learning to be a human, the hard way

Verizon Sucks

2006-12-01T00:59:00.000-05:00

Yeah, that's right. I'm going to post for the first time in over a month, just to say how much Verizon sucks. Incidentally, this will be post one of three concerning my Thanksgiving trip to California. So.

Two weeks ago, I noticed that I was getting very little talk time on my cellphone. It started seeming like I always had only 2 bars (of 3) of battery life. A few days later, it was one bar. By Friday (the day I flew to California), I could only squeeze about 5 minutes of talk time out of my phone before it would die. So, after some extremely brief conversations and more than a little confusion, I arrived in California, was picked up by my former roommate Mikey (lately of Seattle), and dropped off at my Aunt and Uncle's house (who had gone to look for me due to a no-phone mixup.) I decided right then that I needed to find a Verizon store, and fast. First, however, was a night out at the Silver Peso (the only bar in Kentfield, CA), with my brother, Kirstie (my brother's friend from his undergrad college), and her roommate. Good times were had, and there was a very pleasant walk home the next morning (Saturday).

Saturday afternoon, I went to the Verizon store. I told them that I'd like to get a new phone, because my current one had only 5 minutes of talk time, and that I'd be happy to re-up my contract and just get a new one, and waive my $100 "New Every Two" credit. Cingular (my previous provider) would have had no problem with this. Verizon said "No." They diagnosed the phone, determined it was a faulty battery, I bought a new one for $40, and was on my way.

Saturday evening was my Uncle Michael's 50th birthday party, which was a smashing success - he rented a theater in Mill Valley (the Throckmorton, if you must know), stocked it with food, booze, and people, had a dinner that couldn't be beat, and then his band played for a few hours. They were great, the food was wonderful, the drinks were plentiful, and everyone had a good time. The highlight of the evening was the presentation of a Fender Telecaster to him, which all the guests later signed. I think it was the first genuine surprise I've ever seen him receive on his birthday (notable considering that the party itself was conceived as a surprise party, until it was decided that his band would play at it). Around midnight, we had to start packing it in, and went home.

Sunday, I realized that despite the new battery (which worked fine all the previous day, because it came fully charged), my phone still didn't work. So, I headed back to the Verizon store to tell them that whatever they did was wrong, and that *now* I want to just get a new phone and be done with it. They said "No." They told me I could replace my phone (a 2+ year old model) for $50, and I'd have to wait for them to ship it to me, meaning back in Seattle. I said "No." They said, "Fine, you can pick one up at the store on Market Street in San Francisco." Fortunately, my brother, my Mom, and I were headed that way to get some shopping done in the city, so I dropped into the Verizon store, bitched a little more, and paid $50 to replace my out-of-date phone. While we were down there, we did many shoppings, I got a few new things, and good times were had by all. Back to Marin.

I'll continue the San Francisco story later, and you'll hear about our 2-day excursion to wine country. I'll finish the Verizon story now, however.

So, cut to this week. I get back from San Francisco on Sunday (greeted by snow, of all things), unpack, do some laundry, go to sleep, go to work, whatever. On Monday, Verizon sends out an email to all their customers saying that now, if your phone is more than a year old, you can re-up for 2 years and get a new phone for the promotional price (thereby forfeiting your "New Every Two" $100 discount). This is *exactly* what I wanted to do with my phone in the first place. Now it makes no sense though, because I just spent $50 replacing my phone. I guess I'll stick with it until I get my discount. Stupid Verizon.

On another note, if Verizon is going to make you keep a phone for two years before getting credit towards a new one, they should only sell phones with 2-year warranties. Having to pay a $50 replacement fee on something that I'm effectively renting from them is bullshit. Oh well, at least I know that now, had I waited a week, I could have gotten a new phone. Thanks, guys.

That's it for me, back soon with a thrilling wine country adventure!

Wait, I should also mention (in case you've been living in a cave, only reading my blog for news of the outside world) that not only did the Cards not lose the NLCS, they didn't lose the World Series either, against the Detroit Tigers. Hooray, St. Louis! Also, Albert Pujols was robbed of the MVP in favor of Ryan Howard. Pujols later said that he thought only players from teams which made the postseason should be eligible. That's a gracious loser, right there.

News

2006-10-08T23:15:00.000-04:00

Cards win!

Now for the NLCS, where, unfortunately, we'll probably lose. But I still have hope! Go Cards!

You asked for it!

2006-10-08T19:51:00.000-04:00

Well, America, you asked for it - you demanded that I blog more, so here I am, ready to appease you.

Hey, I can address one person as "America" if I want - it's my right. Anyway, the blogging:

So, Dawn came in town Thursday, and that means stuff to do. Immediately after picking her up from the airport, we were both HUNGRY - so we headed downtown, to the Palace Kitchen. You may remember my previous entry about it, and I can say again that it was delicious. We had the plin again, it's still my favorite. Dawn had the cornstravaganza I mentioned before, but I decided to mix things up a little, and had the grilled sea scallops, served with corn/bacon/kidney bean succotash and escarole. The scallops were perfect, grilled to a crisp, delicious crust on the top and bottom, but tender and delicious inside - they were so good, I even got Dawn to try them, and agreed that they didn't kill her, even a little bit.

After dinner, we went home, went to sleep, and then the next day I got up and went to work. Not much to report there.

For dinner on Friday, we went to Eva, a restaurant/wine bar in Wallingford, just northwest of the University of Washington. The place was recommended to me by my coworker, who seems to know what's up - and it proved to be so. We appetized with a chorizo, potato, and onion "tortilla," which turned out to be more of a "quiche." It was extremely delicious, however. For dinner, I had a ribeye steak with grilled red potatoes and veggies, topped with Gorgonzola butter. It was as advertised, which is a good thing - cooked well, slathered in blue cheese butter, and just generally delicious. Dawn had grilled pork tenderloin in bacon cream sauce with kale, and it was awesome - a small mountain of pork loin, cooked to juicy perfection, floating in a thick sea of bacon cream sauce that made me want to make a doctor's appointment. In other words, it was everything it should have been. We topped all that off with a shared slice of chocolate-peanut butter cheesecake with candied rice krispies and a glass of Sauternes, both of which were delicious. I predict candied rice krispies becoming the dessert topping of the millenium. After dinner, we grocery shopped briefly, then went home.

Saturday, we got up early (10am!) and headed downtown, where we checked out some galleries in Pioneer Square before meeting Kori and Katie to do the Seattle Underground tour. If you've never done the tour, you should probably do it - but if you have an aversion to cobwebs or terribly corny humor, you'd probably do well to avoid it. Anyway, entertaining. Then we headed to the market, where we ate ridiculous amounts of everything (that reminds me, I think I still have half of a half-pound cookie in my jacket pocket. I should eat that.), and topped it off with a light lunch at Pike Place Chowder, my favorite chowder-only restaurant. Katie, an East Coast native, even signed off on their clam chowder as being "good." I had the market chowder, a market-fresh concoction of oysters, clams, chorizo, and mussels, and it was delicious. Really delicious. Then we wandered around the market some more until Dawn and I went back to my place for a quick nap and rest period before dinner.

Dinner was at Elliott's, Seattle's well-known oyster and seafood house. I tried to get reservations here when my parents were in town, but it didn't work - no problem getting them with Dawn though, despite the fact that half the restaurant was apparently booked out to high-school types who were all glitzed up for something. The restaurant had declared October as "Crabstravaganza Month," and we took advantage of it. Starters were crab bisque en croute, which, according to whoever makes soup at Elliott's means "soup with a biscuit in it." Really, aside from the totally uncuttable biscuit floating in it, it was quite delicious soup. Had it actually been baked with a crust on top, it would have been a near-perfect cup of soup. I had peekytoe crab spring rolls, which were delicious - crispy, piping hot, full of crab, and served with delicious ponzu sauce. Mmm. For dinner, Dawn had crab linguine, which was so creamy I have no idea how Dawn got through the whole thing (but I probably would have found a way were it mine), and I had Homer Simpson's platonic ideal of expensive food - the finest food, stuffed with the second finest: Coho Salmon with crab crust. It was fantastic. Juicy, well-cooked, covered in creamy crab crust without being overpowering, all that stuff. Really really good. Unfortunately, after all of that, the dessert menu was underwhelming, so we polished off the remnants of our wine and went home for a long, lazy rest.

The wine, by the way, Dawn actually enjoyed, so it bears mention here: a 2005 Lucien Albrecht Pinot Blanc, from Alsace, France. Pale blonde, lightly floral and citrus-y, very good. Also, as I discovered after paying far more at the restaurant, it's available from the intarwebs for like $10. I may have to get some.

Today, we ventured to Tacoma. I know, woo-hoo. After driving all around what I assume was town in search of lunch, we decided on the Harmon Brewery and Restaurant, and it was pretty good. I had their Mt. Takhoma Blonde Ale, which was light, summery, and refreshing, a cup of delicious porter-infused chili, and a large bacon cheeseburger, which really hit the spot.

Then off to the Museum of Glass, which was not as exciting as lunch. After brief negotiations with the ticket guy (tickets are $10 apiece, cash only, and they have no ATM - too bad I only had $15 on me), we got in. First, we checked out the glass studio, which was awesome - inside a giant steel teepee-like structure is a working glass studio surrounded by a small amphitheater, in which you can watch glass artists doing their thing live. It's pretty cool. A co-worker of mine recently took a weekend-long course in glassworking, I might have to look into it. Next, on to the galleries, which were small and only moderately interesting - and there were only 2 glass exhibits in the place, the rest was mostly textile works and a few mixed-media sculptural pieces. Not exactly as advertised.

So now we're back home, and apparently tonight is Mexican food at Azteca with Kori and Katie.

