10.10 a.m., last Wednesday, Seattle-Tacoma Int'l Airport
Ma & Pa Kettle get ready to travel.
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January 31, 2008
January 24, 2008
New Bond Film Title Announced
This morning from the BBC, an announcement of the new James Bond film, staring Daniel Craig. Why it's to be Quantum of Solace. Sort of a funny name, don't you think? At least this one is based off of Ian Fleming's story title.
January 23, 2008
Should obits be written for young celebrities?
With the sad news of Heath Ledger's death this morning, the debate outlined in this article seems to be fairly moot. Yeah, celebrities die early sometimes, and a news organization should be prepared.
January 21, 2008
Job Hunting
Job Hunting sure is frustrating. Sometimes I wish this would happen to me:
January 18, 2008
January 17, 2008
Office for Mac faces competition? Really?
In this article from the Seattle P-I, Todd Bishop outlines the alternatives for Mac Office. While I'm not a big fan of office, I did explore other options before buying 2008... He lists them:
• Open Office - It's great on a PC, but on a Mac, it uses some weird windows emulator window called X10 or something like that. It's a really ugly program, it looks like Windows 98, and the program runs slow on my iMac (with 4GB of RAM).
• Google Apps - Very basic, slow and awkward to use. A very light version of a text editor. Only good for when Office is broken.
• iWork and Nisus Writer Pro - I've never tried either. I'm sure it's a competitor... Another option he mentions is kind of bizarre:
And in a technological twist, people can use the Windows version of Office on Macs, using software that runs Microsoft's operating system on the Apple machines.This method is fine, but you have to buy a copy of Office for Windows and a copy of Windows... which isn't cheap. Of course,
To be sure, analysts and even some of the company's rivals say Microsoft isn't at risk of losing its position atop the Mac productivity-software market anytime soon.... So what was the point of this article, then? Alternatives exist, but with the exception of two, all are basic and cumbersome? Really? Ugh.
January 16, 2008
Bellevue Avenue East
A cup, in the snow.
January 15, 2008
Silhouette
Now done with university, I've been focusing my energy on a job search. Why is it that I'm always looking for a job during a recession [1]?
Looking for a job takes a lot of my energy, and I've had little inspiration for photography. Fortunately, yesterday was sunny. Tony and I headed to West Seattle for some shooting along the water.
A sunny day in Seattle makes the citizenry act like reverse slugs - everyone came out in the sun, and the Starbucks on Alki had a line 25 people deep. After some aimless driving around, we went to the Junction at the top of the hill, got some coffee and ended up at a small pocket park on the beach, with a lovely view of Puget Sound and the really nice sunset.
[1] I can see signs that one is starting here.
January 10, 2008
One day only - a casino!
In today's New York Times, a story about a casino that operated for one day only: If This Happens in Vegas, It Can Sure Stay in Vegas
January 08, 2008
Waiting for the bridge...
again... and again... and again... I sure am glad I don't have to go across the Ship Canal often anymore.
"that night at the video store... there were many choices"
but one in particular stood out on the shelf...
Sadly, we didn't rent this, and ended up playing Scrabble instead.
January 06, 2008
Bad air
My hometown, as anyone who has lived there has known, has worse air quality than the most industrial part of Seattle. HeraldNet: Air worse than Seattle's
Growing up, I was always annoyed when we had to run during PE class and everyone would be coughing, our lungs burning from the pollution. It's part of why I don't like to run outside when it's cold.
January 04, 2008
FOAM
Thursday night, everything's fine, except you've got that look in your eye
When I'm tellin' a story and you find it boring,
You're thinking of something to say.
You'll go along with it then drop it and humiliate me in front of our friends.
Then I'll use that voice that you find annoyin' and say something like
"yeah, intelligent input, darlin', why don't you just have another beer then?"
Then you'll call me a bitch
And everyone we're with will be embarrassed,
And I wont give a shit.
My finger tips are holding onto the cracks in our foundation,
And I know that I should let go,
But I can't.
And everytime we fight I know it's not right,
Everytime that you're upset and I smile.
I know I should forget, but I can't.
You said I must eat so many lemons
'cause I am so bitter.
