More parade and other observations

Flying Spaghetti Monster anyone?  It is nice that he is flanked and escorted by pirates in a parade that also had unicorns. 

One other observation is that I have only had one month with more posts than this one, back in January.  This is not a new leaf, since I am finally posting material previously written, but it is something.  Readable, dull, boring, unremarkable... haven't a clue, as I am not going for any of those, just putting stuff down.  Again, with a single reader, I don't much worry about those things.  All I hope is that with lots of visual stimulus, the reader keeps coming back.  All that said, as I close so many of these things, it is time to find something to eat, though dinner is in the oven with a few minutes left to cook.

Parade Picture and another old post never posted

My computer is saying there is a network called freeWiFi, but no signal, so here I go with writing first and uploading second. In one of those sparks of brilliance as my stomach growled on the bus, it occurred that perhaps I wouldn't be so poorly disposed to the TSA if I actually had a full stomach. Of course after I unpack (explode) my bag into three containers, because of shoes, laptop, quart bag of toiletries, jacket, and lastly my ball cap, my opinion of their job doesn't change, but the people in the uniform were nice, so it wasn't bad, at least here.

I am having one last Black Butte Porter before heading to the land of boring beer, as it boggles my mind to think there might be a good place for beer in Gatlinburg, TN. Really, I am not a beer snob, but not much can be said for Miller or Budweiser when it comes to flavor, though there are rumors of efforts at improvement, of which, Michelob Amber is the most concrete proof. With my 10:45 a.m. beer, I am having a burger and fries, and paying dearly for the privilege, but the atmosphere is better here than in the place down the way where I could get a 7" personal pizza for $8.

(A porter at this hour is nothing as I just heard someone order a Mai Tai.)

Perhaps because I seldom do "sit down" meals in the airport, I never noticed the switch to plastic. My burger came with a plastic knife, which I guess is to prevent someone from buying lunch and taking the silverware with on the flight to terrorize the other passengers, though in truth, if it is on a flight with food, the others would be jealous that this guy didn't have to use the ingeniously designed plastic airline utensils.

Gawain and the Green Knight

I am finally getting around to reading this poem.  I bought the Armitage translation back in December after reading good reviews.  It does seem that around the solstice is a good time to read it, though when Dave read it back in December would have been better, for that is the beginning of the tale.  Fitt the first has been incredible, and I am looking forward to the rest of them.

Written June 9th, posted today

Life has a way of letting things get lost in the shuffle. There have been a few things I wanted to be when I grew up, and none of them have come to fruition. The artist, whether writer or painter, well, the artist got lost in technique and practice. Unlike Van Gogh, I have not been driven to do either of them. I enjoy working at them, but if something distracts me, then I am likely to off and do that. Perhaps the worst thing about working that way is that nothing gets done--nothing more than a hobbiest painter or writer, and while some hobbiests can be quite good, the practice is still just a hobby.

Prompting this mess of self-reflection is a sick day and me trying to figure out what is going on. Too often I think I missed a boat somewhere or made the proverbial left when it should have been a right, though by no means has hilarity ensued.

My reading has been overtaken by the shadow of J.L. Borges. As I read Claudio Magris' Danube, I wonder if the books and authors he mentions are real. I feel a certainty the river itself and the cities on its banks exist, but books he mentions, are they real, and are they any less real because I know nothing of them. I am sure it is something that matters not, because if the books he mentions aren't real, there certainly must exist some book on a very similar topic, if not the exact same one.

I guess if I considered myself a painter or a writer, then I would do the respective activity, and that by not considering myself one, I curse myself to not doing the respective activity with any degree of regularity that would allow me to improve. Back and forth, at the mercy of a label, and of what you choose to call yourself, which makes me wonder how much self-determination is really involved in one's success. Does one make a labeling decision on one's own, or does one wait for the label to be bestowed? My guess is ones decides what one's label will be, then knows success has been had when others agree. Such profundities are the result of too little food & coffee.

Unicorn Sighting

Another collection of images from the Solstice Parade. I should probably put these in something online, but haven't signed up for any of the services.

