Sunset from the office

At the b-ball game

Oil and water

Wasting time on the boat

Birds

A distorted view

Water & light

Light moves

A blur while waiting for the boat

Todays view from my office

Still more

More

Another random image

What I see at the moment

Help

I'm on the ferry. Everyone around me is coughing. That lady behind me
really needs to cover her mouth when hacking on my neck. I hate this
time of year.

Boat

Waiting

Dirty window

Sunday sports

Sunday was great sports day. The Red Sox beat the Indians for a World
Series berth, the Patriots killed Miami to remain unbeaten and my
favorite F1 driver won the world championship.

Ferry and sunset

Downtown Seattle

Wall

A wall I found in downtown Bremerton.

All hail the Iceman

Today my favorite Formula 1 driver, Kimi Raikkonen, won the 2007 drivers world championship in a Ferrari. Yes!

Storm

Oct. 18 Seattle wind storm. Shot on my pocket camera.

None of you will find this intresting

But I do.

Where I'm at

Not much going on lately, hence all the photography. What's with all the photos? The iPhone has a 1.3 mega pixel camera of so so quality. When I attended art school, we had to use a camera called a Holga. Holga's are plastic cameras that shoot medium format film. Every individual Holga is different. Some have light leaks. Some are blurry. Some just don't work very well. The beauty of the Holga is that every roll of film was an adventure. It was a project that I really enjoyed. So I was thinking that I would start treating the iPhone camera as a Holga. It allows me not to worry about the quality and just go with what it gives me. None the images will go through any post production. I just want to shoot, upload, and see what you think.

Rough water

Storm clouds

At the edge of the storm

Lights

Some tools of the bike commuter, minus the tape measure

Sleep on the water

Sunset at the Seattle ferry dock

A wet day in Seattle

Waiting to leave Bremerton

Firenze bricks

Santa Maria Novella Station,Firenze Italy

Terminal sunrise

Part of me desires to do this

Flying Human TricksPRO.com - video powered by Metacafe

Sunrise over Bremerton

I'm still sick to my stomach

Sorry for the abrupt end of the ACLS live blog. I just could not believe my eyes at the absolute collapse I was seeing. It was like waking up xmas morning and seeing a overdosed Santa Claus lying on your floor with a needle still stuck in his arm. Unadulterated ugliness.

At least the Patriots are playing today. Maybe I'll live blog that.

ACLS cont.

This looks like it's going extra innings. Both bullpens look about the same. Put your money on the Boston bats to pull this one out.

ALCS cont.

Great game. All tied up.

ALCS cont.

Two home runs in a row. Wow! One of the better lineups in recent
memory. Can the Indians answer?

ALCS cont.

Sweet! Manny homers, but he still needs to cut his hair.

ALCS cont.

Ok, maybe not. For a big guy that was some hustle.

ALCS cont.

Predication

Ortiz homer.

More ALCS

Well at Tito is pulling the old man. I think two batters ago would of
been a better idea. I think the biggest problem for the Sox tonight is
that John Kerry is sitting right next to the dugout.

ALCS

Lowe is awesome. Now these two windbags are talking about Chris Meyers
outfit. Pull Schilling for flipping sake!

More ALCS

Do the Indians have anything for the Red Sox? They seem a little
intimidated to me. Oh by the way, I hate Joe Buck and Tim McGarver as
annoucers.

Live blogging th ALCS

Being a Red Sox fan is torture. Fucking Schilling, teases us with his
performance early in the week and now gives up a three run homer. Six
better get the bullpen up.

A change of color

Miles taking five

From my mobile

Light at the end of the tunnel

Create! Resist the gear lust

With the advent of digital manipulation in the art world, what has
happened to the conversation about the work? When I say work I mean
the actual creative choices the artist has made. Lately the
conversations I have been involved in are more about the gear used.
This computer has more power, a new 500 mega pixel camera that
everyone lusts over or this new piece of software that has some must
have new feature. The gear is not what creates. What are the choices
that you are making? Why did you choose to frame that image in that
way? What are you trying to say? Creating is more about telling a
story than how many mega pixels a camera is.

iPhone and Apple

Sorry I did not talk more about the iPhone in my earlier post. The
device is amazing. This is the mobile device I have been waiting for.
The technolgical leap that Apple has made with this phone is jaw
dropping. I've had the device for roughly three months and I still
occationally grin because it is so cool. So what is my problem? My
biggest issue is with Apple's ridiculous stance on third party
applications. They won't let them be installed. You can use web based
app's, but most of them suck and what if you are getting a slow edge
or wifi connection? What I find strange is that third party developers
have been integral to Apple's success. I also find Apple's excuse of
letting third party app's on the phone will endanger AT&T's network to
be bullshit. All the other so called smart phones on the market allow
third party app's to be installed.

