergo some construction, which will restrict the number of northbound lanes. This will carry on for 19 days, and is predicted to snarl traffic, cause people to inconsolably weep as they're stuck in traffic, and turn our fair region into an imitation of a parking lot.

With so much hooplah about this closure, I have to think: is this more bark than bite? Perhaps it will be, given the attention it's been given. After all, if lots of people hear about it, get scared, and figure out alternate ways to get around, total demand on the road falls, hopefully within acceptable ranges. To put it another way, if the throughput is reduced by half on the road, but then half the normal commuters take alternate routes or don't drive at all (because they've been driven to that out of fear of being stuck for days out on the interstate), it may not be as bad as predicted.

I'm sure that's part of the plan, namely getting fewer people to use the narrower road. The rest is just predictions and assumptions. I'm sure there'll be times when traffic is worse. But I also think it's been way too hyped up. Chalk it up to another thing that the news media can easily report on, that affects everyone, but ultimately may not be that big of a deal.

Review: Signal (SIFF 2007)

Some horror and thriller movies like to give you a back story before the real story begins. You know, the story line before the plot really gets going, that somehow is supposed to give you insight into the characters' psyches, before things start going bump in the night? I have to say I'm not a big fan of them. It's not because I don't like back stories. It's just that most of these movies don't do a very good job with this prelim stuff. The Signal doesn't go down this route. The story is told from three characters' perspective, but the timeline is continuous, and the weirdness starts right from the beginning.

The plot revolves around a mysterious transmission which pervades cell phones, radios, and televisions. It causes people to turn psychotic; they start seeing things and acting upon urges that the signal is seemingly telling them to do. Chaos soon reigns, and we witness some key characters trying to make sense of things as they try to escape people who are bent on doing very bad things to them. And, the thing that keeps one of the key characters going through it all is love.

Too touchy-feely? Nah, don't worry, there's plenty of gore, cat-and-mouse, and dark corners to keep you interested.

The movie does have a few touches of dark humor, with some scenes expertly juxtaposing quaint, normal city life with the weird, chaotic things that are going horribly wrong. These are mere dabs of color, though, as in the end The Signal is a true horror movie.

Throughout the movie, I kept noticing things that looked somewhat familiar. Near the end, it was confirmed: a good portion (if not all) of the movie was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia! That gives The Signal an extra point (I'm a sucker for familiarity).

Overall rating: 8.0/10.0

Details:
Runtime: 99m
Countries: USA
Languages: English

When Casinos Beat Culture

I was on the way home from a Highland Games today when I heard a pretty disturbing commercial on the radio. A couple was sitting in the audience of an opera performance; the man was bored with the performance, but the woman said that they should stay because they needed some "culture". The man proceeded to say that he would much rather be at the Angel of the Winds casino, where he could:

• sit in a comfortable seat
• play the slot machines
• eat some inexpensive food
• talk to people who are friendly to you

He then proceeded to insult the singer, before the woman finally agreed with him, after which they left the performance to go to the casino.

OK, hold on. Let's compare:

Opera:

• musical stage performance comprising of typically classical music, complete with an orchestra and solo voice
• you pay money for a seat, you sit in it, and you listen the performance
• during intermission, you may get a beverage or a small snack
• a chance to interact with other people attending who share an interest in the music, and may know more about it than you do

Casino:

• Assortment of games of chance where you're statistically guaranteed to lose money
• You pay money for the privilege of losing it
• You eat mediocre, discounted food that's bad for you
• You talk to people who are paid to be nice to you

Maybe it's the fact that I listened to opera from a young age, but this commercial really insulted me. I can only imagine a visitor from another country (especially one where classical opera hails from) listening to the commercial and wondering what sort of people would subscribe to it.

I know, this is just a commercial. But if the commercial is supposed to resonate with people, and make people relate with the message, then I shudder to think of how many people this connected with.

To Anyone Thinking Of Moving To Seattle

See, rumors are sometimes true. It does rain all the time here, even in the summer. Trust me, we've all sold our cars and purchased boats of various shapes and sizes to get around the city. Umbrellas are state-issued, and Nordstrom has some designer rain coats on sale. Starbucks is considering throwing instant coffee powder out their store windows and into the water to attract customers. And I hear there's some Noah guy building a big wooden boat in Lake Union.

But seriously, it has been an unusually wet July.

The Strongest Beer Ever Brewed

We've all tasted the nasty light beers that are out there. But what about the strongest beer ever brewed? Enter Samuel Adams Utopia.

Alcohol: 25% ABV
Cost: $100-200
Availability: Very hard to get
Taste: From what people describe that have tried it, very unlike your usual beer. More like a brandy or a similar fortified wine.

OK, who has a spare hundred or so bucks to buy a bottle? I'll be happy to sample it with you. Heck, I'll even bring the chips.

The Wii Virtual Console Is The Best

It's like they designed it for 20-somethings like me, who grew up with the NES and want to play old games again.

We've already downloaded the original Super Mario. All the old tricks and hidden stuff is coming back to mind. They also have the original Zelda, which I remember going over to a friend's house to play for hours on end.

If they port Super Mario 3, I may need to take a sabbatical.

Willie Nelson At The Gorge

This past 4th of July we headed out to the Gorge in George, WA to see Willie Nelson & friends in concert. Apparently this was the first time Willie played a July 4th show outside of Austin, and it was certainly the first time we had ever seen him live.

