License Bureau

Today I finally went to the license bureau (or Department of Licensing, as it is known here) to update the address on my driver's license. Last night while renewing the tags on my woefully forlorn Neon, I decided I should probably update the address on my license, since legally I only have ten days to do so after moving. I tried doing it online, and was told today it was possible, but I couldn't locate the correct links last night, so I sped off over to the Department after work to do the deed. After taking my number and waiting somewhere more than five minutes, but likely less than ten, I go to the counter and the clerk is fairly friendly, and asks if I want the cheap or expensive process for the address change. Turns out I opted for the cheaper method, as I don't exactly see why the state needs another ten bucks of my money. The clerk updated the computer, then told me all I needed to do was write the new address on the back. I have to say that I am most pleased by the cheaper method, as long as I remember to update the license itself. The cheaper method had no cost associated with it aside from my time and trouble to get there.

With that, I have pretty much explored the high point of my day, as work was nothing special, though Tammy will be gone for the next several days, so she has been rather busy. We had a new person start Monday, and I spent the first several days of the week recovering from the all day meeting Friday. I am glad tomorrow is Friday, and I am glad the weekend is three days.

Obligatory?

I like to try and through in updates regularly, but that is easier said than done, unless I really learn the art of making the everyday excruciatingly interesting. Today involved a meeting, and then much of the day at work playing catch-up from Friday, when, out of 11 hours, I spent under 2 at my desk. So today I spent staring at the computer checking on things, which really doesn't make much fodder for interesting things to write about. Upon arriving home, I decided that the remaining black bean and cheese taquito's from Trader Joe's would be a decent dinner, so I followed the prep instructions on them, using the oven method for preparation. I read a bit in a couple of books, as well as few web pages.

For now, that is all I am writing, and with luck maybe tomorrow will be a bit more productive for things to write about, but I no longer hold my breath for such excitement.

Der Rosenkavalier and the weekend

I managed to confirm that my postcards with the unusual provenance arrived at their destination, though my sister managed to toss hers into a basket with the mail which then was placed out of sight since there was a first-time visitor to her home, and heaven forbid anything as horrible as the mail might be in plain sight.

Saturday I went to the Seattle Opera's production of Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier" and enjoyed the evening immensely, from the Thai food beforehand until the end. Before going, I read a synopsis of the first act, and during the first intermission was pretty sure how the rest of the opera would play out excepting the details. The details are what make so many things fun and interesting, especially comedies, as they get to the forgone conclusion by some hopeless literary Rube Goldberg type devices. I haven't really been to enough opera's to feel comfortable commenting on the performances, but one of my colleagues felt the singer in the title role lost some of her manly portrayal near the end. I do feel that her performance was stronger in other parts of the opera, but I don't think she was overly feminine in the end.

Gym and books

I am sure some would say that reading Tocqueville, or any "heavy" literature, while doing cardio at the gym is something sacrilegious. To this, I say not really, because that is the time I have to read it, and that is the time when I have fairly undivided attention. Luckily for me, the cardio machines are not in a great position to check out the eye candy at the gym. While I am sure there are things I am missing on, I also believe I manage to pick up on some of the important points as well, and try and pass some of those quotes on.

"The more equal conditions become, the less strong men are individually, the more readily they allow themselves to go along with the crowd, and the harder they find it to adhere by themselves to an opinion the crowd has abandoned." (Volume 2, Part II, Chapter 6) And here we have the genius of the Republican Party in that they have convinced everyone that since they are the "majority" party, then all of their opinions are correct. Just a thought thrown out for consideration.

Time for dinner, for which I have to thank those people out at Trader Joe's, who I am sure are communists or some such thing.

Tocqueville (again)

I realize that after a bit my continual blather regarding this author will get tiresome, but since Kurt Vonnegut expressed such high regard for him (and low regard for those who hadn't read him), I figure it is only fair to read what Tocqueville has to say. Today I was quite pleasantly surprised by a few chapters regarding his observations on American Democracy and Art. One easy to relate observation was the move away from the universal into the individual--rather than the great themes of the ancients, he thought American theater, when it finally truly developed, would instead focus more on situations of the individual, as well as be more intent on entertaining rather than "moving."