Still need breakfast

I am adding a few more pictures from yesterday's parade, which was not totally free of politics, though it did seem very free of politicians running for election.  I don't know all the ground rules for it, but one is that combustion engines aren't allowed to propel the floats, which no doubt limits the number of entries, and I can't imagine a politician who would feel comfortable in a parade whose normal lead-off contingent is nude bicyclists and features some rather overt criticisms of the current government.  Regardless of the politics, the parade is a good time, and if you are going to be offended by them, you know in advance perhaps you shouldn't go.

The festival is still going on today, though I don't know if I will make it down there again, as nothing really caught my attention in the vendor area.  The sky is also gray, which doesn't really entice me to head outdoors for much of anything.

I should come up with something constructive to do today, but the only real pressing thing is laundry (no pun intended, especially as I don't iron).  I could do a bit of reading, but I am gradually working through "Gielgud's Letters" and finding it makes great meal-time reading because the brief nature of the letters makes finding a stopping point very easy.  While it shouldn't surprise me, hearing Olivier referred to as Larry gives me a giggle.

As I mentioned in the title, I still haven't eaten, so I will leave this here and find something to stop my stomach's growling.

Solstice Parade

While it refrained from raining, it was gray all day for the Solstice Parade, which made it tolerable outside because for some reason it was also fairly muggy, which is not that normal here.  The parade was fun, starting with the naked cyclist and continuing on through a variety of people.  I refrained from taking a picture of the guy with his crotch framed and "Cheney" as the title, but then it shouldn't really surprise me at this parade that someone would walk down the street with nothing but a picture frame on.  With the implosion of the gay pride festival, or perhaps just the duplication of the gay pride festival, with dueling parades & dueling post-parade activities (and no one really sure of the "correct" one to support), perhaps June here will just become the Solstice Parade, which would be nice because I can walk there.

One of today's participants was especially cool, though I didn't get a picture of her.  She went around with a basket of books & markers, stopping with the kids on the route and distributing pages to color on and markers to do the coloring with, giving them to the kids who were totally unsure of what was going on.  Later on, she came back, stopping at the locations where she had distributed paper earlier and picking it up.  On this second trip, one of the parade-goers asked if she was picking up trash and gave her some of his own.  To say this for the young lady, she did offer to take it with no visible qualms.

Sunday, Sunny Sunday

No, it wasn't hot enough to melt the barber shop sign, which no longer houses a barber shop, though there is one down the street, and contrary to frequent habit, I did manage not to visit the Ale House this weekend, though went to Zayda Buddy's Friday.  

Too bad there isn't much horribly exciting to report, though perhaps the fact little is wrong is something that might be exciting, if not exactly horribly exciting.  It is good to keep the excitement level to a reasonable, not quite fever, pitch, because excessive excitement may very well incite the neighbors, and they already get excited enough, or else they just wrestle frequently for the fun of it, the ones upstairs, at least.

Nice saturday... now if I could do something

This is not my picture, but it probably vanished off the owner's camera without a second thought.  The world is a ripe place for second thoughts, some good, some bad, but always present.  For example, I am writing here instead of painting or doing something outside on a gorgeous day, but then, I was thinking about this and ran with it; otherwise, there was a chance I would ruin my minimum once a month blog posting.  

(Ooh boy, Fiesta de la noche, by O-Zone, in some remix or other, giving me a repeat of the chorus, also the title, for the rest of the evening.)

It has been one of those odd weeks, one of those weeks when it was all I could do not to just up and give notice because the absurdity was almost beyond me.  Going to work and doing little but stare at a computer screen, alternating between spreadsheets to give the appearance of being busy, is really pretty much a waste of eight hours.  Good sense sort of eventually broke over me and I recalled that giving notice without plans for the future did not constitute a wise decision, especially with my passport in need of renewal.  (I really should get motivated and take care of that.)  The reason I don't enjoy giving my family lots of details about what I plan on doing is because that plan changes.  I still can't think of a reason to move east other than to be closer to them.  If I move, why shouldn't I go abroad again?