We arrived at the Gorge around 3pm, to a sunny day of mid-to-upper-90s temperatures. Hot, yes, but at least it wasn't humid. We had plenty of sunscreen and a big Nalgene to fill with water.

The acts started around 4pm. Here's how they shaped up:

• Amos Lee - really great. Funky but relaxed, well balanced sound. Enjoyable toe-tapping songs. Quite unpretentious.
• Drive By Truckers - country-rock outfit. Started out with a pretty clangy, off-key sound but got better as their set went on. Some songs were hits, some were misses. They were louder than Amos Lee, and their harmonies were often off. Could have been bad mixing or bad monitor levels.
• Old 97's - pretty bad. Didn't sound great at all, weren't locking into harmonies, and their songs were boring.
• Son Volt - very good. Interesting songs, great sound, enjoyable set. Though why did Jay Farrar have to switch guitars after every song?
• 40 points - Willie Nelsons' two sons (Micah, Lukas) are in this band. Great solo guitar playing. Decent vocals. Some songs were ho-hum but not all that bad.

Then came Willie. He played a solid 2 hour set with back to back songs, including many classics but also about four new ones. He didn't sing as many high notes as his recorded songs have, but he still sounded great, and engaged well with the crowd. And yes, he played his old, beat up, twangy, slightly distorted guitar. It's Willie; he's classic.

After his set, it was time to head home. We left the Gorge around midnight, and even with a stop for fuel we arrived back in Seattle around 2:30 AM.

Wii!

I got the bestest birthday present ever yesterday - a Wii! My wonderful wife scoured the greater Seattle area and managed to land one. It felt like I was back in grade school getting an original Nintendo system.

I'll post some thoughts on it later. Right now I need to get back to playing it.

Compact Fluorescent Nirvana

Today we replaced most of our light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFL). The initial outlay isn't cheap, but for the number of bulbs we have, we figured it would be worth it over the long run.

Here's our initial light bulb breakdown:
- 23 can lights (inlaid, ceiling) at 65 watts a piece = 1,495 watts
- 14 regular bulbs at 100 watts
= 1400 watts

- 5 regular bulbs at 60 watts = 300 watts

Total = 3,195 watts

At a conservative 5 kilowatt-hour rate, turning on all our lights for a solid day would cost nearly four dollars.

Now, we have bulbs that are a scant 15 watts, but supply the same light output. That means a total of 630 watts, which means a full day's output cost of 75 cents.

We're quite happy with the light quality itself. Initially we were a little wary of the "fluorescent" part of the CFL, but the bulbs produce a nice soft-white facsimile of an incandescent. The only downside to these lights that we can see are that they're not dimmable. But we don't have dimmers nor do we really want them.

So at least now at least I can say my carbon footprint is a tad lighter.

Review: One Day Like Rain (SIFF 2007)

One Day Like Rain has a lot of great shots. Shots that contrast something strange with some common activity of daily life. Grainy, washed out images. Impressions of animals and plans in their natural environment. Time-lapse scenes of sunlight filtering through leaves on trees. Indeed, this movie is chock full of great shots.

Unfortunately, that's about the only good thing I can say about this film, which for me alternated between periods of vacuousness, pretention, boredom, and fogginess.

The film presents a very loose thread of a plot: Gina, a quirky teenage girl living in California, has somehow gotten wind of an impending doom facing the world, and she is working out how to save the world as a result. She invests time, effort, chemistry sets, crystals, and her friends in an effort to do this. She makes some sort of chemical concoction that she gives to her friend, Jennifer, who drinks it and later dies. She then goes off with her boyfriend and has a romantic night out in the woods before the world apparently ends.

You may think I'm overly summarizing a lot of plot details that go along to flesh out the above, but I'm not. This is more or less all the scaffolding you get for the overarching story. The rest is a series of ambiguous scenes and empty, needlessly opaque conversations that make up the whole of the movie.

The dialog revolves around fuzzy statements and endless repetition of lines that don't advance the story one bit. "She's got it", you hear over and over. "She's trying to save the world." But you're not really shown how, or why, or when, or what she's really doing. I suppose you're intended to guess. But after a while the guessing game gets really old.

OK, so if there's not much of a plot, there's at least characters and development, right? Wrong. With the exception of Jennifer, I found all the characters flat and uninteresting. They spring out of nowhere, say a few tired lines, sit and stare out into space, and then bam! you're onto the next scene. The movie fails to make me care about any of the characters, which leaves them to be just mindless agents trying to convey something falsely deep and meaningful to the audience.

What the movie lacks in plot, dialog, and character development, it tries to make up in symbolism. Unfortunately, the other extreme takes hold here: the symbols are in your face and practically crammed down your throat. During several scenes, I was almost expecting some subtitling to show up, pointing out, "Hey, look! Two clocks on the wall ticking away...time is running out! Oh wait, check it out, one of them stopped!".

I'm all about films that offer an "experience" of sorts, or have symbolism, or can be studied from many angles. Kubrick is a great example of this: you can watch The Shining as a horror flick, or you can break it down and study its use of symbols, or how the scenes are shot, or what the characters are saying. But it's still a feature, and it's still something you can sit down and watch and enjoy and not have to study. Not so with One Day Like Rain. Director Paul Todisco has made what is potentially a film to study in film school, but what he didn't make is something that a general audience can enjoy without deconstructing it on a white board in a lecture hall.

In the Q&A after the movie, Todisco mentioned that the film came to him in about a week or two. I have to say that it certainly shows. Todisco took his time with how the film was shot. Too bad that his efforts in the other aspects of the movie didn't pan out.