In part because it has been a long day, and also because I don't feel like finding the perfect quote, his chapter "On Some Sources of Poetry in Democratic Nations" is something I would suggest reading. The few that follow which deal with theater and dramatic works are also worthwhile.

I still keep wondering when they will revoke my gym membership because I am reading something other than "People" magazine.

Work today wasn't that bad. I guess some time in the next couple of weeks we should be receiving our reviews, and from the sound of it, John had to do a bit of reworking at the behest of the boss, and John said he had done some serious consideration in writing them in the first place. Time will tell just what it says.

One more Tocque

"Democratic literatures are always crawling with authors who see literature as nothing more than an industry, and for every great writer there are thousands of retailers of ideas." (Volume 2, part 1, Chapter 14)

Tocqueville's predictions

I know, the image really has nothing to do with what I am writing about, but it is one I found over the weekend, and I thought it was fun--besides, how else do you remove a salt stain?

At some point in the last year, I started reading Tocqueville's "Democracy in America," and while I was enjoying it, things got in the way, and I stopped near the beginning of Volume 2, though I am reading the Library of America version, so that is more an indicator for earlier editions than a physical break in the book. Aside from all this, I decided to take it with me as something to read at the gym while doing cardio, since there really isn't any point to just going nowhere for 30 minutes while making all the effort to do so. This book lays flat, which is one of the advantages it held when I chose my reading material.

"Aristocratic nations are by nature inclined to restrict the limits of human perfectibility unduly, whereas democratic nations sometimes stretch those limits more than they should." (Vol. 2, pt. 1, Chapter 8) Sounds almost like "bleeding edge" technology to me.

"When a small number of men are concerned with the same things at the same time and form a group whose membership does not change, it is easy for them to agree on certain primary rules, which each of them must then take for his guide. If the subject that concerns these men is literature, strict laws will soon be applied to works of the mind, and no deviation from these laws will be tolerated." (Vol. 2, pt. 1, Chapter 13) Does this in any way explain why most of the innovative literature of the 20th century originated in Europe? I don't know, but he is so full of nuggets like these that it makes reading him a joy, even if I don't have the patience to memorize it all.

No real exciting stuff going on today, other than resuming the Tocqueville.

For fear of forgetting...

(another attempt for a picture with no luck)

I really had no fear of forgetting to try and attach pictures, but I did have a fear of forgetting to finish the Wallace Stevens poem my friend Dave asked me to read, "Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction." While I read the first part of this three part poem several weeks ago (feel free to scroll through the archives to find the mention if you feel the desire), I never wrote my impressions of part two, nor did I finish part three. Now I can say I need to read the whole thing again, though I am more than a bit confident the answer to what this poem is about lies in Aristotle, rather than navel gazing. If it is supposed to be "Poem as Manifesto" then I don't believe it worked, at least for those with an average level of erudition. For Aristotle, and I studied this particular bit of knowledge more than 15 years ago and haven't had call for it until now, I seem to remember that he believed the Epic poem one of the highest, if not the highest, form of art. Stevens in the final stanzas begins calling on soldiers, which ties him ever so nicely back to Homer' Illiad, which ties back to Phoebus. I don't know if I will reread this any time soon. I read it for Dave, and here I am giving him the feedback he asked for, perhaps not as precise as he would like, but feedback nevertheless, but I have books to read, that will otherwise just sit on my shelves collecting dust.

another week, no pics?

I was reading in a few other blogs about Blogger having issues with pics. It seems that it is a random, hard to determine how widespread, but still a problem for me. I even found some really cool stuff, and maybe I need to do something drastic like join Flickr to post those images, but I sort of enjoy the random image here and there on my blog, as a break from the words.

Today I went to the Fremont Sunday Market, which unlike the Ballard Sunday Market, doesn't have much in the way of fruits and vegetables for sale, but a bunch of other arts/crafts/almost flea market type stuff. I found some fun pictures, which I thought I would dole out a bit at a time over the course of a week or two, but I guess that won't be happening unless Blogger decides to stop its technological hiccups that are fouling up my artistic flow. I also scored a used copy of the Library of America edition of Walt Whitman's "Poetry and Prose." Since my old copy of "Leaves of Grass" was sent to Half-Price ages ago because of the yellowing paperback made no sense to send into storage, it is nice to get a new one, and at $10, probably not much more than a new paperback would cost.