Sometime, I should find a hobby aside from eating.

I almost forgot!

2006-09-17T22:43:00.000-04:00

Friday morning, before we went and picked my brother up from the airport, we went down to Pioneer Square and checked out some galleries - my Mom had mentioned maybe warming my new home with some fine art, and I'd been kinda keeping an eye out all week, but didn't find anything. We found something Friday morning!

It's this:
(Ms. Knowles, I hope you don't mind me using the image...)

It's by Amanda Knowles, a (now-) local artist in Seattle, represented by the Davidson Galleries. We looked at about 4 different galleries down there, but about 4 works by this artist really caught my eye, and I narrowed it down to this one. So, thanks to Ms. Knowles, thanks Mom, and as soon as I get it back, thanks to the framers. Finally, my walls won't seem so bare!

Suspense!

2006-09-17T20:25:00.000-04:00

I know it's been suspenseful, but I'm still here. My brother arrived Friday without incident, and we immediately started trekking towards Woodinville to get some lunch and check out wineries. After much direction-misreading (and useless conversations with winery employees), we arrived in Woodinville, and promptly checked out the Red Hook Brewery for lunch. The place is pretty ridiculous, a large complex of buildings whose rooflines are like coniferous minarets - an interesting design. In any case, they make a mean summer ale and a commendable bacon cheeseburger, after which we were out the door - for thirty seconds, to Chateau Ste. Michelle winery across the street.

We happened upon Cheateau Ste. Michelle just as a tour was leaving, so we gathered our tickets and checked it out. Winery tours are basically all the same, a very rough outline of the winemaking process, followed by looking at a lot of barrels, but Chateau Ste. Michelle has a bottling line, which was operating at the time, and very exciting. The tour was followed by a tasting of three wines conducted by our tour guide as though everyone tasting was about six years old. Plus, the wines were pretty mediocre. We considered checking out their reserve tasting, but decided our money would be better spent across the street (next to Red Hook) at Columbia Winery, and we were right.

For $5, we got the reserve tasting menu, which was a Chardonnay, a Merlot, two Cabernets, and a Syrah. Both of the Cabernets were good, as was the Syrah - but we noticed that the regular, free menu had some bonuses: A Washington Sangiovese (a varietal popular in Italy, notably made into Brunello di Montalcino), and a reserve Syrah which appeared to be even better than the one on the reserve tasting menu. So they were. The Sangiovese was very good - not quite Italian in taste, but among the best American Sangiovese I've had, and the best (and only) from Washington. The Syrah was also excellent, easily beating his elder brother who I had to pay $5 to taste. As a bonus, we persuaded the clerk that even if my Dad and I both bought a half-case and he had to process them entirely differently and ship one to him, it was still worthy of the case discount - so we did that. If you're in the Seattle area and carrying around a hunk of cheese or a steak, drop by, and I think we can make arrangements.

After that, we headed back to the city for dinner at Wild Ginger, the Thai place everyone talks about - badly. It gets rave reviews from many reviewers, but it seems like every Seattleite I've spoken to about it bitches about the price and quality. Well, I dunno what they're on about - sure, it's pricey, but the food was delicious. Maybe not strictly Thai, but very very good. We had many many pieces of meat en brochette from the Satay bar, all of which were delicious, followed by a refreshing soup - the Wandering Sage soup. It's a simple consomme with pork dumplings, and it was fairly good - until the waiter recommended that we add a little bit of chile puree, and then it was *awesome*. Highly recommended.

Afterwards, my brother and I ventured up to Fremont to hang out with a couple people he went to college with and one of his friends since elementary school from St. Louis - we went to the Triangle Lounge, which was a fine time, and then the George and Dragon Pub, where everything starts to get a little hazy. Fine times were had by all.

Saturday morning started slowly, and indeed progressed that way. Ben went to watch the Oregon vs. Oklahoma game with friends (check out ESPN for the news about that one), and I played Scrabble at my house with my Mom. We walked down Broadway at about 4 and happened upon a charity hot-dog sales event, so we contributed to society a little and walked back. I still don't know what the charity was, but they make a decent dog. As long as you don't let them put cream cheese on it, which is apparently the custom here.

More Scrabble, then dinner at Salty's on Alki - a restaurant reviewed primarily for its views of downtown Seattle from the West Seattle peninsula, which is awesome, and secondarily for its food, which is competent, but certainly not rave-worthy. Actually, they do have a very good seafood chowder, which I'd recommend. I had seared tuna on sticky rice with a balsamic reduction, and it was good, but no need to gush. After dinner (which, after being reserved at an already late-ish 7:30, actually commenced closer to 8:30), I dropped my brother off at his friends' house and went home and went to bed.

Today, up at 9, breakfast at the Corner Cafe again (same meal, this time with Italian sausage rather than bacon), and then dropping the family off at the airport. Now, I'm just relaxing. It's very nice.

On a side note, I'm listening to John Mayer's new album, Continuum - it's pretty good. I don't like it quite as much as Try!, but then, it's a more subdued, poppy studio album. It's still got some good stuff on it.

Man, that's the most eventful weekend I've had in a while. Now you can go about your business.

Blogstravaganza!

2006-09-15T01:36:00.000-04:00

More updates:

This morning, up bright and early for breakfast at the Corner Cafe, at Madison and Terry. It's a little place, maybe 10 tables around, but they serve a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and have a full-fledged Tully's inside - all the whole-bean coffees, espresso drinks, etc. The breakfast (2 eggs, bacon, sourdough toast, and griddled red potatoes) was very competent, and everyone else seemed pleased. A pancake whose size was described as "the size of my face" by our waitress captured everyone's imagination until it arrived - in reality, it was much bigger than her face.

A quick drive up to the University of Washington campus, then downtown to the ferry terminal to find out that the ferry to Vashon Island from Seattle is passenger only, then a crazy back-roads guessfest over to West Seattle to the Fauntleroy ferry terminal to go to Vashon ensued. Quite a scenic route, I must say. We got to Vashon, drove to Vashon city, and wandered - a small number of little shops and things in their downtown, and then we had lunch at the Rock Island Pizza & Pub, a little joint on the edge of town (one building over would have been the center), but they had a very good pizza, and according to the sign outside, the best subs on Vashon Island. My Dad said it was good, but then, the best on the island probably isn't idle boasting - the only other place I saw was a Subway.

After that we ferried back to West Seattle, then took the far less-scenic route across the middle of the peninsula back to my apartment in Seattle, where we lazed and talked about dinner options for some time. We ended up wandering down Broadway to Julia's, a festive establishment on the fashionable end of Broadway, where I had a spinach, mushroom, and parmesan-stuffed chicken breast wrapped in prosciutto atop pesto mashed potatoes, which was just as good as it sounds. My Dad had the jambalaya, which I've had there once before (it's very good), and my mom a steak of some kind, which she says was good - I'll never know, I gave the leftovers to a hungry guy on the way home.

We almost were going to have dessert at Julia's, but I said no, we should go to B&O Espresso, I'd heard good things. Man, was I pleased we decided to. After a brief and enjoyable walk (it's nice to get a little walk in between dinner and dessert) we arrived, and started ogling the huge and well-stocked dessert case. We sat down, ordered, and about 5 minutes later had our desserts. I had the B&O Espresso Torte, which was a moist chocolate cake soaked in espresso and filled with chocolate mousse, with a sort of fudgy crust, which was delicious. My Dad had a chocolate cheesecake covered in raspberries (also extremely delicious), and my Mom had a piece of German chocolate cake, the best I've ever tasted. It was just so completely delicious, I get a little weak in the knees just recalling it - and I only had one bite. The place also has a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu, some of the best espresso in the city, a full bar, and free wifi - I think I found a new home. Now if they'd just get some wider doors so I can continue to come and go after a few more desserts there...

After that, a quick walk home, dropping off the folks at their hotel, and I'm back. What'll I do now!?

My brother gets in town tomorrow, then the fun starts - Wild Ginger tomorrow night, and there's talk of El Gaucho on Saturday. I should probably make reservations.

Hi Everybody!

2006-09-14T01:21:00.000-04:00

(Hi Dr. Nick!)

Anyway, hey. I just thought I'd write because, well, I get pressured into writing. Also because I don't have anything else to do. So here's the rundown:

My parents are in town. I picked them up from the airport last night, brought them to their very fine hotel (the Sorrento, in case you're interested), and sat around and had a few drinks and little appetizers in the hotel bar, because it was there. Good times were had by all. The hotel itself is just chock full of old-world charm, and the bar is a very traditional dark wood, brass fixtures type place, with one beer on tap: Stella Artois. That's really all you need. So, about 12am, I bid them adieu and came home and slept.

This morning, I went back over to their hotel for a nice breakfast (a malted Belgian waffle with honey whipped cream and fresh berries, mmm....), and then we went out on the town. We drove through downtown, I pointed out some of the more interesting sights (my favorite being the Lusty Lady peepshow sandwiched directly between the Harbor Steps apartments (a very desirable address) and the future Four Seasons. I'll bet the owners of both those places are just thrilled.

So, we drove around for a few looking for parking, found a place on the near-downtown and of Belltown, and began wandering. We wandered through the market (for quite a while), wandered past (and maybe into) Pike Place Chowder and grabbed a couple cups of soup for lunch (while being serenaded by a great a capella group singing mostly gospel and blues-type music), and then wandered some more. After that, we took a brief tour of Belltown, stopping in a few galleries and knick-knack type places, and seeing what was perhaps the highlight of the day - a black, high-backed leather settee, which was very comfortable, retailing for the low bargain price of $13,875.

It was quite comfortable.