I'm disappointed in SIFF selecting this film for a premiere. I was seriously considering becoming a member this year. But if this is the sort of stuff SIFF will program throughout the year, then count me out.

Overall rating: 1.0/10.0

Details:
Runtime: 90m
Countries: USA
Languages: English

Popcorn Ban

I love it when our local civil servants take up arms against a noble cause. With such energy in rectifying this problem, you would think all of our city's issues would be resolved!

One Reason Why I Don't Eat Beef

Millions of pounds of tainted ground beef do not a happy dinner plate make.

Review: Paris, Je T'aime (SIFF 2007)

I'm a big fan of potluck dinners. Everyone goes off and makes something unique and different, and then everyone gets together and samples a bunch of dishes. Some are good, some are new, occasionally one isn't that great, but in the end you've tried a variety of dishes and you've filled your stomach in the process.

So it was with Paris, Je T'aime. 18 mini-movies, each no longer than five minutes, tied loosely together by the theme of love, and by characters who are only casually intertwined (in ways we don't learn until the end of the film). It's a movie-goer's potluck of sorts: you get a wide variety of small bites, and in the end you feel satisfied that you've seen a great overall movie that explores a topic through many dimensions.

The nice thing about the overall film is that the theme wasn't expressed in a singular way. Like the chefs and their secret ingredient in Iron Chef, every director has a unique style and approach to their mini-movie. Some were humorous, while others were more dramatic. Some were fast-paced, and others were more lingering. I believe there had to be an editor of sorts overseeing the project, as the spectrum of movies were carefully balanced in the entire work, as was the overall tone (it went from light, to dark, to light again).

Not every mini-movie received high marks from me (there was one quite surreal one with a salesman and an aggressive salon worker that caught me off guard and left me wondering whether someone had edited an incorrect portion of another film into the movie), but they were almost all interesting enough to deserve a viewing.

And, the best part about this project is that if you absolutely hate one of the mini-movies then, just like the weather in some parts, all you have to do is wait and something new will come along.

Overall rating: 9.0/10.0

Details:
Runtime: 120m
Countries: Lichtenstein / Switzerland / Germany / France
Languages: English / French

Where Oh Where Can I Get A Wii?

After playing the Wii a couple of times at a friend's house, I really want one. Trouble is, they're nowhere to be found.

• I've looked around online, including keeping an eye on "wii tracker" web sites that tell you when they're in stock. No luck.
• I've stopped into stores on a whim, to see if they have any in stock. No luck.

All my friends who have one scored one by following plan B above. Namely, they happened to walk into a store at just the right time and land one of a few that happened to be available. Trouble is, those times of availability are few and far between.

You may say, "Hey, there's bundles! You can get a Wii + 3-5 games!". Nope, sorry. I want the console and the games I choose to buy. The bundle games typically don't interest me.

Apparently folks on sites like Craigslist offer to sell new Wiis for a small ($50?) premium. I'm not quite that desperate...yet.

Review: Severance (SIFF 2007)

We've all seen at least one instance of the horror predator-stalks-prey movie genre, right? Movies like Saw or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The Hills Have Eyes? Well, what would you get if you mixed that type of movie with a whole bunch of dry British humor and wit, and stirred it all around? Severance, that's what!

The gist of this dark-humored gorefest is that employees of Palisade, a less-than-ethical weapons manufacturer, decide to take a team-building retreat at some luxury lodge up in the woods. You've got the typical cast of characters: the optimistic boss, the undying loyalist, the slacker druggy, and a few other stereotypes to boot. As the crew makes their way up to the lodge, they come upon a fallen tree on the roadway. Because their stubborn Hungarian bus driver refuses to go on (and summarily abandons them), they decide to hike it to the lodge. Eventually, they find shelter, but it's not the lodge they were anticipating. Little things seem off (like, you know, the place is kind of a dump, and looks like an abandoned house, and it gives people bad dreams), but the optimistic manager convinces everyone to make the best of the situation and to stick with it.

Soon, things get weird. One of the employees finds files of Palisade staffers in the "lodge". A cover up of sorts tied to the weapons biz, perhaps? The employees also suspect the place used to be an asylum. And, one of the employees finds a meat pie, bakes it, and someone promptly finds a human tooth in it. Not weird enough for you? Well, soon after the employees catch wind that something is seriously wrong with the place, the cat-and-mouse game begins: some well-shadowed forces stalk, hunt, capture, and kill the employees one by one, hell-bent on not letting them escape.

I liked that this movie kept presenting scenes of horror and drama, with music blaring and tenses running high, before switching to a bit of comedy to lighten the mood and remind people that this is a horror flick with a funny bone that's not to be taken seriously. And when the funny bone has a British sense of with to it, that makes it all the more hilarious.

Overall rating: 7.0/10.0

Details:
Runtime: 90m
Countries: Germany / United Kingdom
Languages: English / Hungarian / Russian

Vosges Creates Bacon Chocolate

It's a Southerner's dream come true: applewood smoked bacon, chocolate, and a bit of alder smoked salt come together in Vosges new Bacon Chocolate Bar.

Before any non-believers start scoffing at this marriage of flavors, consider this: have you had bacon on a plate with maple syrup that's spilled onto it from the pancakes? Not bad, right? Or better yet, have you ever had bacon pancakes? Delectable. And I predict this bar will be just as tasty.

The Whole Foods near us carries Vosges; I wonder whether they have this particular bar in stock. If not, there's always mail order, though I do worry about melted chocolate in the summer.

