Happy Flag Day!!!

This one goes out to all the Mom's

Happy Mother's Day!!! Even when things get hard you've got to remember "you are a appreciated".

Happy St Patrick's Day!!!

It's that one day a year when everyone is Irish. I, however, am Irish every day. I didn't go to the parade this year, kinda bummed about that. I didn't realize it was last weekend until about 20 minutes before it started. It'll be okay though, I'll just have to do something super Irish to make up for it. I think that PMRob is making a corned beef so I'm going to crash that party. This weekend I'll probably be doing my own Irish feast. Usually I take the day off work, but being as it's in the middle of the week and I only have a few vacation days left I decided to suffer through it. I could really go for a beer right now though. It's strange to wake up on St Patrick's Day and not start drinking immediately.

Rapid Fire

Went on a mini amazon spree this morning. Got "Slanted and Enchanted" and "Crooked Rain Crook Rain" reissues along with Lost season 5. I can't wait for it all to arrive...

Mad props to Dr. King...

Speaking of Lost - 15 days...

Blair and Bush's understanding about Iraq wasn't "signed in blood". Too bad. That would have been all too fitting if it were...

Friday was mad crazy. Went out with JonnyD and TK. Good times. Five Spot, Fun House, Redwood. The window in Jonny's car does roll down so I had to open the door to hoot some fools. "WHITE CENTER BITCH WHAT!?!?!"...

I'm completely done with Palin. Why couldn't she just fade away into great northern wilderness?...

Kicked it with the fam Saturday. Was supposed to have lunch with Grandma but she was feeling off and we're going to have to reschedule. But I got to have lunch with pops and the sister instead. Good times...

Fascism isn't the answer...

There is an Optimus Prime Potatohead. I have to own one...

Supposed to be getting a tv stand from PMRob today. We'll see if it happens...

I was leaving work on Friday and a kid right in front of me was smoking marijuana out of a small one hitter. Each time he took a toke he'd crouch down trying to conceal the action with his jacket. That didn't change the fact that the whole bus smelt like someone smoking weed and everyone knew it was him when he'd exhale a plume of smoke. Part of me felt like I should've told the kid his discretion was just wasted effort since everyone knew what's going on and besides its the 7- no one cares...

This video is kinda lame, but the song is great...

Back at it

The holidays are over and much like everyone else I'm getting settled back into work. It's depressing to think that it's 6 months before another holiday. I think that I'm going to have to plan a vacation between now and then...

NYE was good. Spent it with a bunch of friends out in Lake City slumber party style. The rest of the weekend was fairly low key. Nursed a hang over and then went out to a going away party for MNom. Sunday was spent watching football all day. The Seahawks make me want to cry, even though yesterdays game wasn't nearly as bad as some of the prior slaughterings. Oh well, maybe next year. As for now GO EAGLES!!!...


What do you write in a cover letter to an editor who openly admits to not reading them?...

I need to decide which project I'm going to be working on this year. I'm torn between a few of them. It'll probably end up being Metro since I didn't get as much done as I'd have liked at the end of last year. Part of me feels like starting something completely new though. I dunno, bah...

Read this morning that Radiohead is back in the studio. That's the best news that I've heard thus far this year. Hopefully we'll see something new from them in 2010...

Last year I had 333 blog posts. Up from 55 in 2008. Makes me wonder how many there will be in 2010...

Speaking of 2010. There has been some discussion about how to say it. Is it "twenty ten" or "two thousand ten"? I'm voting for "twenty ten". Less syllables. At the same time, how is this making it's way into the evening news? Say it however you feel more comfortable. It means the same damn thing: Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup and Census...

I can't wait for the Olympics...

Happy Christmas!!!

I hope that you all are enjoying your holiday. Mine was pretty good. Mass was strange, they had a new guy running the show that I wasn't as into as the old guy. But going to Des Moines was great. Spent the morning with the family. Dad made a KILLER breakfast. Then he dominated a game of Settlers. I'm still irritated about him blocking my nine ;) But I'm going to overlook it because it's Christmas and he laid off in the second game. Then we were going to try to catch a movie but Avatar was sold out. In the future when I want to see a movie on Christmas I'm going to pick up the tickets a week in advance. Anywho...