We then proceeded back to my house, where my Mom and I played the longest, most painful game of Scrabble I've ever played (and that's saying something), and debated dinner.

We eventually decided on the Palace Kitchen, one of famous Seattle chef Tom Douglas' restaurants, and it's a good thing we did - everything was delicious. We started with marinated, apple wood grilled chicken wings (perfectly spicy and tender, mmm!), and what they call "Plins" - little tiny ravioli full of pork sausage and Swiss chard. They're a little bit like a tiny potsticker, but in a creamy sauce. A little sour, a little savory, a little bit of porky heaven. They were good.

For dinner, I decided to talk a walk on the wild side and have Tom's homage to corn - a sweet corn custard served atop a pan-fried white corn cake, atop a bed of sweet corn kernels, heirloom tomatoes, and arugula. I know, lots of corn - but it was delicious! An amazing variety of textures and tastes considering it was all corn - a sweet corn custard is actually a pretty delicious thing, and quite a neat trick.

My Mom had an entire grilled trout with new potatoes and some kind of bean, all of which was delicious, and my Dad had their burger - very well done, traditionally topped, served with a small mountain of the best french fries in recent memory. A rousing success.

Then back to my house, to watch House (I don't buy that diagnosis for a second - I'm watching you, House. The next completely off-the-wall diagnosis and I'm just going to write the *most* scathing letter. The MOST.) and sit around. Looks like tomorrow we'll ferry over to either Vashon Island or Bainbridge island - we've yet to decide.

Any suggestions? You've got almost 12 hours to let me know!

Another boring weekend.

2006-09-05T02:10:00.000-04:00

Well, here I am at the end of another boring weekend. Nothing new to report from the previous two days, but I did have a bit of excitement today.

I finally got so bored that I had to leave the house, so I started looking for reasons - I was thinking about going kayaking, but couldn't find anyone interested and didn't feel like going myself, so I abandoned that. About 6, however, I started to get a little hungry and decided that it was as good a time as any to go down to the harbor and have some fish and chips at Ivar's. If you're ever there, I'll attest that the cajun fish and chips and a Coke really hits the spot, though I think $9.50 is a bit excessive considering what you get. I guess you have to pay for the location, though.

So, while I was sitting on the pier eating my fish and watching the world go by, a ferry pulled into Colman dock, just the next pier down from me. I didn't have anything better to do, so I figured I'd ferry on over to Bainbridge Island (about a 35-minute trip), check out what's there, and ferry back. I really wanted to get out of the house, you see. So, I purchased my ticket, whiled away 20 minutes in the ferry terminal reading "The Innocents Abroad," Mark Twain's European travelogue, and trying to ignore the various odors emitted by the ferry terminal and its passengers, and eventually boarded the ferry. I spend the next 35 minutes admiring various views of the sunset over the mountains, the moon over the city, and various other things that, were I not alone, would have caused me to "Oooh" or "Ahhh" audibly to the person next to me.

I arrived at Bainbridge Island a little chilly, but happy about the journey, and walked into Bainbridge Island city center. Well, I don't know if they move the city on weekends or if I didn't find the city center proper, but for 9PM on a Monday, the place was utterly deserted. I had hoped to find a cup of coffee or a cookie or something and read some more before getting back on the ferry. Alas. So, I went back to the ferry terminal, and read there on the gangplank until the next ferry arrived, and then ferried back to the city. Lots more oohs and ahhs would have been muttered, and a cup of cocoa from the hot drinks vending machine on the ferry actually proved to hit the spot quite nicely, exceeding expectations.

Once back in the city, I was faced with a nearly insurmountable 2-block incline to get back to a bus stop, so I took the obvious alternative, a ten-block detour that, while five times as long, was only slightly inclined the whole way. Plus, the detour had the side effect of allowing me to see what the crazies were up to this fine Monday, which I always like.

My, but the crazies were out in full force. The first struck as I was walking up 1st Avenue, between Union and University streets. A homeless man, thick matted beard and all, approached a pay-phone booth and began to examine the various leavings on the top of it. There were at least 2 fountain soda cups, an empty 40oz, and a pint of milk. To my astonishment, the man instantly reached for the milk, examined it carefully (both tactually and olfactorily), and presumably judged it safe, because he then drank whatever remnants were in the carton. Now, I understand being in need, and thirsty, and crazy; however, if I come to a point in my life where drinking things left on phone kiosks is no longer out of play, I will still maintain a staunch stance on leftover dairy - no milk. Anyway, I gagged a little in empathy, and moved on down the street.

As I was walking to my bus stop at 3rd and Pine, I heard quite a commotion coming from somewhere just up the hill. As I arrived at the top, I saw, across the street, about 5 young gentleman outside the McDonald's across the street, exchanging heated discourse and occasionally punching each other in the teeth. As this progressed, jackets and hats were shed, and then the two groups proceeded to beat the shit out of each other for about five minutes. After this was done, the groups began to retreat, reclaiming their jackets and hats, but then the discussion started up again - more words exchanged, jackets and hats shed, once again, onto the sidewalk outside the McDonald's, but, surprisingly, as the combatants approached each other and seemed about to erupt again, they shook hands and walked away amicably, collecting jackets and hats as they went. The reconciliation might've been related to the fact that three police cars arrived about 10 seconds after it happened, but it might not've. In any case, I couldn't ask for any better entertainment while waiting for the bus.

Shortly thereafter the bus arrived, depositing me back home, where now I think I'll go to bed.

At least I got *something* done today.

Here you go

2006-09-03T19:53:00.000-04:00

Well, at the request of all my readers (both of you!), here's an update.

I finished* my first project at work last week, and finally got some sleep. Everything went relatively smoothly, aside from exposing the fact that when you have a strict deadline, you sometimes have to do things in advance. If you don't, launch day is longer and much more stressful. Now I'm moving on to my next project(s), which seem less overwhelming, and also don't have a do-or-die deadline. Finally, I can relax.

Outside of work...well, there really was no outside of work there for a couple weeks. I did get the opportunity to see my first 2 Mariners games, against the Red Sox and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Who Had, For A Short Time, Come To Seattle To Play A Series With The Seattle Mariners of South Downtown. Both were good games, although the Angels game was excellent - Felix Hernandez, the Mariners' up-and-coming starter, threw a complete game in 95 pitches, walking none, allowing 5 hits and no runs. Quite a game.

Then, work work work. Friday I got to see Jeff Bezos speak for the first time, presenting to the company his thoughts about the (recent) past and the future. I can't share specifics, of course, but when you're a CEO, you have to have a knack for making outlooks seem rosy. I also saw a video demo for the new Nintendo Wii, and I think I might have to get one. They've eschewed the "3 d-pads is better than 1" idea prevalent in most recent game consoles, and totally overhauled how you play games with the gyroscopic Wiimote. It looks like a lot of fun, and I'd rather have lots of fun and not get arthritis than pay $600 for graphics that are marginally better than some other box and gameplay that was clearly an afterthought.

Plus, the Wii's going to be much cheaper than the 360 or the PS3.

That's about all to report. Mikey and I are shifting the hell out of lots of paradigms, putting together a new application using Extreme Programming (in general, the practice of having a few people develop an application at the same console, in constant communication) despite the fact that we're 1000 miles apart. Maybe when we get a working copy of it, I'll tell you what it does and post a demo here.

Or maybe I'll just keep it nebulous and raise lots of venture capital with which I'll buy Ferraris and marble busts of myself which I'll admire for two weeks before declaring bankruptcy. I really haven't decided yet.

Thanks for listening.

*aside from stuff we're going to fix later.

Yesterday on Wikipedia...

2006-08-23T00:48:00.000-04:00

I know, 2 days into my fake Wikipedia blogging habit, and I'm already falling behind. This is worse than trying to start flossing.

Anyway, yesterday's article was about the IG Farben Building in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It's a fairly interesting building, being as it was the largest office building in Europe from its completion in 1930 all the way until the 1950s - it's pretty big. It's also notable as being the building in which the Nazis developed Zyklon B gas, used to kill a lot of Jews in concentration camps (When the building was returned to Germany after ownership by the U.S. Army and restored in 2001, they put a plaque on the building in memoriam of those who died.) That's all well and good, but the part that really caught me about the building was that, to this day, it uses Paternoster elevators. In case you don't know what these are, they're basically a bunch of phone booths on a bicycle chain which move vertically up and down elevator shafts. There are no doors, so as you're standing on a floor, a series of elevator cars just keep passing you by, never stopping. This sounded pretty neat to me, and way more efficient than standard elevators - until I thought about it.

You know how sometimes you'll step onto an escalator, and one of your feet will be on one step and the other on the one below? You know how disorienting that is? Well your feet can never be more than about six inches apart in that scenario. If you don't fully commit to your elevator car on a paternoster when you get on, you could potentially perform some very uncomfortable acrobatics, before possibly being squished in the mechanism. So, there's clearly drawbacks. The redemption comes in finding out that it is indeed possible to stay in a car while it goes on a complete circuit, up and around the top and back down again, past the top floor of the building. While apparently not a good idea, just the possibility makes it all worthwhile.

It's a shame that it's basically illegal to install them anymore.

Sesame Street

2006-08-20T23:50:00.000-04:00

Today on Wikipedia:

Sesame Street! Finally, after one entire day of waiting, a topic which I can give some important opinions on.

Actually, I take that back. While I seem to remember watching a lot of Sesame Street as a kid, I don't really have a complete vision of it anymore. All I remember are key bits, like Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and Snuffleupagus, whose first name I've just learned is Aloysius.

Combine the fact that I remember very little about Sesame Street with the fact that the only thing I hear about it any more is that they're adding some other minority character or disabled muppet to teach children about equality and sensitivity, and I think Sesame Street is really going down the tubes. Maybe sometime soon I'll actually watch an episode of Sesame Street and confirm my suspicions.