Review: Them (SIFF 2007)

Them (Ils in French) is one of a new crop of horror and thriller movies coming out of France. And, like many of its predecessors, it doesn't fail to please those looking to get a rise in their blood pressure and finger marks on their neighbor's arm.

Them is light on character development, offering just enough to structure a premise for the plot. We encounter a young woman who's a French teacher in a school in Romania. We see her partner is a writer. They live in a big, old house in the middle of nowhere. She comes home, they have dinner, and they turn in for the night. Darkness descends over the forest surrounding their home. A perfect setup to a horror flick, right?

Soon, strange things begin to occur. A prank phone call gets them out of bed. Strange sounds raise their concerns. And, pretty soon, they fear that something is inside their house. They soon find out that they are right.

The real success of Them is that it doesn't try to shock you by portraying a lot of blood and gore. Instead, it puts you in the scene, right next to the main characters who are part of this cat-and-mouse affair, with very little knowledge of who "they" are and what "they" want. Are they people? Is it a paranormal force? Aliens? At the onset, you're not quite sure.

As the movie progresses, the true nature of the predator becomes known. But by then, a different fear takes hold, and the movie leaves you with a lasting suspense: you see that what the characters just went through is not out of this world, and is something that could indeed happen in real life.

Overall rating: 8.5 /10.0

Details:
Runtime: 77m
Country: French
Language: French, Romanian

You Know There's A Holiday Weekend Coming When...

...traffic at 8:30 in the morning is this light.

The New Yorker On A Piece Of Fallible Hardware

Almost every issue of The New Yorker now comes with an advertisement for the Complete New Yorker. You know, that deal where you can get all the issues in digital form on DVD since 1925? Well, I noticed recently that they offer the same deal on an external hard drive.

I think The New Yorker is pitching this for the following people:

• Those that have a computer, portable or otherwise, that is used offline.
• Those that want random access to any issue in the catalog.
• Those willing to cart around a fallible piece of hardware that stores their expensive content.
  

Hey, New Yorker, why not provide this as a service? So:

• You pay some monthly subscription (maybe on top of the magazine price).
• You have online access to the same digital catalog, via your web browser.
• If you expect to be offline, you can download some set of issues to read, with some time-based expiration to prevent people carting away the content without paying the subscription.
  

Minus the cost aspect, libraries do this with e-books today. Someone hosts the content (and maintains it, and backs it up, and all that). And I consume it. All this without having to cart around a hard drive (or a set of DVDs for that matter).

Still, I wonder how this is selling. Maybe I should package some blog posts on a limited edition collector's hard drive with my signature etched on the case?

SIFF 2007

Ah yes, the first holiday weekend of the warm weather months is here: Memorial Day. And what do Seattleites do? Do they barbeque? Do they spend time in the park? How about a nice walk on the beach? No! They rush inside and watch movies, away from the scary rays of the sun!

That's right, it's time again for the Seattle International Film Festival. This year we're watching about 9 movies (I know, a bit more conservative than years past). And, as usual, I'll post my reviews. The fun begins tomorrow night!

Rental Insanity

People talk about the inflated house prices out here on the West coast. There's even a blog devoted to the proposed Seattle Bubble. But sometimes you run into a rental that's offered at just as insane a price as some of the houses around here. Here's one example.

From the Craigslist post advertising the unit:

This may be the most unique apartment on Capitol Hill. It features, 18ft ceilings, modern/industrial design, large living room and bedroom, full bathroom, open style kitchen, nicely redone concrete floors and loads of charm. This is a nice private unit that has its own entrance... Located on Bellevue Ave and Harrison it's just a short walk to Broadway, Downtown, and South Lake Union...and everything you could possibly need.

Ah, a master of spin! Everything in the description, and the photos to boot, is accurate. Here's the reality:

• This is a small apartment. It's a studio, after all. It's really not that big.
• The unit was created out of an existing storage/laundry space. As a result, there's not a lot of natural light in the place.
  
• The apartment has a street-level entry door that faces a street that dead ends and leads to an alley.
• This is a street that has witnessed crime, including gun violence, in the past year.
  
• The door to the apartment has a glass face.
• The place is being offered for nearly $1500

So what we're talking about here is a small, dark studio apartment with a glass-faced door that people can peer into, that leads out to a street that you may not want to be hanging around on at around 3AM. All for the low low price of $1500! What a steal!

What else can you get for $1500 on Capitol Hill? A nice 2-bedroom apartment, easy. That very same building has decent-sized 1 bedrooms, without the needless street-level entry, for just over $1000.

At least the market has been honest with this one: it's been available for rent for many months now, with no takers. Serves the owner right: this is an insane offer.

Signs It's Spring-Like In Seattle

You know Seattle's coming out of winter hibernation when there's outdoor festivals and fairs and such. For example, the University District Street Fair is this weekend. And, as of Saturday morning, it's actually sunny! Quick, get out there before it rains!

License To Abridge

I came across Compact Classics today, modern life's apparent answer to the lack of time to read classic novels. From the sales copy:

WHAT ARE COMPACT EDITIONS? Compact Editions are some of the greatest books ever written, but they have been sympathetically edited so that most of them are under 400 pages. They retain all the elements of the originals: the plot, the characters, the social, historical and local backgrounds and the authors' language and style. The reductions in length have been done with sensitivity and in no way detract from the spirit of the original.