Oh well, whatever it is I decide to do, it will happen when it does because there is always a teaching position in Korea if I want it, though I saw an opportunity in Ukraine today, too.

Super Long Weekend...

and I am going from the American home of Volvos to something entirely different.  Oddly, I still have to pack, though a good amount of stuff is already laid out, and just needs to be deposited into my back pack.  Since it isn't Europe, I am debating on whether to bring the laptop, but it could be useful to burn pics to disc since there will be a bunch of digital cameras, and this will make sharing simpler.

I don't know if this weekend things here will be updated, or if they will just sort of stay here, with pictures of Volvos past to greet the stumblers who find it.  The rubble in the background used to be a derelict gas station, but has been in its present state for a good six months.  It has me wondering if the short little building which was to be built is actually going to be built.  The Googie style building not far from this above pile of rubble has apparently lost what little protection it has and will soon resemble this, without the vintage Volvos.  I do with the people in charge of buildings would look at things aesthetically.  While the Googie building is nothing truly special, what is taking its place, if the new neighbors are any example, will be worse.  One of these condo building built with some vision other than dollar signs would be nice.  Then again, the housing market going bust here about now might do the trick, too., though a boarded up Googie building, like we have now, won't be any sort of improvement, nor will a rubble pile.

Wednesday is it.

What it is, I am not sure, but by saying "it," I have made an incredibly authoritative statement, nearly on par with some of President Bush the second's, but then I am presuming too much on my wit or some such thing.  

I really don't know why I felt the urge to include the Bush-meister in the post today, but it felt right.  With the grey sort of skies, and much chillier, compared to last Friday & Saturday, weather, and the difficulty I am having uploading my image, it just compounds to become the perfect Busch time, though I am actually drinking a "Mothership Wit" from New Belgium.  (I like that, I mention a good beer, and the lovely girl loads up.)

This week has been trying at work, but that is most likely because I am thinking of the long weekend, such a nice long weekend.  Being the end of the month no doubt contributes its fair share of silliness to my mood, though in this case the silliness is of the frustrating sort.  Should I be including fabulous literary or philosophical ramblings here?  Probably not, as it would require me to come up with some, and that is just too close to something that takes effort.  Too long recently I have been living the effortless life of doing pretty much nothing.  It is amazing how easy that trap is to fall in here, with work a constant and my social life pretty non-existent.  Just shoot your computer if this veers into the whine, which I am not sure will make me feel better, but I would enjoy that more than if you shot mine.

End of Spring?

At the urging of my loyal reader, I am finally getting around to a May entry.  Here in Seattle, there has actually been gorgeous weather this weekend, with sunshine and everything.  The picture is of the last of the tulips at the Ballard Locks (which have another name, but I can't remember Hiram's last, so I won't mention it).  I thought it was a shame that I didn't have a picture of one of the most recent of what is passed off as architecture here, but why does anyone really need another picture of a brick faced vinyl sides clad building, even if it is 5 stories tall (or maybe 4 or 6, but you get the gist).  Truly, however ugly the buildings in Eastern Europe may be, there one true advantage is that people didn't put them up willingly, as they do in this country.  

Well, it is Sunday and I have work in the morning, so that is that, as I need to be off to bed.

Finally did it...

After finally tiring of watching movies on my desktop and laptop, I decided to buy a television.  The open space on my shelving unit is now full, or a vacuum, depending on one's perspective.  I can't really say I needed the television, and I don't know where the cable hook up is in this apartment, so I can't say that I will be moving in that direction any time soon, but I must say that my current dvd playback device does that exceptionally well, and when I tire of it in the living room, I can use it as a monitor for the desktop in the bedroom, since it has computer input.  I make no pretensions about what I will watch, but I have yet to manage to sit through a complete program, though I managed a little of several movies.  Technical issues are still present, as for some reason the audio won't play on my stereo, but that is a minor issue, since stereo blasting at me from 10 feet away and no doubt irritating my neighbors isn't the way for me.  Oh well, that's it, and I haven't been up to anything terribly exciting, if you are hoping for something a bit more salacious than what I have related, my apologies.