Now news abut my life:

Not too much to report today, except that for the first time in my recollection, I'm going to admit that Oprah was right about something: Ezell's Fried Chicken. I visited this corner chicken shack (recently expanded to five corners around Seattle) from which Oprah reportedly had her chicken airlifted on at least one occasion. If I was Oprah, I would've never slimmed down after having Ezell's chicken - but my weight would have fluctuated cyclically as I chose between greaseless, tender original and the tangy, crispy spicy recipe. Along with a tiny styrofoam container of *actual* mashed potatoes and a few sweet, yeasty biscuits, pretty soon I'd have to be brought to work with a forklift by the fire department.

Actually, I'd probably just work from home. Ezell's delivers.

So yeah...

2006-08-20T03:10:00.000-04:00

I'm not very good at this whole "regular updates" thing. The problem is, I don't feel that I have anything to contribute to the internet. What I'm missing, of course, is that the bar for internet content is set extremely low, and just the fact that I spell about half of my words correctly puts me firmly in the upper echelons of internet content.

I think maybe eventually I'll just start writing a blog about Wikipedia's article of the day, just to form the habit.

Today, I learned about Cynna Kydd. As you can tell by her name, she is not normal. She is, in fact, an Australian Netball player. I do not know what Australian netball is, nor how it differs from other forms of netball, but it seems like goal scorer, which is what Cynna is, would be a pretty sweet position in any game. It looks like most of her career revolves around the time she *left* a team, the Melbourne Kestrals, and I guess things have never been the same. Apparently she's good, and has a shot to make the national team in 2007. I have no idea what nation they play against. Maybe New Zealand.

I can tell this isn't going to work out.

Life, on the other hand, has no shortage of things to write about, they're all just painfully boring. Work proceeded much as usual, except I actually went full-time this week, since Dawn wasn't in town, and airports were functional, and I felt like it. Plus, work to do. My deadline (which CANNOT be moved, even a little bit) is August 31, and I still have a little bit of work and a lot of testing to do. Wish me luck.

As a little bonus, the Amazon front lawn picnic was Friday, during which I got to eat the very same food I eat in the cafeteria most days on the front lawn, cooked over coals, rather than gas, by the very same people who usually cook it inside, and then I had to plunge my hand into ice water to get a Coke rather than drawing it from the soda fountain. I felt rugged and outdoorsy.

I'm pretty sheltered.

But no, the food was not the high point, the high point was a free concert on the lawn by Carbon Leaf, a band with whom I'm passingly familiar, and whose concert I could have watched out my office window if I didn't want a hamburger so badly (and hadn't already paid for it earlier in the week). So, the perks at Amazon are pretty sweet.

As I was anticipating the concert/lunch, my friend Stephanie from high school called, and told me she was having a housewarming party that night, and I should drop by. So I did, around nineish, after a leisurely stroll down the 15 or so blocks to get there, punctuated by a quick stop at the liquor store, because after all, it's no housewarming if you don't warm the house (and its inhabitants) with liquor. I went, I met her friends (good people, to the last man/woman), and generally had a good time. We tried to walk down to Hot Mama's pizza at about 2 to grab a slice, but it was just after last call, so they were open, but had RUN OUT OF PIZZA. Shameful.

So I walked home, accompanied by one of Stephanie's friends who happens to live like 3 blocks from me. Crazy.

Today, I finished decorating my apartment (except that last set of curtains behind the TV, who knows if I'll ever get back there), and cleaned like a madman, and had a burrito, and bought some shampoo, and watched my new Ben Folds DVD and had a leisurely evening. If you have the means, I highly recommend it.

That's about it for me. In the future, if the wikipedia article is as uninteresting as today's, I'll take suggestions from the audience. Dawn, I'm looking at you.

edit: By the end of this post, I'd discovered that Australian netball is no different from any other kind of netball, but I still have no idea what it is.

Why does everything have to be so hard?

2006-08-11T00:04:00.000-04:00

So, updates. I should really start trying to form a habit around this. Wake up, shower, shove down a bowl of Cheerios, blog. Until I do that though, everyone just has to hold on.

On our last episode, I left preparing to kayak on Lake Washington. What I didn't mention was that we were going to go to Mikey's that night, meet a lot of people, drink far too much, make an ass out of myself, and generally have one of the worst nights ever. So naturally, the next morning I was like living death. Dawn was mad at me (I don't blame her.) I knew we had to go kayaking, and there was no way I would back out, despite the fact that I was almost certain I'd die if we did. I choked down a hot dog bun, and we were out the door - I actually started feeling a lot better, and we spent 2 hours out kayaking, it was a great time. I'll have to do a lot more of that before summer's over - 'specially since we found a place where you can get a kayak all day for $25.

The rest of the day was spent grocery shopping, and staying at home - an enjoyable day, all things considered. Sunday, we rose late-ish, and set out for the EMP (Experience Music Project). It's a huge monument to music, designed by Frank Gehry and filled with memorabilia by Paul Allen. Aside from the high cost of entry, it's really a cool place - the whole history of modern music in one building, with a lot of interactive-type stuff. Plus, they had an art exhibit comparing 19th-century works to seemingly unrelated 20th-century works, and you were invited (and assisted, via audio-guide) to find parallels. It was neat. After that, we wandered around the Seattle Center for a while (who knew they had a whole amusement park in there? Not me.) After that, back home briefly, then out with Mikey to get his ear pierced and get some dinner at Broadway Grill. The piercing was just OK, but the dinner was good. Then, back to my place to play XBOX 360 in glorious high-definition on the big screen. Frogger is *way* better when it's 4 feet wide.

Monday, down to the Seattle Aquarium (which we'd spied from the market a few days earlier), and then up to the market for a little wandering and light shopping before dinner at Anthony's. Dinner was delicious, but it took our server three tries to make the connection between bringing people bread and butter and providing them a knife with which to spread the butter. Aside from that, delightful. Afterwards, back home, and Tuesday back to the grind.

Tuesday evening we swung by Noah's for his birthday party, but it was simmering down, so we left quick-ish (leaving Mikey to look after Noah, who apparently needed looking after). Wednesday, more of the same - we did finish hanging shelves in my apartment though, so I can finally store my DVDs as they were meant to be stored. Hooray!

This morning was a disaster. I stayed up until about 3 reading Angels and Demons, by everyone's favorite scientific-religious conspiracy theorist Dan Brown (like the Da Vinci code, but crazier) and then was woken at about 7 by Dawn telling me we should watch the news, apparently there was some kind of terrorist thing, and what a good day we'd picked to fly. If you didn't read about the terrorist thing, go read about it - apparently British authorities foiled an operation in the UK, so the TSA raised the American terror level to Orange, which is the level at which you must wait in line 3 hours and empty all your toothpaste in order to get on a plane. So, I went to work for about two hours, then came home and got Dawn, getting her to the airport three hours before her flight - she made it to the gate 5 minutes before takeoff, and was nearly denied a seat. At least she made it, I guess. The line at the airport was *ridiculous*. Out the door, into the garage, and all the way to the end of the garage level, easily a quarter-mile of security line - and not even a movie-themed ride at the end.

That's about it - I came back home, got some work done, had dinner, and now here I am. I'll try to keep you a little more regularly posted from now on, provided there's stuff to keep you posted about.

Oh yeah, blogging!

2006-08-04T23:23:00.000-04:00

I almost forgot about that. Not too much to report...up until a few days ago. Work was fine, home was boring but fine, I recovered admirably from the bout of intense heat that Seattle dealt me - it was all just fine. Tuesday Dawn came into town, and we've had fun since then - didn't do much Tuesday - got Thai with Mikey on Broadway, came home and slept. Wednesday the fun started, we went to IKEA and essentially furnished the rest of the apartment, with a side trip to Target - I'm pretty much all set up now. Dinner was at IKEA out of necessity, and for $5, it wasn't bad. Nothing to write home about, so I won't. Thursday, more shopping - Target, Michael's crafts, and then to meet Mikey for dinner. We were going to go to Dixie's BBQ (apparently the best in the city), but it got too late, so we got Quizno's. It was...anticlimactic.

Today is when the actual fun started - up at 10:30 or so, lounge around until 12, and then downtown, Dawn's first time. We got lunch at Cafe Campagne (highly recommended, the prix fixe lunch includes a wonderful house-made sausage sandwich with a sort of chunky tzatziki - excellent.) We wandered around Pike Place for a while, saw people tossing fish, bought some flowers, checked out some excellent street musicians, and then off to the retail corridor. Not too much happening there, so we grabbed a refreshment at Il Fornaio, and then off to see the Seattle Public Library. (If this doesn't sound like a destination to you, then you haven't seen the Seattle Public Library.) It was pretty awesome, Dawn got a book to read while I'm at work, I saw the library, and took a short, unplanned nap.

From there we wandered back down towards the market in search of dinner, which we found at 94 Stewart. The restaurant itself is nice, and the appetizers were great - I had fresh clam chowder, and Dawn had the house specialty, a quartered, panko-encrusted fried avocado with crab and corn relish and some other assorted deliciousness. Try it, you'll like it. I had lamb chops with lemon-rosemary reduction and lemon red potatoes, and it was...average. The chops were cooked well, but could have been hotter, and the seasoning was a little overdone. The desserts made up for it though, house-made tortes - I had a turtle torte, and Dawn peanut butter - both excellent. Now we're back home, and shortly we're going out for the night. Fun fun.

Tomorrow, we'll be kayaking on Lake Washington while the Blue Angels show us exactly how close you can two planes together and still live to tell about it.