Whoa, hold on. These are classics like David Copperfield, Jane Eyre, and Moby Dick. Sure, they're not the shortest of books. But chopping them down to make them sellable to people to busy for them? Well, I don't buy it. I don't care how "sympathetic" the edits are. They're edits. They're changes to the original work, done by someone who's not the author. That means you're not reading the original book.

What's next? A version of Mahler's Ring cycle cut down to just a few arias for each opera? Movies edited to just the action scenes?

I'm all about making things easier or more efficient. But I draw the line when it comes to art.

A Night At The Museum

When the Seattle Art Museum was finally ready to reopen after finishing its newly-expanded facility, what more Seattle-y way to celebrate than to stay open 35 hours straight, bring over some performers and DJs, and open the museum for all, for free? That's indeed what they did, and people (including a group of us) turned out in droves.

We showed up around 11pm and there were a ton of people there. The old, the young, the conservative, the punk, the extroverts and the introverts all came out to see the new museum. Sounds like nerdy way to spend a Saturday night? Not really - it felt more like a party someone threw in a big, big house with a lot of art. And music. And dancing.

The main floor opens up to a large entry area featuring a large piece of art that includes cars and flashing streams of light (yeah, you kinda have to see it for yourself). From there, there's a shop and restaurant on the bottom floor, and two floors of art upstairs.

As for the art, there's a bit of everything. Classical Greek sculpture, Chinese landscapes, Native American woodworking, Renaissance portraits, and quite a bit of contemporary art (including a Pollock and a Warhol). The new space affords some mixture of media which not only allows for things like video installations, but also lets one, say, observe Native American art while viewing a documentary on the artists.

We spent about two hours there and felt like we had looked at everything, but not really studied it. But after a while, our feet were tired, and watching others groove to the beat was wearing us out, so we decided to go to a neighborhood bar and grab a beer.

Thumbs up to SAM - great job with the new space. We'll be returning soon.

The Internet Hasn't Killed The TV Star (yet)

Today I saw an article about MySpace launching a show about politics. I reflected on how much TV or video I actually watch on the Internet today. The answer: not much at all.

Sure, I watch the occasional YouTube video of something funny or cute, especially if someone sends it to me. But those are usually 1-3 minutes long, and not an episode-length sitcom or drama by any stretch of the imagination.

However, more and more production of video for the Internet is being planned. And I don't think I'll watch much of it at all, unless it's really good. Why? Because the Internet isn't integrated into my living room. I want to watch those shows on my TV, while sitting on my couch. It's a pain to watch long stretches of video elsewhere.

"But George," you may say, "you can do that! You can get a Media PC, or get MythTV going". Yeah, but I perceive it as a hassle to setup, and I would be entering a world where there woudl be lots of extra software and hardware that I have to deal with and manage. Despite the lack of streaming and immediacy, it's pretty easy for me to NetFlix over some DVDs, put them in my player, and watch them.

Am I asking for the impossible? I don't know. I guess what I want is an easy delivery mechanism of Internet-published TV shows, with the ease of flipping on my TV and watching them. To that end, I'm intrigued by the video possibilities of the XBox 360 and the Wii, for streaming video and browsing the 'Net. If the content is good, and I don't feel constricted to only certain types of content that someone is pushing to me, then networked consoles may be my golden ticket.

Anyone have an ideal setup for watching whatever video content they wish on their TVs?

Winners Of The Attention Market

I'm not a big fan of advertisements. That said, in the market of attention, these advertisements are certainly creative and attention-getting.

So do ad people really sit around and think of ways to do this? I have to admit that sounds kind of fun.

Did I just lose a karma point?

I Have No Twitter Friends

I've tried to use Twitter, the reported panacea of all things "what are my friends up to?". But I can't seem to find any of my friends' handles, in order to add them to see what they're up to, or for them to see what I'm up to.

Which brings me to the question: if you twitter something that no one reads, are you just wasting time?

From The "Did You Consider The Train?" Department

A quick, odd news item: apparently, you can arrange for a cab to take you on a cross-country trip. But really, is it much better than a train, given the cost?

Sorry I've been amiss at posting. The move sucked a lot of time. I think we're back to normal schedule-wise, so expect more updates soon.

The Story Behind The Picture

Here's the picture.



Now, I'm curious what people think the story is behind the picture. Extra credit if you guess without clicking through.

For those that are stumped: I'll post the backstory soon.

Update: OK, here's the backstory. We were at Gay Bingo a few weeks ago. The March edition had a 70's theme to it, and folks had decked out their polyester best. Anyway, back in the January edition of Gay Bingo, Glamazonia (the host) mentioned that she had a MySpace page. Later on, I added her as a friend.

Now, fast forward to the March Gay Bingo. We're sitting at our table, which was located right off the main path between the front doors and the stage. I'm chowing down on a pork sandwich, in between bingo games. All of sudden, I hear Glamazonia over the PA: "Hey, I know you!".

At this point, I think, "Oh, she's talking to Steven." You see, Steven is a friend of ours that lives in Glamazonia's building, and they know each other. They must be chatting it up, I think. But then, I look up, and I see Glamazonia towering over me, pointing a finger at me, with a spotlight illuminating her and everything around me.

Gulp.

Glamazonia continues: "You're on my MySpace!" She comes over to my side and reaches out her hand to shake. "Let's make a MySpace connection!". Now, everyone at my table is cracking up, as I try to scarf down the bite of sandwich, raise a thumbs-up, and shake her hand all at the same time. Then, Glamazonia calls over the photographers to take a few pictures of our introduction.

So there's the story behind the picture. A 7' tall drag queen, 800+ people, and me.

