Goats, Pumpkins, and . . . Résumés?

Had the pleasure of seeing the Mountain Goats do a packed, sold-out show at Neumos last weekend. Good stuff.

Here's their second-encore (!), show-closing song:


(I guess from now on I'll try putting song files into posts, instead of over on the side. How does that sound? Okay.)

Great interview with singer John Darnielle in the Stranger ("Seattle's Only Newspaper") last week.

Here's a small sample:
I stopped going to church years ago and hardly ever go these days, and I won't take Communion when I do, because those are the rules. I'm as likely to pray the Hare Krishna mahamantra as I am the rosary. But I do pray, as devoutly as I can, even though I suspect we're just animals crawling on the surface of a godless earth. I do it because it gives me comfort and peace, even if that's illusory, and because I think that a prayerful mood is a powerful thing in the world and can be a real force for good.

Mr Darnielle.



On the funnier side of things, Chris and Ben (of Sandy Takes a Break) have a new video. Enjoy:

Feel free to check out their hot new site, too: http://www.seederandlee.com.



Finally, can I just say that I love Michelle Slatalla's Cyberfamilias columns in the Times? She's just great. Please check out this week's column.

Oh, and speaking of the Times, how cool is it that in a story on the ten best new restaurants in the country, one of them is in Seattle? We've never been to Tilth (and I'm sure it'll now be impossible to get a table there), but pretty cool, no?

What's a Meaningless Primary Look Like?

Well the results are in, sort of, and Obama seems to have narrowly won in the meaningless Washington Democratic Party primary. Voter turnout was pretty high (they're not sure, but predictions vary from 30 to 47%), but you wouldn't have known that at our polling place:

There I am, depositing my ballot (#68 in our district--and keep in mind that those hundreds of people in the caucus photos were just in our precint; most of the rest of our district caucused elsewhere).
(Picture courtesy of Emily's new phone.)

Now, two things:
1) Most people here vote by mail, so the fact that I was only #68 doesn't probably say much at all about voting in our district. (But still--number sixty-eight?!)

2) Why bother to vote in a meaningless primary? Mostly because I really hope that the WA Democratic Party will notice how easy it is for people to participate. More than twice as many people voted in the primary as caucused. Twice as many! Maybe they should think about ONLY HAVING A PRIMARY NEXT TIME, so more people can cast votes that count?

Also, we were afraid that if Clinton won she'd act like it meant something (cf. Florida), so we wanted to do our part to make sure that that didn't happen.

Besides, voting is fun (compare: caucusing).

Ah, Arbor

We spent a lovely Sunday afternoon exploring the Washington Park Arboretum yesterday. Quite an impressive park in the middle of town.

E on bridge



With, I believe, some sort of birch



With ferns and such



Afterwards, we had some coffee at Victrola. It's pretty, and the place is nice and cozy and all. . . but like almost every independent coffee place here they insist on pulling ristretto shots. I've given it like six months (!), and I'm quite sure that I'm not saying this because I went to Starbucks a few times in the Quad Cities--I just prefer traditional espresso, and that's all there is to it.



Compare, if you're so inclined, this photo of Mimi's coffee taken with the iPhone camera



It wasn't just yesterday, though: it's been pretty sunny pretty regularly lately. I may need to buy sunglasses (apologies, my midwestern readers).

View from Emily's place of employ


Oh,
and my Nalgene bottle has gone funky, so on Braxton's recommendation I've invested in a Sigg bottle:

My new bottle
So far so good--it's aluminum (or is it aluminium?), so it's light, cute, and isn't made of oil . . .

Nice Call, Merrica

Yes, my phone is cool.
For lack of a better presentation idea, I offer this David Pogue video from last summer:



On a sadder note,
Mimi seems to be having second thoughts on her BlackBerry . . . but rest assured, when she settles on a model, you'll hear all about it.


Lastly,
As cmd mentioned, Suzuki, from Akita, author of the blog that mentioned our monopoly game, left a comment recently.

Mr. Yancy

Thank you for the post.

My name is Suzuki. I live in Akita Prefecture in Japan. I conceived Akita Monopoly.

My mother has been to Seattle about 30 years ago.
I want to go to Seattle so that I may also watch Ichiro's game.

It has the Akita Monopoly from Akita in the souvenir :)

First off, I think it is super cool that the person who conceived the game was able to hear that we played it (and enjoyed it immensely!--in case that wasn't clear). Second, I'm not entirely sure about that last comment, but (thirdly) I too hope to see Ichiro play once baseball season gets going here.


Thanks again, all, for reading.

Welcome, new phone!

So, we broke down. Cancelled our sprint account . . .

Listen to This

This video for the new Mountain Goats song, Sax Rohmer #1, is just too cool to ignore:

Thanks to Kelefa Sanneh for telling me about the video in today's Times.