I'm so proud to work here.

2006-07-21T14:17:00.000-04:00

It Came from Amazon.com

I think the link pretty much explains everything.

An update!

2006-07-17T22:00:00.000-04:00

So, *some* of you seem to think I should update more often - well, I've got this to say to you: As soon as something interesting happens, I'll update.

Fortunately for all of you, something interesting did happen! This morning, Lewis Black came to work to talk about his new book, Nothing's Sacred. I got there a few minutes early, but the room was already packed. Dave and I squeezed into a corner and waited for the man himself. He came in, did a little bit on how bizarre Seattle is, and then gave us an extended warning never to attempt to write a book. A little bit of Q&A followed, centering on why he doesn't have his own show (answer: Fox found someone who could play him better than he himself could, and then cancelled the series), why he hasn't written any screenplays (answer: he did, around 1985, but Columbia Pictures offered Bill Murray for the lead, and he turned it down - if it had big stars in it, it was no longer *his* movie), and a few others. After this, there was time for anyone who'd brought a copy of the book to have it signed, and they raffled off several copies.

Fortunately for me, I won one of those copies! Not only that, but I won about the fourth one raffled, so I was in the front of the line and didn't have to wait for an hour. Lewis and I had a long and interesting exchange (Him: Hi - what's your name. Me: [Points to badge) Alex. Him: OK.....here you go - enjoy. Me: Thanks - love your work.) So, now I've gone to a fishbowl, met Lewis Black, and won something in a raffle - I can check all those things off the big "to-do" list now.

Aside from that, really not too much happening. Work last week was fine, I learned a little more about what I actually need to be doing, and completed a project just in time to find out that the thing I was fixing actually wasn't used at all anymore, and got assigned a new chunk of the project which I currently have no idea how to do. So, same old, same old, pretty much. This weekend, I went out with Mikey and some of the guys from Microsoft on Friday - dinner at Contour, hanging around at Mikey's house for a while, then off to the bars - nothing too fascinating. Saturday Mikey called me and wanted me to come to Fremont with him to meet his friend Paul from Microsoft and a couple of his friends at some bars - so, since Fremont is pretty far away (at least, it is by bus, and I can't pay for a taxi...), I hopped in my car and went to get Mikey. When we left his house, we called Paul to see where exactly they were, and it turned out they were moving to Belltown - a quick bus ride away. But I already had my car, so we went. We waited around for a while for them to show up, and finally caught up with them at Amber, an extremely trendy club on 1st Ave - it was extremely crowded, the drinks were expensive and small (but Paul bought me a couple, so thanks Paul!), and I didn't really have a lot to say to anyone - so, meh. At about 1, Mikey and I left and went to back to a place near his apartment because he wanted to dance - I figured, what the hell, and went for a while. Again, nothing special. Then home.

Sunday I played Need for Speed - Porsche Unleashed all day. I really don't know why.

So that's it.

Advertising

2006-07-10T23:01:00.000-04:00

So, today's post won't be about what's up with me lately, because there isn't anything up with me lately. (Seriously - I had to invent an excuse to get out of the house this weekend, and the excuse involved an emergency cup of coffee.)

No, what's on my mind today is this: Advertising. I have no problem with advertising - in its benign forms: Magazines, TV Commercials, Billboards, and other passive media. I even (to some extent) appreciate targeted advertising, e.g. banner ads, because depending on where they're placed and what data they use, sometimes they're actually useful to me. However, I'm getting pretty upset that it seems like every good idea, when questioned as to how they'll become profitable, turns to advertising. Every Web 2.0 startup with a great idea that's not profitable immediately plasters their site with as many ads as possible, rather than try to come up with ways to make their service better and make money at the same time.

At the same time that so many more people are slathering ads all over their site, the ads get more insidious - what's that? You've run out of room for image-based static ads? Well why don't we make a Flash ad that pops up over whatever the user is reading and follows him down the page, with video and audio and nary a close button to be found? Yeah, that sounds like a great idea! I will seriously consider buying this product or service now.

Here's my rule - if my blood pressure rises, even a little, when looking at an ad for a product, I'm not going to buy whatever it is. If the ad interferes with whatever I'm doing, I'll disregard it. It could be advertising the 100% guaranteed cure for cancer, and all they need is $5 from me for worldwide distribution, and I'll ignore it. Furthermore, I'll probably teach Firefox to block it. If ads comprise more than say 10-15% of the visible area of a site, I'm leaving, and taking my non-paid clicks with me. If your program insinuates itself into the damp recesses of my computer just to sit in waiting until it can spawn 12 pop-ups trying to sell me generic V1@gr4 or low-rate mortgages, I'm not buying any of it - and I'll hunt you down and beat you with a sock full of pennies.

If you want me to buy your crap, make better crap, and market it in a way that doesn't force me to rant like this. Conversely, if you've got a good idea and no way to make money from it, either expand it to profitability, or sell it to someone who has a better idea than you. In any case, everyone needs to reevaluate these strategies - build profitability into your web ideas from the start (if you plan on making money off them - there's no need to, generally), and consider your customer when buying ad space.

Also, to all of the idiots who keep clicking on this stuff - you're the majority of the problem - thanks.

Whew, that's a relief. Almost as relieving as that LOW LOW 5.9% APR on my new mortgage from www.internetsavant.com.

Internet!

2006-07-08T20:14:00.000-04:00

I have internet! In only a very limited sense, though. The movers lost the box that had all my computer cables and small accessories, so I was able to scrounge together enough to hook up my main desktop computer. Then today, after the cable guy left, I started the self-install for the cable modem, but couldn't get it to work. It turns out my wireless router is fried, or crazy, or something, so it doesn't work. I finally managed to get the desktop to connect, but that's all I've got right now.

I guess it's OK, except I can't use my webcam on the MacBook since I don't have an extra ethernet cable, and I can't use my Replay to watch my brand-new cable because it has to check in to make sure it's activated. Hopefully I'll be able to fix these problems soon.

Wish me luck!

(Everything else is fine, by the way - thanks for asking!)

Been a long time

2006-07-06T00:28:00.000-04:00

So, it's been a little while - because I moved! I'm in the new place now, all of my things are with me, I bought a bed, and now I can sit at home all day watching my DVDs on my huge TV because I have no cable or internet!

So, that explains my absence. I'll be back Saturday, or maybe Sunday at the latest. Everything else is pretty uneventful. Went out with Mikey for the fourth, accompanied Noah and Dave to a party near Noah's, and then went off to the UW campus to watch the city fireworks from the docks. Good times were had by all.

Of course, those good times came back to me when I woke up this morning at 8 in no condition to go to orientation, which I'd forgotten all about. I went, I got oriented, and really all I have to say about it is that we all have to hear about healthcare options sometime, but it's frightening to meet someone who's really EXCITED about it, much less at 9 in the morning. At least now I know which was I'm pointed.

Work overall has been pretty uneventful - I've been slogging through startup documentation and getting my workstations customized just how I like them. For all the nerds out there, I can recommend no program more than Synergy, a virtual-KVM kind of program - I just move the mouse off of my Windows laptop, and it pops up over on my Linux desktop lickety-split. It's wonderful. Wonderful isn't even a good enough word to describe it.

Tomorrow I might start actual work - but nothing too taxing, it doesn't look like. Still, it's exciting!

I'll post pictures of my apartment...eventually. Maybe Saturday, maybe I'll wait 'til it's finished being decorated - which could be a while.

Work!

2006-07-01T16:34:00.000-04:00

Well, I guess I haven't updated in a while - it's been a kinda busy week. I did indeed start work on Wednesday, and after the usual starting-up hurdles, everything's going pretty smoothly now. While I can't really go into any detail, I'm excited about what I'm going to do, and excited generally for the future at Amazon.

As for the personal half of life, it's going pretty well too. Thursday some friends from college came into town, and so I went and saw them Thursday (providing a good test of my waking-up abilities the next morning) - we walked downtown for a little while, hung around at Mikey's, and went and got a few drinks. Good times.

Yesterday I got to see Superman Returns at the IMAX theater in Seattle Center, which was cool - doubly cool considering that parts of the movie were in IMAX 3D, which actually was pretty cool. The movie itself was just OK, but the IMAX part made the cool scenes even cooler. All together though, don't waste your time unless you REALLY like Superman, or wasting time.

Yesterday night was more drinking and dancing with Chris and Brandon (aforementioned college friends) and Mikey, and we went to the War Room - a pretty cool club on Pike with propagandist paintings all over the walls and a lot of very loud hip-hop and very delicious and expensive drinks. Still, I'd go back.

Follow that up with a few more hours of drinking and dancing, I walked home at about 3:30AM, and here I am now. Fun fun fun.

That's about it for me - the movers are coming to bring my possessions to me at 7:30 (!) on Monday, so I need to get my stuff out of the temp place today or tomorrow, and figure out some kind of a sleeping arrangement at my new place before I get a bed - there's no way I'm going to try to wake up and get out of here at 7 in the morning.

Wish me luck!

(By the way, everybody go congratulate Dawn - she got a job! She'll be working at Panera, which is pretty cool, and alleviates a lot of concerns about various things. Plus now she'll for sure be able to come here in August, so all I have to do is buy a plane ticket.)

Revisions

2006-06-27T19:59:00.000-04:00

Well, I don't want to speak too soon, but it looks like I'll actually start work tomorrow, I just won't be properly oriented until next Wednesday. I'm still waiting on an email from my teammate with a time, but I've been told I'll get one, so hooray.

