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Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
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With the launch of 'street view' in NZ, I will now continue the series of postings showing where I have lived over the years. When I left home at 18 to go to Uni in Christchurch, I moved into this flat with three random people I didn't know. Rent was something like $20 or $25 per week. I bought a waterbed with my A Bursary money. I got really drunk and threw up out my bedroom window during a party. My flatmate had an alter to Bryan Adams on the fireplace, complete with his name carved out of painted polystyrene letters. My mate Nick got with my saucy flatmate Heidi. I think I stayed here for a few months, before moving out to live with my mates across at the Hawthorne St flat.
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Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
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| Time: | 9:22 am. |
| Music: | que sera sera. |
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Well done America. I am so happy that you made the right decision, and made it loud and clear.
I got a message from my sister in NZ last night. There is a parliamentary election down there on Saturday (I got to vote yesterday!), and she said that people were having election parties, not for the NZ elections, but for the US ones. This result will do so much to restore all the faith in this country that the world has lost over the last 8 years.
In other news, I am a complete moron. I took Mrs Butterwhip into the garage today to have her heater fixed, and when I walked over to the rental car place to pick up my ride for the day I realized that I had left my driver's license on my desk at work. As penance for my stupidity I am stuck for the day in a Starbucks (ugh!) in Issaquah (ugh!).
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Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
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Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair...just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with your picture.
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Friday, August 22nd, 2008
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I was just excitedly reading about a local conference coming up dealing with transportation alternatives and moving beyond oil dependence. It is being organized by a group called the Cascadia Center, and sponsored by Microsoft, WSDOT, Puget Sound Clean Air Agency among others. Looks like a good agenda and a decent price for a two-day event.
Then I noticed that the contact person's email was hosted at discovery.org! I though, could that actually be the Discovery Institute? Nah, there's got to be other organizations with 'discovery' in their name, right? Right?! But no. It actually is the very same virulently anti-science, pro-creationist group. So so very weird.
Like a character in a bad 80s horror film, I just dont know what to believe any more. These two things are very hard to reconcile.
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
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A couple of weeks ago I lost my job, an eventuality I knew was coming months ago. Still it was a bit of a shock. I am sad that it didn't work out for my company. It was by and large a great team of people to work with, and even if the end result hasn't been success, the idea and good intent was there. It is disappointing that the first go round for biofuels hasn't worked out in the US. Still, I'm banking on it working out in the end and have spent the last couple weeks trying to work out how I can continue to help the effort.
Not having a job in mid-summer is pretty good actually. I got to go up into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness for hiking and fishing. Photos here, topo here. The climb and descent were totally brutal - the steepest trail I've ever walked. I got off trail at one point on the way up, missing the fork to the lake lower down and traversing higher than I should have been. Things got a little dodgy at one point, but I made it to the lakes all bones intact. Caught and ate a nice athletic cuttthroat trout, and generally enjoyed the setting. I didn't see a single other person on the three day trip, which is quite amazing considering the trail-head is less than 50 miles from Seattle.
This week I'm focusing on wrapping up the thesis (aka, The Neverending Story), and being papa-solo while Em is away for work. The writing is tedious, but the fathering is amazing.
Yoga and running are feeling good these days, and after a burst of gardening effort tonight, I've decided to stop pissing about and get the patio and surrounding beds ready for planting by November.
Yeah, so life is pretty good.
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Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
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Holy carp! This flickr set documents an experiment to send a cosmic radiation detector up into space. They sent a camera along for the ride and it took some great photos.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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I was walking to the supermarket last night when I saw a dazed looking dude walking down the sidewalk. He asked me if he could use my phone and I noticed he had blood on his face. I asked him if he was alright and what had happened. He had been car jacked by some thugs who had pulled a gun on him and pistol whipped him. I called 911 and while I was on the phone to them another bleeding-faced kid walks up from the other direction, his buddy, who was also somehow involved. Apparently the second guy was trying to sell the thugs a bag of weed and they jacked him, then jacked his car from the first guy who was waiting in it. I waited around for the cops who took ages to arrive, then went on my way.
It was kind of exciting, and although this armed grand theft auto happened a block from my house, it doesn't worry me too much. I'll just be careful who I try to sell pot too. Just kidding. The whole episode did, however, throw a spanner in the works of my plan to bake grugeres last night. It was too late by the time I got home. They will have to wait until tonight.
Mmmmmmm grugeres.
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The World Values Surveys were designed to provide a comprehensive measurement of all major areas of human concern, from religion to politics to economic and social life and two dimensions dominate the picture: (1) Traditional/ Secular-rational and (2) Survival/Self-expression values. These two dimensions explain more than 70 percent of the cross-national variance in a factor analysis of ten indicators-and each of these dimensions is strongly correlated with scores of other important orientations.
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Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
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I rode my bike to work today for the first time in months. Awesome!
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Awesome weekend spent at Doe Bay with inlaws. Will definitely be returning for more sauna/spa relaxation, delicious wholesome food, fantastic views/environment and general pleasantness. What a fantastic place.
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Comments: Read 7 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
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Amid an seemingly endless string of illness, cancer, daycare drama and general S.A.D.ness, a couple of good things stand out:
1) Wire Tap. I literally LOLed while listening to this show on NPR last night. Mostly pretty amusing, with a decent sprinkling of hilarious.
2) The grugere from Columbia City Bakery. That's probably not the same recipe that they use, but however they make it, these little cheese puffs are heaven in three mouthfuls.
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The best thing about having a ridiculous haircut, like my new fullblown curly mullet, is that it's impossible to take yourself seriously. I keep catching reflected glimpses and cracking up.
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This was me in the garden this weekend. Finally gardening. Nice.
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Last week I was on 'manny' duty in London, and spent a lot of time taking Olivia around sightseeing and wandering the backstreets of SW1. This is her enjoying the Chelsea Physic Garden, a 400+ year old apothecarist's collection of medicinal plants from around the world. She'll be a botanist yet. Other highlights included lounging in Hyde Park, visiting the amazing Natural History museum, seeing friends and getting lost in Hampstead Heath.
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One of the best things about Mrs Butter-whip is that she has a cassette player. All my old mixes and mix tapes are on regular rotation. This morning, after dropping Olivia off at Mama Rain's I popped in the classic 'Sans Les Mot' b/w 'Avec Les Mot', and this gem came on:
I screamed myself hoarse to one of the best pop love songs ever.
Fitting too, for a special day.
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Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
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I'm looking forward to more days like Saturday in the coming months. We took Cinnamon and Nutmeg for a long walk down to Denny Blaine and then laid around outside in the sun. Olivia loved not being bundled up and was having a great time rolling around on the rug.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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If you live in Washington state, there's a good chance that your non-recyclable trash ends up here. Even if you live in Oregon, British Columbia or Alaska, your trash might end up here too. 300 rail cars of trash arrive here daily. Take a look at that scar in the landscape. But then zoom out on the map until you get some perspective for the size of it, compared to its watershed (trashshed?). Interesting.
I need to read Underworld again.
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Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
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Yahoo reports that 'Obama wins Georgia primary' but fails to report what the estimated proportion of votes he received is.
"The 87 delegates at stake in Georgia's primary were divided between the two candidates in rough proportion to the votes."
Given that statement, wouldn't the margin of victory be somewhat more important to report than who 'won' or 'lost' that state? Am I missing something here, or is the media really this stupid (or thinks we're this stupid)?
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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boydmain's journal
impressed.
confused.