October

I was pretty lax on the posting this month. I did compile some stuff for a couple non-personal posts, but I'm too lazy to get to those. Here is a quick glance at the last couple weeks in my world.

New computer at work, now with two screens. This may not sound that exciting, but it's much faster and the second screen helps a lot when I'm doing graphic work. Sadly work is a bit of a GO-STOP-GO-STOP at the moment. Hopefully we will sign a contract to continue work soon, but for now I'm taking Friday's off. (the desktop image is from the Kitsune Noir Desktop Wallpaper Project)

Corn maze! This one was 12 acres, and shaped like the state of Washington. All of the paths were labeled like the highway/freeway system. That makes it pretty easy to navigate if you know the roads. The challenge came in trying to complete the scavanger hunt that sends you to different cities. The photo is our group crossing the Tacoma Narrows bridge, nicknamed Galloping Gertie because of it' spectacular collapse.

We did a "best of the shitty beers" blind taste test. The contenders were Olympia, PBR, MGD, Coors Banquet, Budweiser, Kokanee, Ranier, and High Life. I know it's an incomplete list, but we could only do so many, and this represents the various backgrounds of the tasters. The winner was Kokanee.

I've been trying my hand at the sewing machine, left in my care when Liz ran off to Japan.

This was my first attempt at a bicycle hat. I like the shape, but it's a little small. Maybe someone might like it. It's brown tweed. Heather?
My second attempt is for Halloween. If I can get it together, I'm going as Sherlock Holmes. This is a bicycle hat version of a Deerstalker.
(a bit of trivia- Sherlock Holmes is never actually described wearing a deerstalker hat. In two or three stories he wears a traveling hat with flaps, but it isn't nessesarily a deerstalker. Most people think of it as part of his daily attire, but he is described as being very fashionable, and no fashionable gentleman would wear a hat like this in the city, only when in the country hunting. The illustrations from the original stories did occasionally depict him in a deerstalker. He was also a cocaine and heroin addict.)

Misc:
There is a tilt-shift app for the iphone now.
I signed up for Twitter. I don't actually tweet stuff, but several of the websites and blogs that I follow do, and there were a couple Seattle food twitterers (what is the plural) that I was interested in. If you know of any random interesting Twitter things, let me know. If you twitter, let me know.

Halloween

Thanks to the Onion, parents no longer have to worry about costumes for their swishy little boys.

"...be very careful not to choose one that's been co-opted by the gay comunity; like a fireman, a cop, a cowboy. Otherwise they'll just end up looking like a stripper."


How To Find A Masculine Halloween Costume For Your Effeminate Son

Unintentional Pledge Drive Humor

On KUOW, they just thanked the volunteers answering the phones during Prairie Home Companion. If you are familiar with the show, you know that Norwegian Lutherans play a big part in the stories.

The volunteer group is the Seattle Atheist Society.

hilarious!

Damned Public Radio

AHHH!!!

How is it that all three public radio stations I listen to (KUOW, KEXP, and KPLU) have their pledge drives on the same week?! You know those bastards plan it that way.

I plan to donate, honestly I do...but they almost lost me this morning. I had been waiting to hear the President's speech about the Nobel Prize, and I was interested to hear the commentary/analysis from the NPR live coverage. Instead, those asshats over at KUOW decide to start blabbering away about how nice it was of them not to talk over the President's speech, and then they ran some lame ass pledge commercial that some local family made... all the while I was cursing them for talking over the stuff I wanted to hear. (not to mention the commercial had loud alarms and horns and crap like that...not something I want to hear before my first cup of coffee) They prattled on for about 8 minutes, then tuned back in for 4 minutes of NPR (during which there was some lame story about the parliment in the Maldives scuba diving for a session or something like that) then they came back on and prattled for another 10 minutes or so. During that time they met the goal for that program, but did they stop yammering? Hell no, they decided to try for another 5 grand or something. In the end, I was able to listen to 4 minutes of news coverage during my commute to work, the rest was filled with those damned chipper hosts blabbering on and on and on and on and pissing me off. I was sorely tempted to fire off some sort of angry email when I got to work.

