the thing itself and not the myth

Things I still have to post about: movies seen since July, things I did at work this summer, stuff I’ve made.

What I’m going to post about instead: this weekend! Two of my aunts & one of my cousins came over to the coast, which was lovely. Pictures after the jump! (more…)

Last week, my friend Chris visited from New York. One of the awesome things about having company is that I get to do all of the Seattle things I wouldn’t do otherwise. After the jump probably way too many crappy pictures of Seattle & a few of Portland. (more…)

Yesterday evening I trekked over to Ballard for a concert. Trekking indeed. It takes an hour to get there from my office. North Seattle Community College is the halfway point, and I finally managed to take a picture of these sweet little houses across the street from the college.

If only Ballard were a little more accessible, I would be very tempted to live there. But then it wouldn’t be Ballard. Also it would be nice if they had a grocery store walkable from the heart of the neighborhood. Though, the QFC is coming back in that condo development, yes?

More after the jump. (more…)

Also this weekend was the Harry Potter vs Twilight debate at the library, which was a lot of fun. The auditorium was packed (so at least 250 people), and the audience enthusiastic. A panel of five judges from the library & the school system asked questions of the two teams, each made up of three teen girls from Team Read. On one hand, I’m sorry that there weren’t any boys on the panels, though there were many among the teen volunteers, but on the other, how awesome is it that girls were debating what’s the best fantasy series? Totally awesome, that’s what.

The judges would ask a question, and then the teams were given 30 seconds to discuss it amongst themselves before responding. After each question, the audience would spring into lively discussion too, which was very cool.

The teams were asked to discuss supporting characters (Twilight talked about Jacob, HP about Neville OF COURSE BECAUSE NEVILLE IS THE BEST. Ahem.), villains, prejudice (a missed opportunity to discuss werewolves & Native Americans in Twilight, imho), and the responsibility of having supernatural powers (where team HP made the excellent observation that Twilight is about suppressing desire and not abuse of power).

Finally came the question you KNEW team HP had been waiting for, to discuss how women were portrayed. After reeling off strong & compelling female characters in HP, both heroes and villains, they moved on to smack down Twilight. The quote I took down was that Bella is “a stereotypical weak, dependent girl, and that is not an image to be putting on teenage girls.” The entire auditorium erupted in cheering and applause. It was FABULOUS. Particularly as team Twilight, in their rebuttal, said “I have to admit, that was really good.” They argued that Bella is relatable because we all have friends we want to smack, and that girls can choose to not be like her. It was a creative perspective, to be sure.

The judges tacked on an extra question about why the books deserve such popularity, and the Twilight folks totally failed to offer any reasons to make me read past the first 2/3 of the first book. If you somehow managed to escape knowing everything I hate about it & yet amazingly remain curious, buy me a coffee sometime.

In the final statements, team HP offered the final coup de grâce in a quote from Stephanie Meyer, praising Rowling’s work, and Harry Potter ruled the day, winning judges’ decision and the audience vote.

Good times!

I haven’t been a newspaper reader in a very long time. For the past few years, I only bought a newspaper once a year, when the Seattle International Film Festival schedule came out. I never had strong opinions between the two papers aside from their editorial pages (the Times supported Rossi *twice*). I get my news from the Internet, from local blogs that now have fewer sources to link to.

I might miss the Globe more than I’ll miss the paper. It’s hard to know right now.

So it goes.

I walked home from the movies one day mostly so I could get a picture of this Obama Lincoln mural…

…and took the opportunity to get pictures of a few other signs too, including these two:

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More February after the jump. (more…)

…went up to Canada for New Year’s. (This is a bit of a tradition now, and this year was particularly great because I wound up having a five day weekend, and thus a nice long visit. It also snowed every single day I was there, which was pretty ace so far as the puppy was concerned.)

&

…got a new camera and had to test it out. Much more after the jump. (more…)

This has been a really odd December. I have succeeded in not working a single Wednesday all month. The first two fell to a death cold, the next two to snow days (yes, really, more on that later), and the 31st I’ll be in Canada, as is my New Year’s tradition.

Christmas is frequently weird anyway. I don’t really celebrate it anymore since my family moved away, plus my job is very holiday-intensive. My office, eaten by the holidays (and many more photos after the jump): (more…)

Now, some randomness.

A pendant I bought from Wyrding Studios, art by Erin McCauley, with a bonus set of earrings:

I know absolutely nothing about tarot, so if anyone can suggest a reason why I was so compelled to buy the Chariot, please do.

After the jump, a whole whack of Seattle stuff. (more…)

As we all know, I vote absentee, but I find it comforting to take my ballot to the closest poll to my office and slide it into the secure box.

If I can get a sticker, so much the better.

Today at lunch, after spending a bit of the morning figuring out the last few items, I took it on over to the local community center. There was no line, though things were a little busier than they have been in prior elections.

I slipped my ballot into the box, asked the lovely poll worker for my sticker, and headed off to get lunch. On my way out I was stopped by a gentleman, likely a newer citizen. He wanted to make sure he knew which people on the ballot were Democrats, so I showed him in the pamphlet, and found an endorsement sheet for this district.

It was kind of awesome.

My sticker says “farewell to polls” because this is the last election in King County before it switches over to 100% vote by mail. I’m kind of sad about that.

Go Obama! Go Gregoire! Go Mass Transit! And NO NO NO on Prop 8.