Seattle Finally Gets Something Resembling Proper Public Transportation

All aboard: Light rail service starts Saturday:

"Seattle, can you hear that train a-comin'?

Thirteen year after voters approved the taxes to build it, Sound Transit's Central Link light rail opens for service Saturday. Trains will run every 71/2 minutes from stations along the 14-mile line between Westlake Center in Seattle and the massive, glass-encased station in Tukwila at South 154th Street and Tukwila International Boulevard."

I only hope this encourages similar projects and a larger rail network. I still can't believe how behind the U.S. has been at this for so long.

So THAT's Why Everyone in Seattle Exercises

Coffee can lessen the pain of exercise
(via msnbc.com):

"That cup of coffee that many gym rats, bikers and runners swill before a workout does more than energize them. It kills some of the pain of athletic exertion, a new study suggests. And it works regardless of whether a person already had a coffee habit or not."

Sweet caffeine dulls the pain...

Back To Clam Future

And I thought I was the worst Doc Brown...



(hat tip to Ken. I think.)

Starbucks Plans to Close 300 More Shops

Grim.

Starbucks plans to close 300 more shops as profit drops
(via MarketWatch):

"Starbucks, battered by slower store traffic and restructuring charges, reported Wednesday its quarterly net profit dropped 69% and announced plans to shut down 300 more coffee shops."

Well, at least the news fits my mood today.

Newspaper For Sale

I'm sorry to hear about this.

For sale: The P-I:

"After 146 years of delivering news, the Seattle P-I faces becoming what it has chronicled: history.

The Seattle P-I's parent company, The Hearst Corp., said Friday that it has put the paper up for sale and will stop publishing unless someone buys it in 60 days. If no buyer emerges, the paper would either become a Web-only publication or cease all operations."

I've always been a big fan of the quirky-sounding Seattle Post-Intelligencer, both its paper and its distinctive globe poking up along the shoreline of the Puget Sound.

I hope they find a buyer.

UPDATE: The excellent political cartoonist David Horsey has done a post and a cartoon about the situation.

Major Shrinkage

Went and watched Seattle's Resolution Run and Polar Bear Dive on the 1st.


Those people are nuts.

It's the new year: Let's go jump in the lake (via Seattle Times Newspaper):

"A plunge into slate-gray, 42-degree Lake Washington might not be everyone's way to celebrate the new year, but for hundreds of runners Thursday, it was just the thing.

'We are capitalizing on the fact that people are nuts,' said Bill Roe, an originator of the 2009 5K Resolution Run and Polar Bear Dive for Club Northwest, a runners club founded in Seattle in 1972. 'We were looking for ways to reinvigorate the race,' Roe said. 'Attendance was down to around 300, so we added a polar-bear plunge. People said we were crazy.'

But that seemed to be just the right idea."

And if you check out picture number 6 in their photo gallery, you can see my silhouette just behind the guy with the hat.

Uploaded a few of my own pictures to my (finally being utilized) flickr page:

Oh, And It's Not The Size of Your Snow That Counts

It's how poorly you handle it.

Lately, a couple of my friends have pointed out though email and via Facebook just how much worse the snow is in their part of the world. Why, even Microsoft's Fargo campus is making fun of how Redmond - home to Microsoft's headquarters - is unable to deal with the weather.

I get it. Yes, it's 4 below in Fargo.

But it's Fargo.

And yes, there were 27 inches of snow in Canada. But it's Canada. Canadians are born wearing a tuke and bearing a snow shovel (which explains the popularity of c-sections).

But, because snow like this is so rare here in Seattle, we're just not ready to handle it. We don't have enough plows, nor do most of us have the right shoes or tires or chains to put on said tires. Seattle's about as prepared to handle this much snow as Tennessee is prepared to handle deluges of coal sludge.

Worse, because we're a bunch of wild-eyed, Metrognomical hippies here in Seattle, we don't salt the road, we sand it. Don't you see?? Salting it would be bad! For nature! Besides, we don't know if Seattle will get enough RAIN in the near future to dissolve all of that dreadfully unnatural... salt.

From a week of salting.

In Seattle.

Personally, if it only snows like this for a few days once a millennium, I say SALT THIS CITY! I want the Space Needle ringed like a Margarita glass. I want Mark Kurlansky to write a book about us. I want slugs to run in fear.

The best part of it all? Scientists are now saying that sanding is worse than salting.

"Sand — one of Seattle's main weapons against icy streets — is more likely to harm aquatic life than the salt the city refuses to use out of concern for its environmental effects."

Now you tell us.

Snowy Night In Seattle

I couldn't venture out too far but here are a few pictures from tonight:

My very first snow angel!