Just so you know I'm not some Mac fanboy who wears Apple shaped
glasses. I love their products and have been using them since the
Apple II E, but I also recognize what complete idiots they can be:
their pricing, the arrogance that they are cooler and the meglomania
that is Steve Jobs. Yeah, I kept buying Apple products when they were
two to three times the price of a PC machines, but I like how Apple
designs their operating system to get out of your way. For the most
part, it does not hinder creativity. I can not say that about PC's.

Apple has made their name on well designed computers, well designed
software and one of the greatest marketing stategies ever. Will they
change? I doubt it. Will I keep using their products? Of course. I'm
just frustrated. I own this amazing product, essentially a computer
that fits in your pocket, yet, so far, Apple is keeping it from it's
full potential.

Disclosure: I work for a third party Mac developer.

Todays view from my office

More sunrise

Sunrise from ferry

Don't judge the iPhone

Yes, I have an iPhone. The only reason I have one is because my employer bought them for the whole company. It's pretty cool, but I feel like a douche when I whip it out in public. I'll post a more in depth review of it later. It has made me feel different about Apple and not in good way.

Leaving Seattle on the ferry

Taken with my iPhone today.

So say we all!!!

If you love BSG, check out the new season 4 trailer.

BSG Season 4 Trailer

Blood pressure

When I was about eight years old I was diagnosed with hypertension. My life has been filled with many visits to the doctor and many more visits to the pharmacy. Hypertension runs in the family. As I have told every doctor, my grandfather had it, my father has it and I have it. So I have been been on some kind of medication ever since my diagnoses. I really hated that I had this thing wrong me. Yeah I know, it could of been way worse. What sucked was as a kid my school mates would look at me like I had cancer when I told them. So after a awhile I stop talking about it. When I got a little older I got this idea in my head that I did not need the medication. At the time I was riding five to six hundred miles a week, " I'm an athlete" I told my self, "I don't need that anymore." One day I got this massive headache, I mean MASSIVE! My vision was bluring it was so bad. So I went to a walk in clinic and was checked out. As soon as they took my blood pressure they freaked. If I remember correctly, it was about 225/180. I've never seen people move so fast. "Here put thus under your tough." Soon I over heard the doctor on the phone with the local hospital saying that he has a twenty year old male about to strike out and should we helicopter me in. "Crap," I said to myself, "I should have been taking those pills." I ended up spending three nights there while they monitored me. Recently I finally found a doctor that took my hypertension very seriously and after months of trying to figure a course of treatment he threw up his hands. He thought he knew what I had, but he needed to send me to a specialist to make sure. The endocrinologist confirmed that I have primary hyperaldronism. Somethig to do with my adeline gland producing to much aldrostrone. So he put me on a new medication and boom, my pressure went way down. Then a few weeks ago he took me off the beta blocker that I was taking in conjunction with the new pill and put me on an ace inhibitor. Suddenly, I feel a lot better. The thing about beta blockers are the possible side effects. For the longest time I have been very lethargic. No doubt it was the beta blocker. Now, I feel a lot better. More energy and a brighter outlook. It is like a fog has lifted.

Back

A friend of my wife has appealed that I blog again. Okay here it goes. Why did I stop? The main reason is that I'm a pretty lazy person, which I'm actually starting to come to terms with. A secondary reason is that we bought a house. Buying a house is like being sucked into a black hole, it takes twice as long as you think it should take and once you've moved in your exhausted. My exhaustion and laziness combined into a toxic mix of anesthesia. Now that I have come out of the haze I'm ready to blog again.

This is not right

Went to this site today to see what my blog was rated.

Mingle² - Online Dating

Those of you that know me, know that rated PG is not a true reflection of who I am. Things are going to change around here. I'm back, so slap this URL into your RSS feeder and prepare yourself for my shock and awe campaign.

Amazing

This is really cool. I wonder how this was done.