I said
"i'd rather be with your friends mate 'cause they are much fitter."
Yes, it was childish and you got aggressive,
And I must admit that I was a bit scared,
But it gives me thrills to wind you up.
My finger tips are holding onto the cracks in our foundation,
And I know that I should let go,
But I can't.
And everytime we fight I know it's not right,
Everytime that you're upset and I smile.
I know I should forget, but I can't.
Your face is pasty 'cause you've gone and got so wasted, what a surprise.
Don't want to look at your face 'cause it's makin' me sick.
You've gone and got sick on my trainers,
I only got these yesterday.
Oh, my gosh, I cannot be bothered with this.
Well, I'll leave you there 'til the mornin',
And I purposely wont turn the heating on
And dear God, I hope I'm not stuck with this one.
My finger tips are holding onto the cracks in our foundation,
And I know that I should let go,
But I can't.
And everytime we fight I know it's not right,
Everytime that you're upset and I smile.
I know I should forget, but I can't.
And everytime we fight I know it's not right,
Everytime that you're upset and I smile.
I know I should forget, but I can't. Kate Nash ~ FOUNDATIONS
My childhood
Large parts of my childhood were spent on the beach, looking at scenes such as this.
Lincoln Park, Fauntleroy, West Seattle.
January 03, 2008
in the gap
waiting between the time the fireworks started and stopped and started and stopped due to a technical problem.
January 01, 2008
My creation
I started 2007 at the foot of the world’s tallest building, Taipei 101. Perhaps the most important event was that I met the queen of the pointy shoes and we started a really wonderful friendship – she’s grown into one of my favorite friends and someone I sorely miss. I also visited Thailand for a long weekend.
In February, I celebrated Chinese New Year while rather bored and hung out with my friends in Taiwan who weren’t Chinese. I also went out to the Pacific ocean at Fulong, on one of my many random trips on Taiwan’s railways.
In March, I took one last trip to Hong Kong and Macau, pretty much filling up my passport. I had a long week of farewell parties and flew back to Seattle, returning to class again at the end of the month.
In April, I turned 26 and got two film SLRs – a Nikon FG and a Pentax ME Super.
In May, I took a week off school to drive across the United States with my best friend Sean. We drove from Seattle to Philadelphia, and went to see his family (and a graduation ceremony of one of his friends) in Manhattan.
In June, I traveled to Beijing and was pretty unimpressed with how polluted and dirty the city was. I learned how to hold my breath when walking past bathrooms. As a student of China, I learned a lot and watched way, way too many Chinese movies.
July found me celebrating another Independence Day away from home and sweating it out in the humid confines of the Beijing subway; I climbed the Great Wall; I got attacked by a gaggle of children in the old summer Palace. Later that month, I took a weird train trip to Xi’an and had to argue my way out of that city’s airport.
August saw me return to Taiwan for a week. After relatively dry Beijing, typhoon-racked Taiwan was a nice change. I ended up experiencing Typhoon Pabuk three times – once in southern Taiwan, then the next day on a China Airlines 747-400 and finally got stuck in my hotel room in Kowloon, Hong Kong for most of a day. I did see The Simpsons Movie in a Tsimshatsui cinema (getting the last ticket for their only English-language show of the day – Go Me!).
September, I returned to Seattle and back to studies at the University of Washington. I had a few weeks off from school and practiced my calligraphy, saw my dad and reconnected with my friends in Seattle.
One morning in October, I found a note from my building manager that I had a package waiting for me. Curious as to what it was, I went downstairs and found that a book containing some of my photographs was published.
November was a great challenge. On November 12, my maternal grandmother, Lois Eva Carter (USAF Ret.) , underwent heart surgery. The surgery was unsuccessful. In the following days, her condition deteriorated, improved, deteriorated, improved and sadly, she passed away on December 4. She was 82.
In December, I struggled with the grief over my grandmother’s illness and death; I celebrated my graduation after eight years of undergraduate study; I played around with my new Olympus E-510 and celebrated the end of the year with a small party at my house with a great view of the Space Needle fireworks.
Century Wheel
At the Fun Forest, which will be closed in 2009, according to an article in this morning's Seattle Post-Intelligencer.