We're Buying A House

As in tomorrow. As in we're signing the papers and handing over a big check for the down payment and closing costs and getting the keys on Friday and then putting up blinds and painting a few walls. As in moving in in about a week and a half. As in officially out of our apartment by the end of the month.

I guess it'll sink in by the time I sign the gajillionth piece of paper. I'm pretty it'll get to the point of legal absurdity where I'll sign something saying that I won't sue the paper or ink manufacturers for any distortion of the words on any of the other contracts I've signed. You know, just to be sure I don't sue.

I didn't blog about our house hunt primarily because we were busy doing the whole house buying process. But now that we're close to moved in and done with it, I'm consider posting what we did and what we experienced, if only to benefit some other first-time buyer out there.

Or wait, was I the last one to buy? :)

Pineapple Express

Yes, we're in the midst of a Pineapple Express this weekend, which is a Kindergarten way of saying "warmer and wetter than usual", weather-wise. Combine that with an earlier-than-normal daylight saving time this year, and most of Seattle is currently groggy and gray.

Strike Two For East Roy: Coco La Ti Da Shuttered

I think 809 E Roy Street is officially cursed, especially when a good restaurant moves into the place. First it was Fork. Now, Coco La Ti Da is closing its doors, just a few months after it opened (and when I wrote about the great time we had there).

One thing that doesn't make sense to me is McCown's quoted reason for parting ways:

McCown said balancing wholesale and retail operations proved to be too much. "I'm not the business side of it, I'm the creative side. I was getting farther and farther away from what I wanted to do."

I can understand being overwhelmed and having to do stuff you don't want to do. But, come on, Sue: you've been in the biz a while now. Wasn't the work required to keep wholesale and retail open foreseen? And, even if it wasn't, couldn't you have hired someone to help with the business end of things?

Every time we visited Coco, the place was packed. And the food & drink wasn't cheap, so I'm guessing revenue wasn't the reason Coco's shuttering.

I suppose it's more complicated than what Sue decided to share with the restaurant beat critic at the Seattle Times. Still, I'll lament the fact that there's now one less dessert place in the neighborhood.

Quitting Caffeine

This past holiday season, I decided to wean myself off of that most common of drugs: caffeine. While I admit I didn’t quit it cold turkey, I can say that I’ve pretty much eliminated the dependency on caffeine to get through the day. Yeay me.

So why quit caffeine in the first place? Simple: I was dependent on it. Not DT, cracked-out, gotta-have-it-to-function dependent. But if I didn’t have it by midday, I would get a headache and I became irritable. If I then downed a cup of coffee or had some black tea, I was better in a matter of minutes. I decided that while this was a sustainable way to live, I didn’t really love the fact that caffeine had become a sort of chemical overlord over my mood.

So, over the holiday, while we were back east visiting family, I decided that this was a long enough stretch of time to try to kick the habit, and see how I fared.

Day 1: The first day wasn’t great. I felt groggy all day, and I had an on-again, off-again headache. Fortunately, we didn’t have much to do beyond eat holiday dinners and sit around and chat with family and friends. Still, I can’t say I was the happiest of campers. I did consider having a bit of tea in the afternoon, but resisted.

Day 2: The next day was worse than the first. My headaches had gotten worse, to the point where I needed some over-the-counter pain killers to dull them. Irritability and grogginess went up a notch. In the afternoon I was definitely ready for a nap. Still, I didn't ingest any caffeine.

Day 3: On the third day, I woke up dreading the worst. Instead, I was...fine. No headaches. No grogginess. No irritability. I went through the day without any

Now, I didn't kick caffeine completely out of my lifestyle. It's hard to (I'm not giving up foods like chocolate, sorry). But I don't drink beverages containing it during weekdays, and I have an occasional coffee or black tea on the weekends, which doesn't relapse me.

I know I probably had it easy; there are people who drank much more caffeine per day than I did, and I imagine their withdrawal symptoms would be worse. Still, in the end I found that it was worth it. My mood and attention level, while different than when I was on caffeine, are fine. And I don't really crave it during the day.

Apparently, caffeine withdrawal is seen by some as a disorder, both mental and physical. Wow! I should have checked into rehab!

TSA Devises Another Way To Impinge On Your Privacy

It's just low-dose radiation. It'll see through your clothes, but not your skin. And don't worry, the people looking at your naked body will be in another room.

Thanks, TSA. You've given me one more reason to not want to fly.

Yahoo Mail's Beta Is Just Not Doing It For Me

When Yahoo Mail's beta UI came on the scene, I gave it a shot. I stuck with it for months. And today, I switched back to basic mode. Why? Simple. With all the glitz, the AJAX, the animated characters, and the hootin'-falootin' big-time splash that they're making this app out to be, I found I could read my mail less well, and less quickly, by using the beta UI. Specifically:

• The new UI is S-L-O-W. I spent more friggin time watching that stupid animated cartoon guy break-dancing, running from an ostrich, or getting a 1950's belt-round-the-waist workout than I did reading my email. When the app finally did load, switching between emails and performing basic actions like, oh, I dunno..."sending an email" or "deleting an email" took forever.
• The new UI was buggy. Today, regardless of how many times I refreshed, I couldn't get past a half-unrendered welcome screen.
• The new UI wasn't all that. Sure, you had tabs. Sure, it looked kinda like Outlook circa 2000. But I didn't feel that the presentation was really all that.