Saturday I managed to get to the gym, which is something I haven't managed today, but then I have been out walking a bunch today, so it isn't that I sat around on my butt all day doing nothing. I did go out with Jason last night. Today is his birthday, so we went out for dinner, and then another friend of his showed up and we went to a couple of bars. Generally a pleasant evening, except when I realized that someone thought it would be a good idea to make a dance remix of Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler," using Kenny's vocal tracks. Nothing quite like a bar full of people trying to pretend they don't know the words while mouthing along to them. I guess I should count myself lucky that it didn't break out into full sing-along mode--it was a gay bar after all.

Gilgamesh, part 2

I finished Gilgamesh, and Gilgamesh was fun. Perhaps I have read just a few too many heroic poems, but everything seemed to flow pretty much the way it was supposed to, and it wasn't nearly as long as Homer. This particular version does imply a very intimate relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu, but there are only a few lines that really imply they were sleeping with each other.

Other than that, today has been a fairly normal sort of day, with work, the gym, and dinner, with nothing terribly extraordinary about any of them.

Gilgamesh

Yesterday, I started reading the introduction to the recent "version" of Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell. Today, I finally finished the introduction to the recent "version" of Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell. Later tonight, though most likely tomorrow, I should finish reading the text of the recent "version" of Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell. All these repetitions honestly have no bearing on my opinion of this version, and perhaps don't relate in any way, but it was fun adding them along. I wrapped up the first couple of books this evening, and only just met Gilgamesh after Enkidu decided that certain privileges of the king just weren't copacetic. There is considerably more explicit sex in this one compared to Homer or some of the Latins, and Mr. Mitchell does a nice job keeping the tempo and interest up, at least he has so far. I really will get back to old Wallace, but I bought this book back in May at Powell's while on a trip to Portland and I am feeling this urge to buy more books, but first I have to read some of what is on the shelves. I will not read a huge number before making more purchases, but I need to read at least five books before I will allow myself to buy three more. Sounds stupid, but if I didn't try to reign in the urge, I wouldn't have space to walk.

Sunday Market

Sunday again, meaning time to go off to market. Found some more "golden" bell peppers, as well as some "Hungarian" hot peppers (green not red). The vendor I purchased them from was warning me on their spiciness, but I told her I had eaten them before, in Romania, and like to use them in tuna salad. Actually, I just need to grab some tuna and onions and I think I have all the ingredients for a decent tuna salad. Other than that, I bought a small bag of mixed new potatoes, mixed as in red, yellow, & blue. I haven't decided what I will do with them, but a few things have crossed my mind, one even involves the Hungarian hot peppers.

This is ridiculous

If I can ever the picture to upload, I will have some proof of the potentially gluttonous nature of some Burger King customers. Recently they sent out coupons for their new sandwich, "The Stacker," which is lots of beef, lots of cheese, and bacon thrown in for good measure. Amongst the "buy one, get one free" coupons, there was one for the "BK Quad Stacker" which is more than a pound (pre-cooked) of beef on each. The coupon doesn't mention if you can get extra buns so you can share this carnivore's delight with a handful of your closest friends and not feel that anyone will leave hungry.

(On 8/21/06, I uploaded the photo of stacker coupons. I know it is exciting, so I hope everyone who wants to see it gets the chance.)

W's comments

I heard somewhere today that Bush didn't publicly approve of the partisan use of the war on terrorism. He said something about it being fine to have different views of how to fight the war, but neither party should underestimate the need to fight the war. One of my biggest beefs with the whole war on terrorism is that rather than fearing the terrorists, I am fearing the government of the country I was born and raised in. The less than gradual shift away from civil liberties and secretive switch to constant surveillance is more than a bit unnerving, especially as those doing the surveillance seem to get upset when someone suggests there be some oversight.

Finally...An update

OK...So I have been a bit negligent this week. Unfortunately, it is hardly the first time since starting this thing that negligence has occurred. This week was hardly a wild and woolly ride, but I managed to get to the gym Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday--I may even get there today after finishing this. Yesterday was strictly cardio, so my muscles won't hate me too much if I go and do a repeat of Wednesday's upper body, which I was still feeling Friday.