I just wanted to wish you all a Happpy Christmas. And now that moment I'm sure that you've all been waiting for. Christina Aguilera!!!!

Brothers and Sisters please put down your umbrellas, you won't be needing those today

An old friend posted a link to an Arrested Development video yesterday. Since I watched it I've listened to nothing else. They're amazing...

It's only two days till Christmas. Everyone seems frantic. The bus ride home took 20 minutes longer than usual because the coach was packed with people. I don't know where they all came from. I assume it's from people sticking around and shopping then catching "the later bus", which is the one I always take. I can't hate too much because I'm not done shopping yet. This is a problem. I have two people left to shop for. My sister is going to be a super star and see if she can snag one of the gifts for me after work (she's way closer to the store than I am) and while she's doing that I'm going to try to find something good for her. Everything that I really want to get her isn't economically viable. We'll see how I do...

I've been watching more movies at work. It takes about twice as much time because I have to constantly pause it and help customers, but it's not so bad. I watched the Zeitgeist movie yesterday. I can't say that I believe it all but it was interesting none the less. I wasn't such a big fan of the 911 part. I'm sure that there was foul play involved, but it just makes me really sick to my stomach. But it resulted in my watching a bunch more conspiracy nonsense about other things. Mostly 2012 stuff. So then when I got home last night I watched this great documentary on PBS about the early church and how it was formed in the early years of Christianity. Good stuff...

You might have noticed that I post fewer links to news stories. I don't read the news as much anymore. It's unbelievably depressing, especially local news. I was on my way to the crossword at seattletimes.com and the front headline caught my eye. Two more police officers had been shot. Now correct me if I'm wrong but that now 5 dead and 3 injured that I can remember in the last 2 months!!! Then I go a little further and catch up on the health care issue (which I've been following more closely) to find that Republicans are now doing everything they can to waste time and delay a vote. Now I'm all for it if you have a better idea for the problems, however wasting time isn't a solution. It just goes to solidify my opinion that the GOP wants nothing more than to perpetuate the status quo of abusing the lower and middle class so that they can retain their wealth and hence their control. If Santa brings me one thing this year I hope its rain...

What will we do without you John Curley?

This is going to be a painful week I think. I'm only 3 hours into the workweek and I'm bored out of my mind. Don't be surprised if it leads to many posts...

I went shopping on Saturday. What a scene. I took the bus out to Northgate. As I said to a friend earlier, "hyper-consumerism is draining and down right nauseating". Everywhere people were swarming. Everyone seemed to be completely lost in a sea of retail. The one saving grace was that I didn't have to listen to the sounds associated with the frenzy. I started the scene with a little Of Montreal, but that was too hectic and I switched it up to Kid A. Treefingers was perfect. After about 3 hours I'd had enough. I wasn't done, but any longer and I might have committed a felony. Should be able to get the rest wrapped up (pun intended) tonight...

I want to thank everyone for coming out on Friday. I had a great time...

New Year is coming up. A post up on Daruma-san got me thinking about goals for 2010. I commented a couple. Might have to elaborate for a post next week. We'll see...

I have no idea what I'm doing for the New Years holiday. It's a full moon that night, so I'm a bit concerned. NYE is always insane and I'm sure that the lunar cycle is just going to fuel the fire. Maybe I'll just sit at home and do puzzles. SCRATCH THAT!!! I know what I'm doing. Just forgot. Whatever happens I know that I am going to miss John Curley and his festive antics...




Mad props to RJS for hooking me up with the "strike" knowledge!

A lil Christmas diddy

It's getting real festive up in here

The older I get the more I find I like things that I used to loathe. Like holiday music. 5 year I couldn't stand it. Go back a couple more years and it made me want to kill people and dance around wearing their skin. However this year I actively made an effort to listen to more holiday sounds. Maybe it's because I don't work retail anymore. Maybe it's because I'm being more 'american'. Maybe it has something to do with a chemical reaction in my brain that has changed over time. Either way, I can't get enough of it...