In the end, I decided to switch back. Now my Yahoo email client is uglier but darn fast and stable. No thanks, Yahoo. I'll stick with the boring Web 1.0 version of your mail client. Hey, at least it works.

Playing The Bagpipes

Yes, I play the pipes. And now I have pictures to prove it. These were taken at a recent WPA indoor competition.





Yes, you may now insert your obligatory kilt jokes here.

It's Just Like A Mini-Mall

Question: what do you get when you mix an enthusiastic, rapping shop owner, a beat, and two minutes of video? Answer: a highly amusing commercial.

I disagree with the YouTube title. I wouldn't call this the worst commercial ever. I still claim King & Bunny's holds that title.

I Lit A Number

OK, I promise not to make this a blog about darfurwall.org. But I couldn't help posting one more update about it. Several days ago I finally lit up a number, 7179, on the wall. High time, I know, especially after lauding the wall, blogging about one of the founders, Jonah, and such. If you click on the number on the right-hand column, it'll take you to the site where you can check out the latest wall status and, yes, you too can light one up.

Further Proof That Starbucks Coffee Is Bad

Consumer Reports' testers deem McDonald's coffee better than Starbucks, giving McD's brew a "decent", while Starbucks got a "burnt and bitter". Not a surprise that Starbucks has the nickname of "Charbucks" in these parts.

I had a guy tell me once that the reason that Starbucks was so popular was because of the quality of their coffee. Bullcrap. They sell ambiance and atmosphere, and have elevated a beverage to a status symbol. That, and familiarity and marketing, is why people buy Starbucks' coffee, not because of its quality.

Smoke And Mirrors In Solving Global Warming

So we've all seen An Inconvenient Truth and heard the dire predictions of our climatological future. What do our leaders propose as a solution? Smoke and mirrors. Literally.

Yep, our submission to the UN report for a worldwide climate plan is to reflect some of the sun's energy back into space, through the use of giant mirrors or reflective particles shot into the atmosphere.

Would it work? Maybe. But why the heck are we resorting to lofty projects like these (literally), when we waste so much power we produce through dirty means? Let's reduce the emissions from those coal plants, for one. Let's invest more in cleaner energy production and mass transit, for another. And let's do it fast.

Funding, you say? I know where $5-$10 billion a month is going that we could put to better use...

Darfur Wall Featured In Our Local Papers

Props to Jonah for getting written up in the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. When I first blogged about Darfurwall.org, the site had already raised several thousand. Now he's over $30K. My prediction: we'll hit the goal of $400K by the end of the year.

The Most Rotten Movies Of This Decade

I like the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes. It aggregates reviews from lots of sources and gives you a sense of whether most reviewers did, or didn't, like a movie. Anything above 60% positive is considered "fresh", and anything below is considered "rotten".

Today, I became curious: what are some recent movies (say, since 2000) that rendered no positive reviews? Zero. Zilch. In other words, a 0 % rating on Rotten Tomatoes, or the most rotten rating a movie could earn.

Thanks to the advanced search features on the site, it appears there are seven movies that fit this dubious distinction.

• Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
• Pinocchio
• Zoom
• Crossover
• King's Ransom
• Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2
• National Lampoon's Gold Diggers

Apart from the National Lampoon's movie, I haven't heard of any of these. Has anyone had the unfortunate experience of seeing one of these?

This Is What Happens When It Snows In The Northwest

This video pretty much describes how people drive when it gets unseasonably snowy and icy up here in the Pacific Northwest, and people try to drive. Admittedly this is Portland, Oregon and not Seattle. But trust me, the the driver mentality is very close to the same.

Blog Housekeeping: Feed Update

For those subscribers to my blog: a couple of housekeeping changes today.

1. I've changed my feed to show the full post text, not summaries. Yeah, summaries are kinda irritating.
2. I've changed my feed URL to use FeedBurner. The new feed URL is here, and can also be found when visiting the blog itself. Please update your readers!

Fine print: the old URL should still work for a while, but I can't guarantee for how long.

Update: Yes, some images may appear to break when using the FeedBurner feed. That's because it doesn't process relative links as relative to my blog. I'll think about whether that tanks it or not. :)

Update 2: Looks like the feed viewed in the browser has image issues, but viewed from within Google Reader looks fine. Anyone else seeing broken images in their feed reader (example: does the picture of the robot show up in the post below?).

Washington Mutual customer service has been taken over by robots

We're getting ready to take the plunge into home ownership. Given we don't have several hundreds of thousands of dollars lying around, we're looking for a home loan. I emailed my bank, Washington Mutual, to ask them about their home loans. I had two simple questions:

• Do we need to go to a branch in person to get a good-faith estimate? Or can it be done over the phone?


• What Washington Mutual locations are staffed with people who can help me with this?

I decide to send an email to the customer service department to get these two, simple questions answered.

My initial mail:

Hi there, I'm interested in receiving a pre-qualification /
good faith estimate for a home mortgage. I have a couple of questions:
- Is this something that is done in person, or can it be done over the
phone?
- In either case, what WaMu locations are staffed with people that can
provide this for me? I live in Seattle.

Soon, the first reply comes back:

Thank you for your inquiry about your Washington Mutual home loan.

Unfortunately, I need more information to assist you with your inquiry.
Please provide your property address, and loan number so that I can
assist you.

Thank you for the opportunity to assist you. If you have any additional
questions or concerns, please reply to this email. We can also be
reached toll free at 866.926.8937.

Hmm...but I don't have a home loan or a property address. Let's try again. Mail #2:

Hi, I don't have a property or a home mortgage from WaMu right
now. I'm inquiring about obtaining a pre-qualification / good-faith
estimate from a WaMu loan officer. I'm a first-time home buyer.