Lance humor

This is one of the funnier things I have seen in awhile. Enjoy.

The Colonel

Have you ever thought you knew something, then out of the blue that knowledge turned out to be false? For the longest time Jess has told a story about when she was eight years old and would go to the dog track in New Hampshire. At this track the lure that the dogs chased was called “The Colonel”. So since this was the only dog racing track she had ever been to she thought that all lures at all dog tracks were called “The Colonel”. I have never been to a dog race, so when she relayed this story to me the idea of all dog racing lures being called “The Colonel” seemed reasonable to me. For seven years I have lived with this notion. When ever we would be following someone we would say, “There goes The Colonel!” During the last visit with the friends that would take Jessie to the dog track, the subject came up in conversation. They asked what a Colonel was and Jessie said that is what the dog racing lures were called. Our friends laughed and said that is what that particular track's lure was called, not all dog racing lures.

I'm EXTREMELY anti dog racing. In researching for the proper name for the thing the dogs chase I found this gem on the Greyhound Racing Association of America website.

The Most Exciting Dogs in the World:
Look at the muscles and see the excitement in their eyes! You don’t get that kind of power by sitting around in a crate or being a “couch potato.” You get muscles like that from exercise. You get the energy to run from good nourishment provided by a good trainer. You get a shiny coat from being washed and groomed.

Remember: Nobody forces Greyhounds to run. As anyone who raises them can tell you, that’s impossible. Greyhounds are as opinionated and different from each other as we are – and if there was a way to make them run like we want them to, we would have figured it out long ago!

Greyhounds aren’t horses with riders on their backs telling them what to do. They are not African cheetahs running after gazelles because they are starving. Greyhounds are running for the sheer love of it!

Oh yeah, I'm sure they just absolutely love it. Idiots.

The Rock

Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

Yeah, I want it thin. You got a problem with that?

When you think of the deli counter at a supermarket, what do you think of? Glorious rows of meat, cheese and fried delicacies? If your a vegetarian maybe you see a farm animal funeral home with cheese as the finger food for the wakes of the dead animals. I see one thing, grumpy deli counter workers.

What is is about these people? Why are they so pissed? I must admit, it would suck to have their job, but does it require a almost universal attitude of fuck you? Each deli has it own variant of this attitude.

My favorite deli is at the Fred Meyer in Ballard. These guys take it to another level. If you are not prepared to ask for one of the pre-sliced items, you are in for some fun. First you order, “I would like 3/4 of a pound of the Private Selections Oven Roasted Turkey Breast please.” They then look down at the array of pre-sliced items and once realizing that it was not there you would get the “Look.” The Look means “Great, I've got another slicer!” You also get the Look from the rest of the workers at the same time. Deli workers seem to be able to communicate telepathically, “Warning, we have a Slicer in our midst.”

Once you are pegged as a Slicer you are completely screwed. They must have the security cam people print out photos of Slicers and post them up in the prep area out of sight. Mine would say, “Generally likes, Thinly sliced turkey. Sometimes orders roast beef and black forest ham. Beware likes to have cheese sliced very thin.”

As you walk up to the counter you will first encounter what I call the “Ignore.” Suddenly things need to get done in the prep area away from the counter. Acting like you are not there, they will refuse to make eye contact while acting super busy. Then once you have waited the union mandated “Slicer wait time” they come to the counter. If there are other people waiting they will always try to help them first. So after you have spoken up for yourself you get the “Stare”, the “Stare” is all about trying to intimidate you into not having your order sliced.

So you place your order, “1/2 a pound of the roast beef please, thinly sliced.” After placing your order they will always try to sell you something that is pre-sliced. What follows after declining the pre-sliced item is a long pause, then a sigh and finally they relent. Now you might think that once you have ordered you are safe. Oh no my friend, this is the time that you have to be the most alert. There is only one way they have to get back at “Slicers” in a deli workers mind and that is cutting your order so thin, that you can see through it. What they do is position their bodies so you can not see how thin they are cutting it. So what you end up doing is running up and down the counter trying to find the best angle. Once you nicely say, “please, not that thin” you will get it the way you want.

That my friends is what it is like at the deli counters of the Seattle.

30 in 1

The last 30 minutes of the Bremerton to Seattle ferry compressed into 1 minute.

Our Intrepid Hero

The 3

This is the first edition of The 3. It can be 3 of anything.