In the meantime, I used my day of unexpected vacation to make an unplanned tour of North Seattle - after finding a place to get my leaking tire fixed in Ballard. They fixed it in about an hour, for NO CHARGE! Apparently a patch which had been put in that tire previously was leaking, and I guess they were under the impression that they were the ones who put the previous patch in. Whatever, if they can't keep/check books, that's not my problem, I wasn't going to insist.

So, armed with a car which would make it more than 10 blocks without getting a flat, I decided to check out the area - I wandered around Ballard for a few minutes before ending up in Fremont, which seems like a nice place. I saw the giant statue of Lenin, but not the troll - I guess I've got something to go back for now. Soon I happened upon Gasworks Park, the converted industrial gasworks which sits at the northern end of Lake Union - the views are spectacular, it was a wonderful day, and so I decided to lay around there for an hour or so and read a book. It was a great time.

I proceeded from there around the top of Lake Union, and ended up happening on the Agua Verde Cafe/Boathouse, which comes well-recommended, for both boating and eating. I didn't really want to eat, but I did stop in and get some fresh-squeezed lemonade for the road. I'll have to check out their kayak rentals, Dave and I had discussed kayaking sometime.

After that I went up towards UW and took a quick cruise down The Ave, just to see what's what. Before too long I found myself back on I-5, so I took the hint and went home. So here I am.

If there's change in the work situation, I'll be sure to let you know, otherwise wish me luck on my second first day tomorrow!

Further News

2006-06-26T22:14:00.000-04:00

Well, I've got an update on the work situation - I'm not sure if it's final yet, but it looks like I won't make a second attempt until July 5, next Wednesday. I guess it's OK, since the movers are coming July 3, and now I neither have to take a day off nor worry about trying to go to orientation and delay/meet the movers. On the minus side, I now have another 9 days of doing nothing, and no money to do it with. Oh well.

Further on the plus side, my future manager Russel came by my apartment earlier, dropped off a handwritten note from a VP apologizing (which was nice), an invitation to go see Superman with some of the Amazon crew on Friday, and an iPod, all of which was very considerate, I thought.

So, any suggestions on what I should be doing with all this time, let me know - and that includes book recommendations, I'm plowing through them at an alarming rate - today alone I finished The Professor and the Madman, about the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary (highly recommended), and I'm nearly finished with Founding Brothers, a history of the important guys behind the constitution and some of the most defining moments in their history. I expect to finish it tonight.

I guess I'll be putting that new library card to the test (but I can only check out 5 things my first month!)

Misfire...

2006-06-26T13:53:00.000-04:00

Well, my first day at Amazon was...inauspicious. I got up on time, took a shower, had a cup of tea and a bagel, and hopped on the bus. Got to Amazon a half-hour early, and immediately ran into the first problem - my name wasn't on the orientation roster. No problem, they wrote me in, I got a temp badge, and was ushered off to the badging office to get my photo taken - except the badging office also didn't know who I was. So off to orientation, where there were laptops arranged alphabetically at a series of tables - excepting mine, of course. So, I sat down, we played a little Amazon.com trivia game (everybody wins, hooray!), and then Jim Mullins, my recruiter, showed up. Apparently, several months ago when I asked to have my start date changed, he changed it in a few places, but not everywhere - e.g., my manager knows I was supposed to start today, but the people who set up my computer do not. So, he's got to change some things around, and I'll be able to start early this week at the earliest, and have to do orientation some other time. I guess it could be worse, at least someone knows who I am and I've already passed my background check.

Upon leaving, I figured it was a golden opportunity to see what the walk to my apartment is like - so I set off, and discovered that the walk, about 1.3 miles, isn't *too* bad, but getting up First Hill is about 8-10 blocks of steady incline, which wears on you after a while. I made it to my apartment in about 20-25 minutes, which I figure isn't too bad. The walk to work would likely take about 5 minutes less. I went to my apartment to see if my mailbox key or parking permit might've been dropped off in my apartment, and to see how my stove repair was coming along. Alas, the key and permit weren't there, but what was was a brand new stove! Nothing fancy, but a new gas range and oven, all shiny-new, and all the burners worked. So that's a plus.

Then I took the opportunity to walk back to my temp apartment, which is about another 1.5 miles. I took a little detour past the Seattle Public Library and picked up my library card, for which I'd applied online a few days ago, and now I'm back at my apartment.

With nothing to do all day.

I need to get a tire patched on my car, then maybe I'll go up to Fremont - I've heard it's nice, and there'll probably be less tourists on a Monday afternoon.

That's all from me, I hope your days went more smoothly.

Eavesdropping

2006-06-25T19:45:00.000-04:00

Overheard, while crossing 1st Avenue, in front of the Seattle Art Museum:

Boy, about 14: What's MOMA mean?
Girl, maybe 8?: It's the museum of modern art.
Boy, about 12: Yeah, it's the stupidest thing ever - imagine a bunch of canvases painted all red, with spots on them, and then a bunch of blue canvases with spots.
Boy, 14: Yeah, I know what modern art is!

It's good to see these kids getting a good art education.

On a different note, I start work tomorrow, bright and early. Wish me luck, I'll report back.

Nearing the end of non-productivity

2006-06-20T22:22:00.000-04:00

So, I never thought I'd be saying this, and if you know me at all, you'll agree: I'm pretty tired of doing nothing.

My car was delivered without incident; they just dropped it off right at my temp place, I signed some papers, and we were done. Very nice. Of course, since they asked that I leave no more than 1/8 tank of gas in it before they picked it up, the very first thing I had to do was go get gas - and find somewhere to park. Remember I forgot my parking permit in the rental car?

So I called Aboda, the temp housing people, and they were like, "Oh, sure, we can give you another one - someone will be at your apartment in 45 minutes. That'll be $150." So I argued for a while, and got them to compromise - if I can find the old permit, and return both, they won't charge me. Great. The rental car people, predictably, have no idea where it is, but they keep calling me and telling me they're still looking for it. On the plus side, the permit gets replaced at the end of the month (a few days before I check out of here), and I get a new one, for July. If everything goes well, I'll return the one pass issued for July and they'll forget all about it. Or I'll punch them in the teeth - either way, I'll enjoy it.

So now I have my car, and I signed the lease on my apartment - everything is in order. I've got keys (though I'm still missing the mailbox keys and my parking permit, neither of which are really important just now), and everything is OK - except for the front two burners of the stove, from which the gas pipes have been broken off. Interesting, but fixable.

Not too much to report for the rest of the week - got a haircut Tuesday afternoon, at Bella Vita Salon (Michael's pick), which was OK, but I may consider finding somewhere else - after going back and getting 15% off on the next cut. There's a few highish-end men's barber shops around which are cheaper, cater exclusively to men, and don't make me run around in a nylon cape with buttons on the wrong side - sounds delightful. While at the salon, Michael and I met Mark David, the stylist, a fabulous gentleman (FAB-U-LOUS) who invited us to what promised to be our entertainment for the weekend - Bat 'N' Rouge, the drag queen vs. lesbian softball game, on Saturday. The rest of the week passed with relatively little incident - I met Michael's roommate Laurie's mother Friday night, which was cool - she's pretty awesome, and then Saturday was the game, which was twice as entertaining as I thought it could be - though, being a charity event, it was also a shameless shakedown the whole time. They did raise like $5k for a drug/alcohol treatment center though, so I guess it's OK.

Yesterday I went to Neumos to see PSAPP, of whom I'd never heard, Juana Molina, who I'd heard of through KEXP Seattle, my chosen local radio station, and Jose Gonzalez, who was the only reason I'd go to a concert by myself. It turned out to be really good, both acts I was unfamiliar with were very good, though different - PSAPP was 6 people playing a wide array of instruments - from drums and guitars, through violins and keyboards, on to whistles, stuffed chickens, and a few mechanical cats - interesting. Juana Molina played guitar, but also two keyboards, and used many kinds of digital trickery to layer these over each other live, which was actually really interesting - I'd like to check out her albums and see how similar they are. Jose was just him, a guitar, and a mic to pick up his foot-tapping, no digital trickery involved, but it was awesome. The only problem was the vibe of the evening - PSAPP were very loud and funky, so the audience got loud and funky - and drunk. Juana Molina changed her set midway through to accomodate, choosing some louder songs over some softer. Jose, however, had no choice, as he's only got 1 CD and a couple EPs of material to work through, so there were times when the audience got a little loud during songs. I guess for the most part they were OK though, and I had a great time.

This morning, I got a call from my future teammate at Amazon inviting me over there for lunch, so I went - I met a few of my future groupmates, saw my office and met my officemate, got a general tour of the facilities and learned in sweeping details about what I'll be doing starting next week. Looks like fun.

Coincidentally, as I was loitering outside Neumo's before the show yesterday, I was on the phone with Dawn, and thought I saw a friend of mine from high school going into the bar across the street. When I got home, I had a facebook message - from the very same friend, saying she'd noticed I had a house, and was thinking about stopping by to give me a little housewarming present. How nice, I know - but since I don't live there yet, I suggested we get drinks elsewhere, and asked if she'd been near Neumo's the night before. Turns out it was her, and we're meeting at the same place this Thursday. I'm still struck by what a small world it is, even in a huge city where I know a grand total of 5 people. Ridiculous.

So, that's it for the rest of the week - meeting Stephanie Thursday, maybe finding David for a drink sometime between now and work, then starting work Monday. I called the movers and my stuff won't be here until July 3, so I really have nothing moving-related to do until then.

There, everyone happy - I updated.

Also, Happy 2-year Anniversary, Dawn!

Time marches on

2006-06-13T19:04:00.000-04:00

So, I haven't posted in a while (comparatively), mostly because nothing at all has been happening. As I left you on Thursday, I was poised to go out to Kirkland - and I did. I met David and Bernice out there, we ate some wonderful Chinese food, and I came back to Seattle and hung around with Michael and his friend Nichole (sp?) for a while. Fun fun.