Tim Ruskell is out as the Seahawks GM, thank the maker. Lets hope that they're serious about getting Holmgren in there. Maybe then we'll end up with a decent team again...

The only thing that I've found better that holiday music today was pitchforks collection of Neutral Milk Hotel videos from back in 98. Y'all should check em out. It's the good stuff...

Going to the Huskies game tomorrow. GO DAWGS!!! The unfortunate thing is that they'll probably lose. I've been to one game every year for the past 4 or 5 years and I've never seen them win. I usually see them get stomped. But that was pre-Sark...

Well I guess I'll keep this one short since everyone thought yesterdays post was a little wordy. Peace...

It'll be 6' tall this time next year.

I really hate Tim Eyman. Enough so that I started a facebook group a while back "Tim Eyman: Stop Wasting Our Time!". Turns out that it is the largest group about Eyman. Why am I bringing this up? Because he's going to be back at it for next year. Hopefully this time around he fails to get the signatures needed to put it on the ballot. Hopefully...

Magnesium deficiency...

As y'all know I'm reading Ulysses. I came across a strange part. He's getting some lunch and decides that he wants Burgundy and a gorgonzola sandwich. Now it's a real small thing in the story but seriously gorgonzola? I've never heard of anyone eating a blue cheese sandwich...

Low humidity...

I'd completely forgotten how great TV on the Radio is. I need to make sure that doesn't happen again...

Epsom Salt...

I'm thinking that I might need to get a holiday tree. I don't know where I'd put it or what I'd put on it, but it seems like something that I should have. Maybe I'll just get a lil seedling and let it grow for a few years in my apt...

I haven't died

It's been a little while. I was on vacation for the last week and decided that in addition to abstaining from work I'd abstain from blogging as well. It was strange to be honest. There were a couple of things I really wanted to post over the last week so if there is a post that seems poorly timed in the next week or so it's because it's just delayed. Now what did I do for the last 9 days?...

It all started back on the 20th. I was with PMRob and my girl AK. We went to a hip hop show in Fremont. It was aight. A bit crowded for my taste. The older I get the less I want to spend an evening packed in a sweaty club. So we checked the scene for a little while and then bailed. Trotted over to the Red Door. I'll never make that mistake again. I'm going to make this very clear: The Red Door is a cesspool of confused and angry hormones emitted from post fraternity STDs. It's a horrid place. So we left. Ran into an old friend as we were leaving. Went back to the show at Nectar. Saw the group that we paid the cover to see. Left that scene. Walked up the long hill back to PMRob's. Dude we saw at Red Door came over. Insanity ensued. We were up till 5am in some sort of pissing contest about who could drink the most and still burn the late night oil (or early morning). All in all good times...

The weekend was fairly low key. Just lounged about...

Monday I woke up got some work done on Metro, bought a turkey, and then went to visit a friend. Checked out their new house and then hit up the Hop Vine for an afternoon ale. Then I hit up the downtown and met NESF for a bit of lolligaggin'. We went over to his place and played yahtzee and made a pizza. I feel like there were other things we did, but in the end the exact details didn't matter. Another great day down...

Tuesday was the first of many meals involving turkey. My dad and I went to SU to meet up with my sister for a campus Thanksgiving. The food was decent. Company was great. After that we went to the library in Ballard because my dad wanted to get a library card. When we were checking the database realized that I was no longer in there so I got one too. Not really sure how much I'll use it, but it's a good thing to have...

Wednesday was not terribly memorable, which is to say I can't remember...

Thursday the Hart Foundation came over for Thanksgiving. The three of us cooked up the turkey. We also had mash potatoes, stuffing, green beans, Thanksgiving. Watched football. They took off around 7 and I fell into a food coma immediately. Then I woke up at 2am feeling well rested and couldn't get back to sleep. Dinked around a bit and finally got to sleep again around 5am...