Today I recount my 3 favorite traffic experiences of the day.

1. The Acura SUV that blew through the stop sign without looking while on a cell phone.
Surprise!. The phone call you were having must of been really important, because you did not look while rolling through that stop sign. Yep, I'm right here, in the white Ford. What? You didn't see me? How could that be? Maybe because you are on the phone? Just maybe?

2. The Subaru Forester on Juanita Drive going 25 miles an hour.
HELLO!? The Speed limit is 35!! Could we please go the speed limit? Please!?

3. The bike rider riding in the right lane on Lake City Way during rush hour.
Okay, I'm all for commuting to work on your bike. Soon I will be doing it myself, but why do you choose to ride on a busy road, that has no bike lane, during rush hour? What makes it even worse is that there is one of the greatest bike trails in Seattle running parallel to the road only 4 blocks to your right. Dude, use the trail. You'll love it, cars will love you and everyone will be lovely.

Watching the water

Jessie riding the ferry.

Water at play

Water fountains at the Bremerton WA ferry terminal.

Spout

More photographic goodness here.

Donald the lecherous

Almost forgot to post this. What you are looking at is a World War II Australian Army poster. If you are wondering what “Pro” stands for, look at the figure in the background. This is one of coolest things I have ever seen. I want to make this into a shirt and wear it at Disneyland, just to see how fast they throw me out of the place.

Muse, where are you?

This is my third try at writing a blog post tonight and every idea has sucked. I'm unplugging for the night. Later.

"Why is everyone so unhappy?" "Because this is the post office son."

I recently completed selling a bunch of stuff on Ebay, which resulted in going to the post office four days in row. Everyday was a fifteen to thirty minute wait, but what made the wait absolutely unbearable was that out of three people working the counter, only two would deal with paying customers. The other postal employee only dealt with non-monetary transactions. Sometimes the employee would just be standing there doing nothing. Can someone explain to me how this is effective customer service? Why not have all three deal with all the customers? Then there are the customers that just completely screw the people behind them. “Hey lady, how about addressing your fifteen packages before you get to the counter? Do you think that might be considerate for the rest of us?” Better yet, was the man who brought all his EBay packages to the post office just to have them weighed. He was not even sending them yet. “Dude, did you at anytime think about buying a cheap scale!” Here endeth the rant. Sorry about that, I needed to get that out of my system. More happy, sunny and pretty posts to follow. Cheers!!

Breaking through the pain

One summer, when I was 13, I was spending the summer with my grandmother in Southern California. It was Saturday in July, I had just returned home from a day of surfing with my uncles and sat down to see what was on television. While flipping through the channels I stumble upon a bike race. I was utterly entranced by what I was seeing. Two hundred athletes riding so close together that from afar the group looked like a swarm of bees. They were riding up these enormous hills, descending down switch backs and sprinting at speeds that I thought was unbelievable at the time. “What is this?”, I said to myself. It was the 1984 Tour de France, which was won by the frenchman Laurent Fignon.

I had to do this. I had to race bikes! I walked out to the kitchen where my Uncles and grandmother were talking. “I'm going to race the Tour de France!”, I proclaimed to my relatives with utter confidence as only a teenager could. One of uncles started laughing. My grandmother asked, “What is it?” “It's a bike race and I am going to race in it someday,” I said. My uncle kept chuckling to himself. For the rest of the summer that was all I could talk about. That was the day I fell in love with cycling and especially bicycle racing.

The following Christmas what does my Grandmother get me? A Italian racing bike. I was completely over the moon. The bike was a little big for me, but I couldn't care less. I loved it. Every minute I could I spend on that red bike I did. The absolute freedom and joy riding that machine brought me was indescribable. As a teenager growing up in a small costal southern Oregon lumber town, falling for cycling was definitely not the norm. Two sports existed were I lived football and basketball. That did not stop me.

Every summer my home town had a weekend festival. At that festival they had a bike race, called a criterium. Soon I was bugging my parents to let me race in it. Fortunately they let me. I will never forget that first race. I absolutely had no idea what I was doing. I led every lap of the race except the last one. I was supper disappointed, but if I had the bug before the race, it was now a hundred times more intense. This is what I was meant to do, race bikes.