Last night I was trying to decide if I should go out. I opted for bed instead, shortly after my Morrowind character got killed off by some sort of frost thingy. Call me stupid for not using a fireball on him, but I didn't know the monster had a cold affinity until it was a bit late. I don't always pick up on the color coded glows.

While I finished reading the Communist Manifesto a week or two ago, this week I managed to finish the third of the fine fantasy "Obsidian Trilogy," "When Darkness Falls." A fun book, filled with characters that I can see being revisited sometime in the future, though I do wonder, since they decimated their enemy so thoroughly, what another visit would bring.

We actually had a bit of rain this past week. Since I am in Seattle, that really shouldn't come as a surprise, but July & August tend to be dry out here, so it was a nice bit of change. I am sure I will be saying the same thing about sunny days in the months to come.

Let's be a "Fictioneer"

What a fun conversation I just had with my best friend, now creative writing grad student. I think he is glad he is doing a poetry program of study rather than fiction; otherwise, he would be a "fictioneer" as opposed to a poet. He found fictioneer a funny word--whereas I think it is absolutely hysterical and needs to be used as often as possible for maximum effect, with the hope that eventually I will stop smirking when I say it. (Actually, I believe Dave has the same issue.)

I wish I could report fabulous happenings, but they don't simply exist right now in my life. It does seem about time to plan my house-warming, especially as I have made the ninety day mark at work, so theoretically they now have to pay me unemployment if they let me go for some reason or other, though I don't plan to test that theory. Truth is, I have never really figured out how unemployment worked, though several times I know I would have qualified for it.

Just a Sunday morning

Someday I will get around to writing something on the back of this postcard and mailing it to my sister, but until then, it was something fun for a Sunday morning. I don't know if it is true in this case, but if you add pictures, does it really make something automatically more interesting?

Not much going on, I went out and played some pool again last night and managed not to win a game, but since it was free, that was cool. The best time to practice is when you don't have to pay for all the games you lose, though at least one of them was lost because of the eight ball went prematurely into a pocket.

Looks like another nice day outside and there is a farmer's market over on Ballard Ave, so I should probably look through a cookbook and see if anything appeals to my inner Betty Crocker.

Blueberry Muffins (again)

It is Saturday morning, time for coffee and blueberry muffins. Since I don't keep all the ingredients around to make muffins from scratch, I just make use of Jiffy mix, which is even better when real blueberries are added to it. The other nice thing about it is that I don't end up with a dozen or so muffins, which I guess I could freeze, but that seems more than I need in the first place, especially as I don't have the ability to thaw them quickly (lacking a microwave, as I do).

Last night was fun, perhaps a bit too much beer, but I enjoyed myself, and so did Kip. I played pool poorly and while he claimed to be playing poorly, the only game I won was when he scratched with the 8 ball. It is fun to blame the pool cue, and I had more miscues than normal last night, but I am sure some much of the problem was my own lack of ability, though it has only been a handful of weeks since I last played.

SeaFair is this weekend, and I haven't decided if I am going to watch the hydroplanes go round and round.

another picture...

I can't say why, though I am sure there is some technical reason behind it, but my scanner didn't give me a black and white photo when I scanned a b&w negative, though it was all shades of one color originally. I kind of like the rather odd tones in this one, though it is no where near as gorgeous as some hand tinted work.

This evening I think I am heading out for a beer with a friend, but I called during dinner, and haven't heard from him since, though he said he would call later. Such is life.

Work this week wasn't too bad, and my--just received a phone call, and have to get going. Friends do call and remember that they need to meet you for a beer.

Photos for Wonderment (or Bewilderment)

Sometimes as you go through things, you discover something that makes you go, "What was I thinking?" Anyway, I found this picture of me goofing around with the statues near the old Purdue Arts Buildings. The temporary structures were already elderly in these pictures, and they have since been put to rest, I believe.

This weekend I went down to Portland to visit my brother and his family who happened to be there visiting some of his wife's family, and bought a new scanner/printer on the way home. Of course, I had to have one that could do negatives, and this scan is actually from the negative. New toys, pointless fun, and something to do after (or instead of) the gym. I am sure more photos will be discovered in the future that only a mother could love.