I hope this clarifies my question.

A second reply comes back from them:

You have reached the home loan servicing division for existing home
loans and we are unable to assist you with new loan or refinancing
information. Please contact our New Loan and Refinancing Department toll
free at (877) 800-9268 Monday through Friday 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST for
assistance with your inquiry.

Oh, come on. Other financial institutions (BECU for example) provided me with this information over email. Why can't WaMu? My email #3:

My questions are very general. Can someone from Customer Care
not contact the Loan and Refinancing department with my two questions
below and report the answers to me back in email? Really, it's just:
- do I need to be present in person, and
- what locations in my area (Seattle, WA) should I contact?

I trust you'll be able to produce the answers to these questions in
short notice. As a point of comparison, another financial institution
answered all these questions over email for me with just one reply.

Here's WaMu' reply:

Thanks for contacting Washington Mutual!

To find a Washington Mutual financial center, ATM, or Home Loan Center
near you:

- Go to wamu.com
* Click "Find a branch/ATM."
* Type your local address,
*Select the desired location type then click "Find Location."

If there's anything else, you may call us toll-free at 800.788.7000,
send us an email by visiting wamu.com, or visit a Washington Mutual
financial center. To find the financial center nearest you, please go to
wamu.com and select "Find a Location."

What?! I know where WaMus are, and I know how to use the web site to find them. That wasn't my question.

I try again:

This is email #4 for me and you've yet to answer my questions.
Please try again.

And they reply:

Unfortunately, I need more information to assist you with your inquiry.
Please provide your name, property address, and loan number so that I
can assist you.

And...we're back to the initial reply.

OK, Washington Mutual. What. The. Hell. I have two simple questions for you. It's been 4 emails now, and not only have you not answered them, but you're repeating yourself word for word.

I'm convinced WaMu's customer service department has been taken over by evil, but dim, robots.

As a point of comparison, here's the single, illuminating, email I got back from BECU after asking the exact same questions. Hmm..I wonder where I'll be taking my business?

Dear George:

There's a 3 ways you can apply for a home loan.

1) Online at www.becuhomeloans.org;
2) You may go into the nearest Express Center or Financial Institution
(Everett or Tukwila) and apply in person. This doesn't require an
appointment. It's on a walk-in-basis.
3) You can also call 206-439-5772

You can also get Good Faith Estimates from our website above.

I'll update this post as the conversation with the WaMu customer service robots continues.
=====
Update #1: The fun continues.

My reply #5:

Nope, that's the same response you gave me initially. Try again.

Their reply #5:

Thank you for your inquiry about your Washington Mutual home loan.Unfortunately, I need more information to assist you with your inquiry.
Please provide your name, property address, and loan number so that I can assist you.

My reply #6:

I don't have a property or loan number. All I need is a good faith
estimate and a truth-in-lending for a mortgage. I need to know how and where to get one from WaMu.

Their reply #6:

Thank you for your inquiry about your Washington Mutual home loan.Unfortunately, Wamu does not have those documents on file. You will need to contact your closing agent. I do regret any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Does anyone want to take bets on how long this will go on?
=====
Update #2: It's still going.

My reply #7:

I have to ask - are you all reading my responses?I don't have a closing officer. I don't have a loan with WaMu. I'm just asking two simple questions
about who I need to contact, and where,for a good-faith-estimate for a home
loan.

Their reply #7:

Unfortunately, due to security and privacy reasons, I am unable to provide you with your loan information. However, you may contact your closing agent for more information. I regret any inconvenience this may have caused you.

I'm pretty sure they're not reading any of my responses. Why do they think I have a closing agent or a loan when I've repeatedly told them I don't?
=====
Update 3: I got a different reply, but quickly regressed back to the old automated pattern.

My reply #8:

Hi. I don't have a closing agent. I don't have a WaMu loan. My questions have nothing to do with an existing WaMu loan.

Their reply #8:

Unfortunately, we're unable to respond to email messages regarding consumer loans (auto loans, lines of credit, etc.) at this time. We're preparing to offer email service in the near future, but we still want to help you find the information you need right now. For information and service on your consumer loan, please call our Consumer Loan Servicing department toll-free at 888.800.8738. We're available Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. (PT).

What the...? So they can't answer this question over email, but they're building some service to be able to in the future? What, they can't pick up the phone, call the number, ask the questions, get the answers, and relay them to me? I try again.

My reply #9:

But my questions are very general, and don't refer to any specific product or account. I just need to know where to go or who to call to receive a good-faith-estimate on a home loan.If the phone number is the only way to get this info, why can't you call, get the info, and relay it to me over
email?

Their reply #9:

Unfortunately, I need more information to assist you with your inquiry. Please provide your name, property address, and loan number so that I can assist you.

And, we're back to the stock line. I'm speechless...but I'll keep trying. At this point I'm just curious how many times we'll get back to stock answers, versus some actual intelligent response to my questions.

Seattle Snow 2007

No, it's not deja vu. But maybe it's history repeating itself. First we had a snow storm. Then, we had another snow storm. Then, we had a wind storm. Now that we're in a new year, I guess it's back to the snow storm.

This one wasn't as bad. Some buses actually had chains installed from the get-go. And, Seattle didn't get nearly as covered as it did last time. Still, folks in the outlying areas had trouble getting into work today because of snow and ice on the roads.

One consolation: at least it's pretty outside.