Friday was the family holiday. I went to my sisters. She went all out. She's a great holiday host. We played a bunch of Settlers and ate and ate and ate. I also got to see my niece which is a rare thing, so that was nice...

Saturday I entertained a small group of people throughout the afternoon and evening. We played games for the most part. Just takin' 'er real easy. NESF brought the fixin's to finish up a turkey soup. It turned out amazing. I've still got a bunch of it at my house. I think I'll be diggin' on it for a week...

Sunday might actually have been my favorite day of the vacation. I woke up and NESF demanded brunch. We hit up Wingmasters. Decent food. Played a round of BBH. Went back to his place and tossed the dice around a bit more and talked about a project he's had stewing in his mind for a while. The PMRob swooped me up and we went on our third excursion to get him a new phone and glasses. Something always goes wrong. I was completely off guard for what happened though. He was able to successfully purchase both things. I'd convinced myself that no one wanted his money no matter how hard he tried. In the end I guess it just took the holiday frenzy for it to happen. After that I vacuumed my apt (it really needed it) and we went back to his place and made some lasagna and watched cartoons on FOX...

So if you actually took the time to read all of this you'll see that my vacation wasn't terribly exciting. However it was exactly what I wanted...

I'm kind of bored with Halloween.

That being said, there are some things that I still really enjoy doing. Like going to pumpkin patch. I went with my sister last weekend. It's kind of becoming a tradition. We go to the place at the bottom of Orillia Road in Kent. It was pretty picked over this year, we went a little late in the year, but that didn't deter my enjoyment. There's something about tromping through the pumpkin patch with the tractors all about and the huge field of corn on one side that just solidifies the fact that fall has come.

After the patch (I was covered in mud) we headed up to my sisters place where she made an amazing dinner and we watched some football. Then we carved the pumpkins. I'm kind of a pumpkin master. This year I attempted to do Brittany Spears face on a pumpkin. I think I did a pretty good job. I took the pumpkin to the bar and gave it to PMRob for his birthday. People were a bit confused about whose face was on the pumpkin, for some reason most people thought it was Jesus, go figure. I guess I'm just glad that everyone agreed it looked like a person. Next year I might have to get a little more ambition and ditch the stencil and try to do something off the top of my head. We'll see.

As for Halloween itself I'm kind of bored with it. Halloween parties have never really done it for me. I'd rather sit at home and watch a bunch of Treehouse of Horrors than parade around like some kind of ghoul. Maybe that will change next year, but this year I'm skipping Halloween.

For all of you who are going out, be safe. Halloween seems to be a blank check for mayhem to some people. Don't get caught up in their shenanigans.



I should also add that my sister caught a great pic of me in the corn. Oh how I love corn. It kind of pissed me off though. They didn't harvest any of the corn! It was all just left of the stalk and wasted away in the field. Now I understand that the standard way of harvesting the corn would be to level the field, but there has to be some way to harvest the grain while still keeping the stalks around for the maze. It just frustrates me to see perfectly good corn go to waste. If nothing else call up a food bank and see if they have volunteers that would want to pick it. Nonetheless, great pic of me in the corn, even if my hair is a little chaotic...

Holidays, Crunch Time and a Vision of Things to Come?

Holidays are never long enough. Just as I was getting comfortable in my escape I have to come back. I'd love nothing more than to be back on Case Inlet drinking a bloody mary, watching a storm come barreling in, while I steam up some fresh clams for a nice pasta medley. And the fire, oh the fire. With flames rising five feet into the air causing every raindrop to evaporate as soon as it touches down. I'll be back there soon enough...

Now that I'm back in Seattle it's crunch time. I have a lot of things to get worked out before the end of the month. Packing and cleaning and packing and cleaning and vomiting uncontrolably because the whole process makes me sick. I'm starting to think that I may need to have a yard sale to help get rid of stuff. Either that or I'll just become one of those obsessive compulsive craigslister's who spends every waking moment posting ads. Hopefully I'll be able to downsize my life though and once it's all said and done I'll be the happiest boy in all the land. Hopefully...