Friday, not too much to report. Finished the book I was reading, In a Sunburned Country, by Bill Bryson, which I recommend - a chronicle of his tour of the entire country of Australia, both inside and out. Entertaining. Then I realized I was out of books, and mine aren't due to arrive for a while yet. So I was off to the Elliott Bay Book Company, a well-known and extremely large bookshop a few blocks down from me (and a completely wonderful place), where I bought 3 more books: A History of the World in 6 Glasses, which examines periods in history by their beverage of choice, another Bryson book, this one about England, entitled Notes from a Small Island, and a third, bargain selection, called An Imperfect God, about George Washington's relations with and thoughts on the slave trade during his life. I've already finished the first two, so you can pretty much guess what I've been doing all week.

Saturday was more of the same - although I did see an apartment I liked, at Broadway and James, a nice 2 bed, 2 bath place. As it turns out, my application just came back OK, so I'm buying the place on the 15th. Go me!

Sunday, I went to see Donavon Frankenreiter with my cousin Laura, which was an excellent time. We ate at a place called Julia's on Broadway before the show, and I had some wonderful jambalaya and she some very good artichoke ravioli. It was all quite wonderful. If a bootleg ever surfaces for the show (and I expect one will), I'll post a link here.

Yesterday...completely nothing. I left the house once to go give the realtor my apartment application, and again later to buy a small hunk of Copper River King Salmon at Pike Place (which was nearly worth the $27.99/lb they tried to charge me for it).

Today I received a call saying my car is to be delivered tomorrow, so I went to return the rental. No problem, took a bus back, but then realized I left my little hanging parking tag in the car - so I stopped by the office, expecting them to produce one in no time. But alas, apparently I have to call Aboda (the corporate housing people who I'm actually renting my temp place from, apparently), it's their thing. So I did, and my agent informs me that there will be a $150 replacement fee for this thing. Let me describe it. It is a half-sheet of yellow cardstock, with a small hole at the top, which has printed on it the words "JUNE 2006," and some identifying numbers. There is no way in hell that I'm paying $150 to replace it.

So I've got a call in to the rental car people, we'll see if they can find it.

I told myself not to forget to grab it before I left.

Oh well, I've got an apartment!

Nothing to see here...

2006-06-08T19:17:00.001-04:00

This was a repeat of the next post, which it won't let me delete for some reason. Please ignore it. Thanks Blogger!

Seattle B-List

2006-06-08T19:17:00.000-04:00

Well, not too much new to report today - still looking at apartments, but I've seen so many white walls and off-white carpets I can't keep them straight anymore. I've got 2 more to go, unless I find new ones today or tomorrow, and if I don't find anything I like better, I'll be going back to the first one I saw, the Metropolitan Park, despite the construction.

What is far more exciting in my life is the many, many brushes with fame I've had in my short time here in Seattle. First Tom Bihn, of whom no one has heard but me, but today, a new name, marginally more recognizable, a member in the veritable "Who's That?" of minor celebrities.

I had an appointment this afternoon to look at an apartment in Uwajimaya Village, a huge Asian grocery/gift store/ridiculous mini-mall, which is located in the Southwest corner of the International District, basically across the street from Qwest Stadium and Safeco Field, and directly across the street from one of the Amazon.com offices - so I wouldn't have to drive to work, I could take a shuttle. They never showed up, so I'm going back tomorrow. To get there, however, I had to walk through Pioneer Square, the historical center of Seattle, and a hip and happenin' place. In Pioneer Square is a little tiny lunch spot I've been advised to go to called Salumi, owned by the father of Mario Batali, Armandino. I passed by yesterday, but there was no parking and a line out the door, so I gave it a miss. Today, however, I was walking, and had an hour to kill, so I went in.

The place is tiny, a 2-foot-wide hallway competing for space with a long but narrow deli bar, behind which sit some of the most delicious-looking cured meats ever. But as I got past a wall and could see both the deli bar and Armandino further in, I saw another face I recognized. It took me a minute to place it, but it turned out to be Anthony Bourdain, another fairly well-known food guy, with a number of books and TV shows to his name. He had with him a few camera people who were flitting about getting many different angles of him making sandwiches - which he did pretty well. So, if anyone hears anything about an episode of No Reservations in Seattle, let me know, since I'll probably appear in it.

The sandwich (braised Oxtail, today's special), was delicious, and possibly the messiest sandwich I have ever tried to eat out of a paper bag while sitting at a bus stop. Worth it, though.

Tonight I'm headed to Kirkland to meet David, a fellow Purdue grad turned Amazonian, along with another friend of his from Purdue headed to Microsoft, for dinner and who knows what. I'll report back.

Thanks, Tom!

2006-06-05T19:08:00.000-04:00

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I just bought a MacBook. Unfortunately, I did not also buy a case - and there's no dependable internet in my temporary apartment. So in order to access the internet, I have to bring the laptop with me. So far, I've been accomplishing this by putting the laptop back in the airplane pillow case they sold it to me in, and putting that in my bag. Very secure, I know. So today, after looking at apartment number 2, I decided to look for a bag. On searching, not very many people make bags for the MacBook yet, since it's so new - but one place that said they did is Seattle-based Tom Bihn bags (you may have heard about them a while back, for their Treason Tags).

So I went down to the Tom Bihn factory, and started looking for the Size 6 Brain Cell which was supposed to hold my MacBook - but an employee informed me that they won't actually be made until the end of July! Fortunately, the size 4 kinda fits, and there was a creased one that was super-cheap, so I bought it. Then the interesting thing happened.

The clerk told me to hang on for a second, and left the room. She came back with none other than Mr. Tom Bihn, who was holding a Brain Cell - a size 6 prototype he'd made himself, and hadn't been able to test-fit yet. I let him borrow my laptop, and in exchange, he let me have the prototype (which fits great.) So I have the first MacBook sleeve made by Tom Bihn! I feel pretty special right now - it doesn't take much to make me feel that way though.

In other news, the laptop itself is still wonderful - I just put XCode on it this afternoon so I'll be able to use it for light development. Hooray!

Pictures!

2006-06-05T15:46:00.000-04:00

Ok, so here they are - some of the pictures I promised. I'm not going to post pictures here unless it's one or two pictures I particularly like, but you can always to go my Flickr to see what's up. What's up right now is a set of pictures of the apartment I looked at this morning. Let me know what you think!

It's gonna be a long one

2006-06-04T19:29:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm here. In Seattle, my new home for the next...while. At least a few years. I don't want to speculate too much.

Getting here was relatively uneventful - the movers came (on time!), packed all of my earthly belongings, put 'em on a truck, and took off. It was all pretty easy - like, so easy I felt kinda bad about it. The only downside was when the movers tried to use a dolley to take some boxes out, but left a few grease marks on the carpet in my living room - oh well, I don't live there anymore. They say they're going to take care of it, so it's Peter's problem now.

After the move, Dawn and I headed up to Chicago - in her overheating deathtrap. We made it to the city, however (by getting off the highway early and taking surface roads downtown to avoid sitting in traffic and overheating), and then wandered Michigan Avenue for a while until dinner at Grand Lux Cafe. I highly recommend it. Then off the the Doubletree O'Hare, to the biggest room in history (no pictures, sorry, but it was awesome), a good night's sleep, a quick breakfast, a slightly misty good-bye and onto the plane. The plane was nice, aisle seat in an exit row, roomy and wonderful. While on the plane, I read the entirety of Three Nights in August, a book about Tony La Russa, baseball, managing, and other baseball stuff. If you like baseball, it's a good read - I don't think anyone's ever been able to talk to La Russa that much ever - it kinda redeems the fact that he spends 90% of his life scowling.

Off the plane, get the bags, get the rental car - after waiting 10 minutes because the woman in front of me had apparently reserved a rental car not understanding that part of the agreement to do so is that you are a LICENSED DRIVER. She didn't understand why the clerk wouldn't give her a car just because she didn't have a driver's license. Whatever. Drove the the city, found my temp apartment (apparently in the hippest apartments in the city, they're OK - pictures later.) Then I called all my Seattle contacts (Michael and my cousin Laura), and made arrangements. I went over to Michael's, we went out to Redmond to meet some of his fellow interns, then came back to the city and went to a gay bar (Manray), which was...interesting. Good times. I ended up staying in Michael's roommate's vacant bed, because it turns out that a few vokda tonics have the effect of far more if you haven't really eaten all day and it's the equivalent of four in the morning. Good times.

Then this morning, when I wandered around downtown with Michael and Noah, and then drove out to the University Village to buy my new MacBook. I was not going to able to make it for a month without any kind of computer, so I bit the bullet. I didn't get any of the options, I'll add them on later, but I just needed something now. It's wonderful, I'll report on it more fully a little later. For now, Michael and I are going to go work out so I can check out his gym, and then later we're going to a comedy club to see one of his co-workers perform. That's about all from me.

Hooray for Seattle (I think I might like it here.)

...

2006-05-24T11:37:00.000-04:00

Back in Lafayette, and reporting that sleeping 10 hours a day and then staying at home is not as refreshing or rewarding as it would seem. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll come up with something to get me out of the house. If you've got any suggestions, please let me know.

Parting is...soon.