It Just Keeps Getting Better

Get ready for the next big storm
(via Seattle PI):

"The National Weather Service said a fierce snowstorm combined with high winds and possible freezing rain could cause widespread power outages, and dump as much as a half-foot of snow in the Seattle area, starting as early as Saturday afternoon. A rare blizzard warning was also issued for the Cascades and northern areas of the Olympic Peninsula."

But it's not all bad news...

"On the brighter side -- forecasters noted that the cold snap should end by Christmas with temperatures on Christmas Day projected into the 40s."

How perfectly balmy.

(Think I'll Walk Instead) UPDATE:



This could have been a lot worse. I'm glad it wasn't.

Seattle: Ground To A Halt

You know that great scene at the end of Groundhog Day when Bill Murray looks out the window and finally sees snow?

That's what this morning felt like!

(Oddly enough, Andie MacDowell spent the night last night.)

Seattle, region hit with snow; schools closed:

"If Seattle was the doughnut hole in Wednesday's snowstorm, then it looked more like a powdered pancake on Thursday.

Seattle dodged heavy snow Wednesday as surrounding areas were blanketed. The city wasn't so lucky 24 hours later as the winter storm caused slick roads and prompted multiple school closures, including Seattle Public Schools, for the second day in a row.

Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled during this morning's snowstorm in Seattle. The National Weather Service calls it 'thundersnow.'

The thundersnow, heard about 5:30 a.m., was caused by a storm cell moving across Puget Sound."

Thundersnow. Coooool.

"Traffic was a mess on most Puget Sound's major freeways and highways with up to four inches of snow and an inch of ice underneath in some places, Washington State Patrol Trooper Curt Boyle said. State Route 520 was in gridlock as multiple vehicles spun out on the raised portion of the Lake Washington bridge. Troopers were still clearing lanes at 8:30 a.m., he said.

No serious collisions were reported.

'Pretty much if you don't have to go anywhere, don't,' Boyle said."

If you insist.

Brace Yourselves!

'Major winter blast' on way:
(via Seattle PI)

"Winter will come barreling in to Western Washington on Friday, bringing rain and perhaps snow by the end of rush hour.

Subfreezing temperatures and perhaps more snow will follow in what the National Weather Service says may be the coldest weather here since December 1990."

It can rain here for 11 months straight and nobody bats an eye. But throw in a little snow, and the city grinds to a halt.

Can't wait!

MARCO!! POLO!! MARCO!! POLO!!

Greetings from Green Lake!

After a cloudy yet productive morning, the sky cleared and I found myself needing to get outside. So I came here to jog (3 days in a row!) and, afterwards, actually took my very first dip in Green Lake. Water was a bit cold but it was really refreshing, if not unnerving.

I guess I'm just not used to swimming in a lake. Must be because I grew up in Florida, a place where pools, oceans and gulfs are for swimming and lakes are decorations for golf courses and, more importantly, home to gators. That means lakes are usually the very last place somebody ever saw their pet poodle or little Timmy sitting on the dock before hearing a big splash.

A lifetime of hearing stories like that made it a bit hard for me to fully relax. Well, there was that, and the group of kids playing Marco Polo. For those of you who don't know, Marco Polo is a water game where one kid shuts his eyes and keeps yelling "MARCO!!" while his friends back away from him or her and reply loudly "POLO!!". The point of this game is to annoy adults.

It's very successful.

Actually, I'm starting to wish there were some gators out here. Or, at least, a rusty hook or two.

C'mon In! The Water's... Ouch!

Divers recover more metal spikes from Green Lake
(via Seattle P.I.)

"A team of divers recovered 41 more metal spikes, some of them with hooked ends, from the bottom of Green Lake early Friday, for a total of more than 80 such jumbo skewers."

Makes me glad I only jog at Green Lake.

I Want That Hat

August 4th is Salute to Japanese Baseball Night at Safeco Field. The first 20,000 people get one of these:

A Mariners cap... written in Japanese. Almost makes me want to pretend I follow sports!

Maybe I can convince my parents to go during their visit that week. (Because what I really need is more clothing with Japanese writing on it.)

[Japanese baseball cap-tip to Flex]

You maniacs! You blew it up!

Yes, as you can see from the pictures I posted the other day, I spent Fourth of July on the Planet of the Apes.

OK. Actually, it was a giant, inflatable Statue of Liberty head.

Still...

Take your stinking paws off of my bottle rocket, you damn, dirty ape.

(Special thanks to Flex for his Photoshopping prowess.)

Happy 4th of July

July 4th Fireworks from West Seattle, 2007

Slept until noon today. Now that's a holiday.