What's a Caucus Look Like, Anyway?

Crowd



Of course, you need to bring your caucus day hairdo



Signup at the kiddie table



Precinct committee officer (?) giving instructions.



Live blogging



Waiting


Oh, and if you're curious about the walk, here's a map with our precinct outlined and a marker on our caucus site.

View Larger Map
Sheesh


For more on the high turnout, see this story in the Seattle Times.

jumped the gun

Clinton got the extra one. All apologies. Seven of nine is pretty
respectable, though, no?

50%. And 8 of 9!

Very unofficial, but we're told our precinct's turnout is near 50%.
Way to go Capitol Hill! 2nd
round count is in: one more delegate for Obama.

seven of nine

One of my favorite star trek characters, and Obama's initial total.
One each for Clinton and undecided.

electable?

You want me to vote for him because he's electable? that's no fun.
let's vote for him because he's exciting, not because he's electable.

thanks for coming to our party

Initial tally any minute now. How will our precinct's nine delegates be apportioned?

almost ready

The line is dwindling. people are cheering. here we go! the
comments are right--very exciting.

kiddie table, no chairs

e is getting a shot of the over flow sign up at the kiddie table . . .
still waiting for things to settle down, but people are still
arriving.

Signing in. Confusion and enthusiasm. Rumors that our precinct was so big that they had to send some of us here. . .

one block to go

Thanks, WA democrats, for putting us so far away from our precinct.

Well, we're walking to the site. Looks like photos will have to wait. But democracy won't!

live blog test

here we go--a post from my phone. three hours until caucus time!

--
[My name here], Ph.D.
Department of Philosophy
Seattle University
901 12th Ave.
Seattle, WA 98122

206-[my work number]
website:

[my website here]

Big in Japan

I seem to have received a little more attention that usual online: a Japanese blog has taken up the story of Emily, I, and my mom playing that board game from the last post.

Here's a bit of Merrica's translation/explanation:
he's just shocked that a foreigner living in seattle played akita monopoly with his mom . . .
he says mom is very young looking and pretty
:)
. . .
he says he wants to know if she had plastic surgery, as she lives in seattle, such a big and busy town

You might also have noticed comments from Merrica. Rough translation:
[My name here is] my brother and i lived in akita for 3 years and that's why [I] have the game
. . .
and mom didn't have plastic surgery :)


In other news,
both Augie and KU had snow days today . . . do I miss that kind of grim weather here in mild Seattle? Not exactly, but the term "snow day" has a certain charm, doesn't it?

MacMurray, down in Springfield, also closed recently. Here's a shot of Eric and Christy out in the snow:


But that weather couldn't keep the Obama supporters away in good old Lawrence, KS:

story

And how about that Obama? I think I'm down. That song that's been going around is not bad . . .
How about you, reader?

She Said What?

Hi.
So, it's been a while; how about I get right to some photos?


Playing the Akita version of Monopoly over the holidays.



Losing to my mom at the Akita version of Monopoly over the holidays.




Squinting in Myrtle Edwards park along Puget Sound recently.



Squinting? Yes--look how sunny it was! Had a solid week of that here. So how do you like that?



(No caption needed.)




At the Sonics game the other day. We got to see them snap a 14-game losing streak by beating the NBA champion Spurs with last-minute heroics. Awesome.

Thanks again to Andrew, the wonderful KU alum who gave us the tickets!



She may be named Tina, but she'll always be Tiny to me.




Where's this, you ask? At the flagship REI store here in town. Not pictured: mountain-bike trails for testing bikes; climbing wall; hiking paths. . . . What did we get? Not a thing.



And here's something as odd as you're likely ever to see:

That's James (or is it Jamie) Sido, cheering for Mizzou as they beat Kansas State.




Mom and Merrica over the holidays: cute, no?



Oh, the title of this post?
Well, just as I was reveling in my success as a letter-writer to the Times, I noticed that Korea-based Yonhap News was covering the story. Here's an excerpt:
"[My name here] of Seattle argued there were more important things than lower prices and said she was willing to buy shampoo from a local pharmacy, even if it was more expensive than buying through the Internet or elsewhere."

Sigh. Guess a little humility never hurt anyone . . .


But speaking of the Times, did you see Krugman's column about John Edwards? (I know one of you did, I guess.) Anyway, I couldn't agree more.
Excerpt:
"So John Edwards has dropped out of the race for the presidency. By normal political standards, his campaign fell short.

But Mr. Edwards, far more than is usual in modern politics, ran a campaign based on ideas. And even as his personal quest for the White House faltered, his ideas triumphed: both candidates left standing are, to a large extent, running on the platform Mr. Edwards built."