Let it play out

Just a short note, perhaps some pollster, somewhere, will latch onto it, and wonder how many others are of the same opinion.

The Democratic primary season should be allowed to continue.  I don't think Clinton should concede, especially as she does well in the bigger states, and there is at least one more of those.  If I remember correctly, the reason there were all the early primaries is because voters in the late ones felt disenfranchised, so they requested the primary earlier.  Here we actually have a situation where the candidates are close, and where voter opinion can say, and perhaps sway, the choice of candidate.  My impression is that is what the primaries were created for in the first place, so taking away the choice of the last few states to vote when the race is close, is violating the spirit of the primary.  The party will be unified in the fall, so let spring play out.  In truth, Obama isn't doing anyone favors by calling for Clinton's concession.  If anything, it sounds as if he doesn't want to take the chance that she will win more delegates.

The House did something right?

Of course, I may have misunderstood the article, but it looks like our House of Representatives is doing something sensible for once.  Rather than letting our beloved Bushie run roughshod over every single law of the nation, the House is not including a retroactive immunity clause in the revised surveillance bill, at least not just yet.  The one thing that strikes me as incredibly interesting is how the Republicans don't see the safe-guarding of the institutions that make up our republic as being very important.  It is the same shortsightedness that brought about National Socialism, where if it makes people feel good, they will ignore the real cost.  If the government had never asked the telecommunications companies to do something illegal, then they wouldn't need retroactive immunity.  I really hope the House holds the line on this, even if it means there is no compromise surveillance bill to be sent to our beloved Bushie.

Randomness is not accidental

Rather than be a great unknown in our lives, the randomness of thought is actually part of a greater order, as represented when you think to yourself, I think I need some cheese and salami, then, unexpectedly, have guests that you can serve said cheese and salami to, even though they weren't on the original list, nor the reason you thought you bought it.  That is just one example of seeming randomness actually feeding some more complex pattern.  The same sort of pattern you make by using the same vowel or consonant sounds over and over to create an overall feeling by the sound you are constantly recreating.  Just like colors and smells evoke feelings, so do sounds, and these sound patterns, especially those created by words, are the manipulated by poets to attain something beyond where the simple use of words would take them.  (Assonance & Dissonance might be the terms used, but those don't really interest me.)  In a blur of curious writing, the feeling is in the words that spit out, sometimes short staccato then long (and at 4 letters uses fewer than short but sounds as if it takes more time to say.... leave it to the "g").  

A comment that sparked a post

My loyal reader base posted a question as to whether or not I was becoming a budding socialist.  Something fun, something to take my mind off the intricacies of the postal service (should that be inanities?).  Such a question, life is bursting to full with such questions, questions which are much better answered with a paragraph or three rather than a word.  Questions which allow me to sing the word question over and over questionably while preparing to answer the initial question, which I am aware that I haven't answered.  Perhaps another question is posited, such as why haven't you answered the first question?  Answering that initial question really does require that one question what the reader base means when they ask the question, particularly what is meant by that tricky little socialist word.  From experience, I know the questioner did not confound socialist with communist, though his question almost prompted a resurrection of my photo with the red hammer and sickle coated unicorn of the yellow horn.  Remembering for myself the importance of this distinction, I refrained from posting that picture as a response to the question, because it would only befuddle the reader and the reader base's understanding of my answer to this question.  

Now then, after I finish dinner, I will post my response to this question, as only on a full stomach do I think I can gratify the reader base with a response appropriate to the inquiry.