Time to grill some meat.

UPDATE:
Decided at the last minute to bike up to Gas Works Park to catch the fireworks tonight. Didn't have a chance to get a great spot but still got some decent pictures. Enjoy!

...rumble...

Actual thunder here today. The long, rolling kind, too. Loving it. (For a place known for rain, Seattle's seriously lacking in the theatrics of it.)

By the way, sorry about the sporadic posting lately. Been a busy week. (You think my posting's bad? You should see my emails.)

Hey, here's something interesting I recently discovered while trying to put together an audition DVD the past few days. Turns out that, after nearly 4 years of being paid by a major, international corporation to play a Japanese-speaking Doc Brown, I still can't do a decent impression of him in English.

Anyway, more posting soon.

Naked Hippies on Bikes

Spent the morning at the Fremont Summer Solstice Fair and parade.

Details soon!

(Flickrrific) UPDATE:

Here are some pictures from that day...

Moving Pictures!

Finally got around to starting up a You Tube account. (How perfectly 2006 of me.) I wanted to get some videos online right away so I figured I'd post some of the time-lapse work I did from my apartment on Alki Point.

Here's a nice chunk of a busy Saturday afternoon on Puget Sound...



Here's a cool sunset...



Finally, my favorite...



Check out the two storms converging at around :34 seconds. Man, the world is just awesome.

Boom de yada.

So that's why I moved to Seattle...

What a day today!

Yesterday, after months of a winter that just would not seem to end, the temperature in Seattle finally broke into the sweet, glorious 80's. Hell, we even had some humidity!

So this morning, after a few hours of a level of productivity that surprised even me, I slapped on my new jogging shoes, tossed a beach towel into my backpack and went and jogged over to and around Green Lake.

Man, I love running in hot, humid weather! Perhaps all those years of exercising in Florida has fried my brain but today's run felt the way jogging should feel: hearty, like doing jumping jacks in a sauna.

And when I stopped my run, it wasn't just because the sweet siren voice of my Nike+ iPod told me my workout was complete (oh, how I pine for you, "Female Spoken Feedback"!), I stopped because I had finished my run. None of that "Well, I'm not even sweating, I guess I could keep going another mile or so" BS. It was more of a nice, healthy "Must. Collapse."

Anyway, Seattle was out en masse and parts of flesh which hadn't seen sunlight since mid-2007 were on display in all their pallid glory. So, after my jog, I found a nice patch of soft grass in the shade of a robust pine (I got enough sun yesterday) and settled in for some Grade-A people watching.

Where I sat presented me with a picture-perfect view of the lake, framed by two clumps of trees and underlined by the jogging path. I even had a view of the Space Needle stuck in the horizon like a meat thermometer. (Although, it could have been a cell tower. I didn't have my contacts in.) Naturally, my good camera was at home so I couldn't grab a proper picture, but here is a poor representation snatched with the rudimentary camera on my Motorola RAZR-POS phone...


You can hardly tell from the picture that the surface of the lake is dotted with dozens of paddle boats and swans (and you can't even see the Space Needle) but you get the idea.

Anyway, there was a steady breeze rolling off that lake that was as heavenly as it was constant. (If only it would last as long as winter had.) As I sat there enjoying the weather and watching Seattleites pass, I realized that, thanks to a geeky few, rollerbladers have a bad rap. I mean, it's gotta be good for you, right? Easy on the knees and all that. So, I promised myself that, were I to see a cool rollerblader that day, I'd consider taking up the sport.

Here are a few other observations from this afternoon:

• Guys with those bicycles tricked out to look like Harley Davidson motorcycles inevitably have tattoos or mullets. Or both.
• People who still use roller skates somehow manage to look like they just left an actual roller rink, circa 1986.
• Sundresses rock.
• Baby carriages, which once were modest and foldable and kinda resembled a pair of Siamese-twin umbrellas, now appear to have been mated with bikes and SUVs. OK, I get the cup holder and all, but honestly.
  
• While 2 wheels on a skateboard may be better for your core muscles, 4 wheels will keep you from looking like a complete idiot.
• Bikinis rock.
• My theory about tennis shoes appears to be holding up.
• While everybody seemed to be in a remarkably good mood, nobody seemed willing to make eye-contact with anybody they didn't already know. Must be a Northwest thing.
• The size of a teenage boy's bike seems to be inversely-proportional to how cool he thinks he is.
• Bikinis and sundresses rock.
  

I could have stayed until the sun set but, after a few hours, an empty stomach forced me to pack it up and head home but, man... what a delightful afternoon. I think I'll sleep with my windows open tonight.

Oh, and I've decided not to take up rollerblading.