After the race, one of the older racer, the president of the local bike club, came over to me and invited me to go out on a training ride with him and the other members. When I showed up for the ride there were twenty other riders gathered. “Awesome,” I said. There were others like me in Coos Bay. I could hardly believe it! I learned so much that first ride and I loved it. There was something called drafting, riding behind other riders to conserve energy. There were actually tactics during racing. What I really learned that day was that I was really out shape. I kept falling behind, I learned that was called going “off the back,” but the man who invited me stayed with me.

Soon, I was racing in regional races. I did well in some races, poorly in others. At this time, I also secured a job at a local bike shop to help my mechanical knowledge. As high school was winding down, my plans were to forgo college, move to Southern California because of its vibrant racing scene to pursue my dream of racing in the Tour de France.

I quickly found out that I had a ways to go. As a backup plan, I enrolled in the local community college to pursue my AA. Unbeknownst to me the school had a collegiate cycling team. It was there I learned I had true potential. I was a very fast sprinter. Not so fast on hills. When I sprinted during training rides I felt that same freedom and joy I felt as a youngster. Soon, I was winning races and making my way up the the Untied States Cycling Federation categories. Once I reached Cat 2, the only level left was reserved for the national team riders. I decided I needed to go to Europe. I needed to go there to race, to see if I was good enough. I had to try.

I soon found myself in Gent, Belgium racing the bullrings, called Kermesses, of West and East Flanders. Holy crap! I thought I was pretty good. In my first race I was off the back in two laps. After some time I began to see some results, but the joy and passion that I once had for the sport began to wane. Very quickly I had begun to see truth in the rumors I had heard about the sport. Performance enhancing drugs were rampant. My first year there, five dutch amateur cyclist died from using EPO, a synthetic blood doping drug.

Although I was starting to see some results I was discouraged by the doping in the sport. I was also questioning whether racing was what I was meant to do with my life. The love I had for racing was gone. So after much thought, I decided to come home. As I write this, the sport I fell in love with is being torn to pieces by constant drug scandals. At times I wonder why I still follow the sport. I still love its beauty. The sport can be hard. At its core it is about suffering and fighting through pain. When you reach down and find that part of you, the part you did not know you had and break through the pain, that is beauty.

Save me

As I'm writing this the most painful visual and sonic torture is being inflicted upon me. This torture has a name and it is called The Gilmore Girls. The show happens to be one of my wife's favorite shows and we have one television. Every Tuesday for the past few years I have half watched this show and I still don't know what it's about. There is this mother who can never decide what man to be with. The mother has this spoiled daughter who gets everything she every wanted without actually having to work for it. Then there are the supporting characters, every single one of them is SO FREAKING WITTY. According to Jessie ALL NEW ENGLANDERS ARE WITTY, yeah right. Fear not friends there might be hope for me. Rumors are amok that the show will be cancelled this season. Please, oh please cancel this steaming pile of saccharin. OMG Jessie just asked when I'm going to buy her the DVD sets! There are seven freaking season. WILL SOMEONE PLEASE PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY?

Migraine + roofing = joy

I forgot to mention what was going on at the house behind ours while in migraine hell. A re-roofing project. I don't know why this happens to me, but whenever I'm home sick there is always some kind construction going on the neighborhood. Is this some kind of karmic revenge I'm paying? If so, I apologize to the Nissan I cut off a few days ago, I promise it will never happen again.

Light and sound were my enemy

I have love/hate relationship with this time year. I love what spring brings, warm weather, less rain and the expectation of summer being around the corner. What I hate can be summed up in one word, pollen. This has been my worst spring in terms allergies and today was one of my worst days ever. When my allergies get this bad they usually trigger migraines. When I woke up this morning I was greeted by massive throbbing in my head. Morning light felt like shards of broken glass being dragged across my optic nerve. The sounds of Jessie getting ready for work sounded like nuclear bombs going off. Work was not a option today. The only cure was a dark room with a blanket over my head.

Ahh...change

Currently I'm having a battle in my head. On one side are the forces of change that want to see me working out on a daily basis. On the other are the forces of resistance that are perfectly happy to see me sit on my ass. Tomorrow I plan on siding with the forces of change. Wish me luck.

Rust

Car deck on the M/V Hyak.

UK style law enforcement

Did you like Shaun of the Dead? Are you fan of British humor and comedy? Do you think that American action films need to be made fun of? Then Hot Fuzz is for you. See it NOW! Jessie loved it too.