2006-05-22T00:43:00.000-04:00

Well, it's Sunday. Tomorrow Dawn and I drive back to Lafayette (she's got an advising appointment to switch to an English major at 3:30, so we'd better get back for that [hooray for graduating in a year instead of three! {I like parenthetical statements!}]). Friday, as promised, we went to Six Flags - it was pretty cool, I hadn't been there in about six or eight years. All the rides I remember are still there, but they got some new ones too - including one which opened Friday, Superman. It's actually pretty lame, it's just a big tower with 6 columns of tracks that take seats up to the top, then drop them. For some reason, this is supposed to be the best new thing they can offer, and a lot of people were willing to wait an hour to fall 200 feet - good for them, I guess. Far cooler was The Boss, a huge wooden-track coaster that I hadn't been on before - Dawn and I saw it from the waiting line for the Screamin' Eagle (always fun), and spent a while arguing about whether it was one coaster or two - it was one, but one HUGE one. Good times. I think Dawn liked Mr. Freeze better (especially because we sat in the very front, the only ride on which that's worthwhile), but I guess I like to be on a ride for more than 30 seconds. Anyway, it was a pretty good day, not too crowded (but a little hot), and some guy let us use his discount card, so we only had to pay $10 for a funnel cake and a couple cokes, rather than like $16. $16 would have been OK after she tried to charge me $8 for a bottle of water, but I put a stop to that too. I think since the park just opened for the season a few weeks ago, the entire staff is in training or something - that or they're all colossal dumbasses. If anyone reading this works at Six Flags, let me know which it is so I know if I should apologize or ridicule some more.

So that was Friday, which was followed (as usual) by Saturday, which was the grad party. It was pretty good, we spent all morning running around collecting various trays and supplies and things we'd been assembling all week, and then some people showed up, and we had a good time, and then the people left. It all went pretty smoothly. Immediately after, I picked up my car from Best Buy, where I'd left it since that morning to fix my XM problem (NO SIGNAL!) - apparently my FM modulator thing was faulty and didn't pass the antenna signal. In any case, it works wonderfully now and I can swing to the sweet sounds of talk radio all day. It'll be nice for the drive home. After that we watched the Cards game (another win), and then up to Max's for a few drinks before bedtime.

Today (Sunday) it was up early to sit around waiting for my Mom's laundry to be done before we could go to breakfast, modding my Mom's ReplayTV so it holds like 250 hours of TV now, and then breakfast. By the way, if you don't have a Replay (or some lesser DVR), it's important that you buy one. Like, life-changingly important. I've had to watch live TV occasionally since I got mine, and it's almost physically painful now. After that, Dawn and I went to Target (to return Dawn's rust-stained swimsuit), Crate and Barrel (to see what I could get with a gift certificate I was given, I don't know that I'd ever been there), and Blockbuster (to drop off movies.) Then some brief sitting, watching the end of today's Cards game (go Cards!), and off to dinner - at the new Ruth's Chris in Clayton. I hadn't been to a Ruth's Chris since we used to have one downtown, it's been a number of years. The menu is expanded, and everything is just as huge and delicious as ever - Dawn and Ben split a pile of shoestring potatoes which was literally larger than your head - and covered in a napkin to look which looked like a headscarf. When they were first served, I was a little concerned that they were being served a french-fried woman's head. They weren't, and dinner proceeded. After that, TV watching and now here I am.

Tomorrow we leave, so I probably won't see St. Louis again until Christmas - I'd be pretty sad, but most of my friends aren't here anyway - it was pretty much just Charles and Brittany (Emily's here, but she'll be in Tacoma in the fall, so that'll be fine.) I'll have to persuade them to come to Seattle. Back to Lafayette tomorrow, then two weeks of throwing away four years of accumulated crap, a little bit of deciding whose crap is whose, and then the big move - movers come June 2, Dawn and I go to Chicago for a last hurrah (if I can afford it) that night, and on the plane June 3. Then the first day of the rest of my life.

Man, I can write a whole lot about basically nothing at all. I wish people still got paid by the word to write serial novels - I would kick ass at that job.

Same Old, Same Old

2006-05-19T12:20:00.000-04:00

So, I guess I'd better catch you up on what's going on here in St. Louis - the answer is "Not Much." I was kinda sick Sunday and Monday, so we didn't really go out or anything. Tuesday we went to Max's and hung out with Charles for a while, which was good times. Wednesday was party planning day, so we ran around all day buying this and ordering that. Wednesday night we went to our first game at New Busch - a win, vs. the Mets, 1-0. The stadium is pretty cool, but definitely different than old Busch - it's nice to see the skyline though. It'll be nicer when they get the Ballpark Village thing built next door so you don't have to look into a construction site in left field, but I think that's still a few years away probably. Charles came to the game, and afterwards came over to my house. We got a pizza, Brittany came over (oh, yeah, she and Tricia showed up to Max's on Tuesday too, but only for a few minutes), and Charles' new coworker Tracy came over - we had some beers, played some pool, it was a good time.

Thursday (that's yesterday, to those of you keeping track), we went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens, because they were having an exhibition of Chihuly glass within the park - a lot of plant-form glass integrated within some of the planters, and some sculptural pieces in ponds and under bridges - but the most spectacular part was the Climatron (the rainforest simulation dome, for those of you not in the know), where there were probably 50+ pieces integrated into the environment. It was really cool to just walk around and try to spot them, some were in some pretty bizarre places, like nestled in the nooks and crannies of a giant palm tree trunk. It was pretty awesome. After that I had to go to Best Buy to get the XM radio I bought installed in my car, which I'll report more fully on after I have a little experience with it. Traditional Chinese dinner followed by visit to Sam's afterward for mass quantities of beverages for Saturday. Then off the Max's, after picking up Emily, who just arrived in town - more drinking, Tracy came over again, but then the three of us (Dawn, Emily, and myself) went over to Krueger's after Max's closed. Few drinks, then some White Castle, then some sleep.

Now it's today! Dawn and I are going to Six Flags Mid-America (which apparently was recently renamed to Six Flags St. Louis, so whatever), where I haven't been in probably 6 years - I hope this time is better than the last time I went, when it rained so much all the rides had to close. I'm sure it will be, I'll let you know tomorrow. If you're lucky, I'll post pictures tomorrow too.

If you're lucky.

Up til now...

2006-05-16T00:27:00.000-04:00

I said yesterday that I'd bring everyone up to speed today, and again, I'm no liar. (Maybe this is a theme?) Anyway, here goes:

I'm Alex Cox. I just graduated from Purdue University yesterday with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. With this degree, I'm going to work for Amazon.com in Seattle, starting in June.

So, the last few months have been mostly me running around trying to finish school, trying to get things done at work, and figuring out what to do about going to Seattle. Fortunately, Amazon has a pretty good relocation package, so I don't need to worry so much about how to get there as I do about what to do when I'm there - finding an apartment, setting up bank accounts and insurance, finding something to do with my spare time besides homework - you know, all the crap that you never have to do until you're on your own, at which point it's either tedious and boring, or new and stressful. I'm a little stressed - a little.

Before I get there, I've got some other stuff to worry about - immediately after graduation yesterday (I shouldn't say immediately, we ate lunch too), Dawn (she's my girlfriend, I'm sure you knew that already) and I drove to St. Louis. The original plan had been to drive to Chicago first to drop my Dad off at Midway so he could fly back to Omaha, but we realized that was a silly idea, so he switched his flight to leave from St. Louis and drove back with my Mom and brother. So Dawn and I got to drive immediately to St. Louis, shaving 4 or more hours off of our potential drive time - I was pleased, and my Dad didn't have to sit at an unfamiliar airport, so everybody wins. So now we're in St. Louis.

While in St. Louis, there's plenty to do - we spent most of today shopping, though I only bought a pillow and she only bought a t-shirt. I guess shopping is better when you have money - but that's a different story. So we spent all day doing that. Tomorrow, we're to be up early so we can go down to the west end and goof off before Linds and Tim come through to have lunch - they have to pass St. Louis on their way to Arizona, so we figured we'd have some lunch or whatnot. Plans after that are a little hazy until Saturday, which is when I'll be having a graduation celebration-type deal. A few of my parents' friends, hopefully a few of my friends, and my family will be here, it should be a good time. Then back to Lafayette on Sunday.

Upon reaching Lafayette, I have to start consolidating my life - get whatever stuff I've left at Dawn's over the last year back to my house, and start going through what's at my house - starting with about 20 computers in varying states of obsolence and functionality - anyone need any of those? Then clothes, and stereo stuff, and who knows what else. By June 2, I have to be able to point at things and say whether they're coming with me or not, so I'd better be able to do that. June 2, in case you didn't realize, is when the movers come. Then it's off to Chicago that night for (hopefully) dinner, a quick stay at the Doubletree, and then on a plane June 3 to Seattle.

That's the scene so far. Now that you're all caught up, I can keep the entries short and sweet - just the day-to-day stuff, some anecdotes here and there, maybe a lesson or two. Any questions?

I'm no liar.

2006-05-15T00:18:00.000-04:00

Well, I promised you (whoever you might be) that I'd post here starting May 14, and I'm no liar. Up 'til now, I've resisted creating a blog, even though everyone clearly needs to read everything I have to say, because my life has been fairly uneventful - I was born, I went to school, I probably skinned my knees a few times, got in some trouble, went to junior high, high school - then college. Pretty standard fare so far. Got through college, did some studying, some working, some drinking, and then this morning, I graduated.

So now I have a chance to differentiate myself from everyone else - I've done everything you're supposed to do as a child, then as a young adult, but now I'm an actual adult, college degree in hand, venturing out into the world. Moving beyond academia and into the world, where my lessons will not be calculus or sociology, but human lessons, wherein I learn how to function as a part of normal adult society.

So, if you'd like to read more about what happens to me as I enter the real world, you've come to the right place. I'll probably make pretty regular updates to this as my life unfolds, and I know you'll just love it. I'll start tomorrow by giving an outline of our scene so far.

In the beginning...

2006-04-21T18:18:00.000-04:00

There was nothing.