In the end I decided to complain here instead. Lucky you.

But seriously, do they think that people find there crappy pledge jokes funny? Do they not realize how pissed off pledge week makes people? Or is it just me?

Weekend getaway

This Saturday was supposed to be crappy, so we decided to cancel the Vancouver trip and stay local. After hosting the Michigan game (apparently we have the Big 10 Network) we headed out to stay with Erin in North Bend (as seen in twin peaks.)
After a fancy pizza party at her house, we camped out in the fire lookout tower behind her house.
The next morning we had a great across to Mt Si.
(Sean takes in the view)

After breakfast (not at the pie place from Twin Peaks) we hiked out to Talapus and Olallie lakes.
I can't stop playing with the crazy camera features.

Vegas Baby!

Today is the first post of several to come between now and New Years, when we roll into Vegas.

I'll keep it brief with a link for those that plan to venture away from the poker tables and maybe catch a sight, eat some food, etc.

Design*Sponge has a travel guide for Vegas worth taking a peak at. If you scroll down to the Downtown section it has links to some of the more interesting non-huge-ass-casino-resort-megaplex stuff. "Worlds largest" vintage clothing store?!

I've also been perusing the TimeOut Vegas website, and has anyone else noticed that this seasons Top Chef is located in Vegas? And have you noticed the heavy hitter chefs that have been opening restaurants in Vegas?

Coco Before Chanel

I heard a story on NPR the other day about this movie, it sounds interesting. Beyond the fact that Audrey Tautou is dreamy... Coco Chanel had a fascinating life.

Honestly, I am surprised I didn't hear about it from Monty first... I will eagerly await her review

Combo

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

A bitchin graffiti/mural animation. I think it repeats itself at the halfway point, but I didn't watch the repeat all the way through.

The Road, she is a Cruel Mistress

If you bicycle long enough, its almost a given that you will learn the pain of road rash. I put some real miles on this summer, and I paid my dues this weekend.

Saturday started nice, with a ride out to the Red Hook Brewery on the other side of Lake Washington. It's a fun, easy ride, about 20 miles each way. We had a beer and split some appetizers, then headed home.
The ironic thing is, I had a crash not long after leaving the brewery that could have easily resulted in injury. The trail led through a park, and a little kid rode directly across the trail and t-boned me right behind my front wheel. I wasn't going very fast, but my feet were clipped in and I had already started turning away to avoid him. When he hit I came to a complete halt, and fell right on top of him. Fortunately neither of us was hurt...it could have been bad. (side note, Katie, seen above, crashed while trying to avoid us. She is scraped and bruised.)

It wasn't until I was almost home, at the bottom of Stone Way (leading up the hill to my house) that I crashed in earnest. Again I wasn't going very fast, and to be honest I'm not sure how it happened. That stretch of road has a lot of dirt and loose gravel, and I was crossing from the trail on the left to the right side of the street. I must have hit some loose gravel and started a slide. All I remember clearly is seeing the curb coming diagonally towards me, and not being able to do anything about it. I think I slid sideways into the curb...I know I did a face-plant into the sidewalk.
My chin took the brunt of the damage. You can't see it very well, but there is a dime sized chunk of skin at the bottom that is torn back. I also have scrapes and bruises on my shoulder, knee, and both hands...but the chin is definitely the beauty. Thankfully this picture doesn't do it justice, because in person it's pretty disgusting.
I went to the doctor this morning to have him check out the wounds. I was also concerned because I almost passed out in the shower Sunday morning. It wasn't because of the pain, nothing really hurts that much. I think I may have had a mild concussion. The doctor checked everything out, but wasn't too concerned. I got a tetanus shot as a precaution, and some antibacterial for the wounds. As for the bike, everything checks out except I need to re-tune the rear derailleur.

Oh well, it's my sacrifice to the road. Hopefully my account will be paid in full for some time to come.

Roommate wanted

We are back in the market for a roommate. So far we our leads on friends of friends hasn't worked out, so today we turned to Craigslist, reposting the same add we used about this time last year. So far we've had 15 responses in 6 hours, and I expect more as the evening goes on.