Dinner being complete... Hot Pockets Calzone aren't as bad as they could be, I turn my attention to the question that prompted this foray into my dining habits, that question as to whether or not I am a budding socialist.  The answer is as confusing as the definition of socialism.  Because of government's ability to mess anything up, as a form of government regulating to all aspects of life: no, I am not a socialist.  Business best does the right thing when they are rewarded for doing the right thing by increased sales and stock prices.  If sales aren't driven on price alone and stock prices aren't based strictly on profit, but rather sales & stock prices both reflect to some degree the company's investment in society.  If I were to belong to a warehouse store, I would choose Costco over Sam's because Costco traditionally has paid fair wages and offered benefits while providing competitive prices.  My inherent problem with warehouse stores is that I am a family of one, and I don't need to buy 36 rolls of toilet paper or 8 pounds of salmon at one go.  Even considering the reduced packaging benefits of that much at one go, it doesn't make sense for me.  Costco would win my hypothetical business based on their business practices.  When the press latches onto something unpleasant in industry and broadcasts it, especially if it reflects poorly on one company in particular, recent history has that industry cleaning up, lest another skeleton be found.  The press isn't perfect, knocking Nike sells more papers than knocking a middleman meat packager, even though the latter is perhaps more pertinent to people's health, so the Nike story is likely to get longer play.

I seem to have lost track a bit of my answer to the question, but it hasn't really entirely been forgotten.  I do believe, that while government does mess stuff up, they can't mess up medicine as much as private industry has done, so on the healthcare aspect of life, I may very well be a socialist, though I was one long ago here, when I didn't have insurance and thought it was stupid that I could be driven into bankruptcy and homelessness to save my life--at which point I would likely want to commit suicide, making the initial healthcare expense rather pointless.

Socially responsible business and social medicine are two things I would like, but there is also a need for socially responsible consumers, especially for the former to work.  I try to be one, but there is no way to do it perfectly in this imperfect world, or at least I haven't figured a way to yet.

An observation... probably not new

After seeing a blurb on the vegan who shot the video at the slaughterhouse, it occurred to me, that as long as profit is the primary motive for business, then abuses will occur, because it is cheaper this quarter to do it that way.  As the world speeds up and focus close-up rather than wide angle, these things will multiply, and like child labor, once we wipe them from our shores, they will be in other places, still, where they always were, but where we didn't see them.

On a brighter note, at the post office today they had more employees than ever manning the counter.  They even had a cashier at the parcel pick-up window processing drop-offs and stamp purchases.  It must be cheaper than the machine they took out, or else they aren't losing as much money as they claim and don't need the price increase.

The Post Office Stamp Machine

It can't have been too far back, because the drywall patch hasn't been painted yet, but they removed the stamp machine from the post office in Ballard.  Why would you remove the machine that allows people to purchase stamps without waiting in line?  Ominously, the sign next to the patched drywall where formerly the stamp machine stood advised buying them online by mail or at an authorized agent--oddly, the counter, at that hour closed, was not mentioned.  I wanted to yell back and ask a disembodied voice what was going on, but decided that I will wait, perhaps tomorrow I will try and get there during counter hours and buy some stamps.  I sort of think the post office doesn't want my business.  Hundreds of post cards sent, and they don't like me.  Hours of reading material for the postal clerk, but still they don't like me, and want to make purchasing stamps difficult, even after my trip was there to both drop off mail and visit the stamp machine, getting my dollar coins as change, which I guess now I have to get at the bank, since the only reliable machines to get them from were the ones in the post office.  The other thing that just crossed my mind is that our post office has decided to take a clue from the Europeans, where I don't think I have seen a stamp machine before, and I certainly don't recall one in any of the places I have been there in the last ten years, though most post offices here had them--with the vanished machine in Ballard, I can no longer confidently say the post offices here have them.  Life is change, though I don't know if change is always good.

If memory serves...

So it has been a month.  Apologies to any regular readers.  Love & Loss is the name of the sculpture whose image is on the February post.  The time change has confounded me, and taken me by surprise.   The timing of the time change is what seems to be causing problems, being earlier than to what I am accustomed.  Republicans & time change--seems an odd combination, but I guess it was one of the big successes of Indiana's Republican governor, just like it is probably the only neutral (rather than awful) thing President Bush will be known for.  From what I read in The New York Times (or maybe The Seattle Times), it does actually cost Hoosiers more now than before. (No link because I am lazy.)

Current timeline is to move out of Seattle this summer--end of August is the tale, while end of June the earliest, unless something great happens to speed it up, or delay it.