I don't think that I shared with you all the dream that I had last week. It all began in Bothel, well it might of been Mill Creek but somewhere over there. I don't remember what I was doing there but it was nothing of great importance. Suddenly there was a flash and everything went white.
As my vision returned I came to notice that my surroundings had changed. There were huddles of people around me all looking around in confusion. There were two buildings that were probably once homes, but had be left to rot long ago. We were all in the middle of what appeared to be a large forest. There was no food or water and everyone was starting to panic.
A good friend of mine, PMR, was there and he rallied a couple of other guys to go off in search of food with him. I was with the remaining people and hysteria was very much a reality. The few children there were huddled beneath a group of crying women, none of them the parents. A group of men were discussing how best to defend our position from whatever inhabited the surrounding foliage. No one was looking for water.
I stepped up and attempted to organize an effort to find water. After reassuring everyone that we were going to be fine I separated them all into small groups to search the immediate area in hopes of finding a river or lake.
As they departed I kept two of the groups behind to help set up a camp of sorts. We were able to find two large econoline vans that had the keys in the ignition. After moving them to a clearing on the south side of the houses we then decided to investigate inside.
I was with a woman who started asking me a lot of questions. Finally I couldn't take anymore and asked her why she thought that I knew more than any one else. She paused for a long time and then told me that before she ended up here she was in southern California and that a bright flash occurred and suddenly she was there with the rest of us. I knew that I had moved through time/space but for some reason I never thought that everyone else had as well. She forced me to swear that I wouldn't tell anyone where she was from, which I did, but was never sure as to why.
Around this time the first group of people came back from searching for water. They had found a small spring about 400 yards away and one of the men, I assume he was an engineer, began drafting a plan for an aqueduct. They were also able to acquire a variety of tools they found in the woods, a couple of hatchets, a sledge hammer, etc., and began getting to work on building the water system and starting a fire. This was the first time that I really looked around at what was around us.
I could see a body of water to the west and two large hills, one north and one south. On the southern hill there was a building and upon further study I determined it was the Pacific Medical Center. Mirrored on the opposite hill was another building that I then deduced to be Harbor View Hospital. We were in Seattle! but there were no other signs of civilization. No sky scrappers. No roads. Nothing but forest.
I was in a trance trying to process it all when an old friend from high school showed up and told me that she had to get to her studio on Lucile if she was going to be able to help us. I asked where on Lucile and she simply replied, "there's only one place on Lucile. None of this is like you remember it." I gave her keys to one of the vans and sent her off with a couple of men armed with a hatchet.
PMR returned from his expedition dragging behind him a good sized black bear while the men who accompanied him had another tied up on a stick they had resting on their shoulders. Many of the people immediately became horrified that we would eat bear. The screams of horror echoed between the hills. In order to subdue the situation I had the men but the bears into the other van. I then went out to address the concern about eating bear.
On my way I started to tell PMR about the women transported from So Cal, but when I was just about to tell him, she spontaneously appeared before me and said, "I really hope you weren't about to tell him anything about me, for your sake." I quickly back tracked and explained I was trying to get an idea of where he came from and that it had nothing to do with her.
I reached the crowd to find half of the people were more than willing to consume the ursine meat. However everyone else was very much against it and demanded an alternative. I suggested that they break into groups and start scavenging the area. One group to go up the hills looking for berries and other fruits. One group to go towards the water in hopes of fishing or finding shellfish along the shore. As they disembarked I began to work on the bears.
We started by removing the seats from the van. This was the most vivid memory I have. The seats were four deep in the van and held in place by elaborate clamps that required two people in order to unlatch them. It took us a very long time to remove all the seats and place them in a semi circle behind the van.
I then moved the bears into the middle of the van and position myself above the larger of the two. A man handed me a knife and as I was about to slice into the flesh behind the neck in order to begin skinning the animal I awoke. I had no idea where I was. I laid in my bed for 5 minutes before I realized that I was back at home. I spend the rest of the day wish I was back in the dream...