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Scumbag PNW weather

Aug 22nd, 2011 by

This weekend it was 86-88 F outside (and inside), perfectly clear and sunny. Absolutely beautiful day, I felt fantastic! Seriously, I haven’t felt that happy and blissful in a while. Clear, warm night too, could see the stars from my balcony.

Today, it instantly turned .. October. Low hanging grey clouds, and everything is wet. It never really rained, but it’s just been a constant drizzle that’s soaked everything. At least it’s warm enough that I can have my door+windows open, but this weather is making me anxious and dreary of winter.

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Stars

Aug 21st, 2011 by

It’s awesome to sit on my balcony and be able to easily see the Big Dipper.

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TIL about Tourette’s

Aug 21st, 2011 by

While reading the chapter Witty Ticcy Ray about Tourette’s in Oliver Sacks’ book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, I discovered an amazing list of things I didn’t know:

  • Tourette was a student of Jean-Martin Charcot, the founder of modern neurology
  • Freud was also a student of Charcot
  • Freud named one of his children Jean-Martin, after Charcot
  • Charcot was the first to describe ALS and multiple sclerosis
  • Oliver Sacks also wrote the book Awakenings, which a movie was based on
  • In the movie, Robert DeNiro played Leonard (I had forgotten about this)
  • There has been research into the grammar and linguistic structure of tics
  • L-Dopa is a dopamine-precursor, and Haldol is a dopamine antagonist

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California again

Aug 9th, 2011 by

On vacation this week in the Bay Area! Weather is FANTASTIC. I had to travel 320 miles south on the 5 before I reached clear skies on Monday. I realized on the way down that I had forgotten what Northern California looked like during the day. The last two times I came down (this year), it was winter so it was dark by the time I passed through. The only time I saw it in daylight was 2006 or 2007, when I was driving back from Seattle during the great epic AUS-KCI-BM-SEA-SF-LA-AUS roadtrip. It reminds me a lot of West Texas, especially how the sky gets layers of violet and blue at sunset.

Today was eating lunch in the Golden Gate park, then wandering around the de Young Museum. Picasso was on expo again, looked like there was some pieces there that I hadn’t seen in Seattle. Lots of cool stuff in the general exhibit halls, I especially like the cathedral made out of gun parts and bullets and trompe l’oeil painting. I’m always amazed that not only did some man/woman imagine a piece of art, they sat down and actually created the thing.

I will have to buy some sunscreen for my outdoor wanderings. I’m not as tan as I was in Texas, so casual exposure can really burn me now. :(

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Random thoughts

Jul 10th, 2011 by

The rush of scale is often a potent and lethal addiction, for production engineering is a drug.

I always thought the Dyson ball was a gimmicky thing, but it’s totally legit. It’s so much easier to maneuver than a big clunky vacuum. It’s also quieter than my clunker, but the cat still hates it.

The weather is still pretty inconsistent here. On some days, it’s perfectly clear and warm, on other days it’s cloudy with a chilly breeze. I still occasionally pull out my space heater at night when kitty wants to stay out on the balcony for a long time.

It turns out it’s way easier to grow plants when it’s not 110 F outside. I decided I wanted my balcony to smell nice and vegetation-y, so I potted rosemary, lavender, petunias, mint, catnip, and azaleas. It’s tricky finding cat-friendly flowering plants. I bought patio furniture and have been using it fairly often.

Yesterday was the Redmond Derby Days. The parades happened right in front of my apartment complex and the all-day bicycle races were a block away at city hall. Redmond often feels like a big small town. All the Bing sponsorship in the parade made it seem like it was a hometown favorite invented by a few good o’ boys down the street. Older, skilled, third generation search engine workers who hand crafted it in their garage. They probably also cut hair and watch baseball on the weekends too.

YACHT’s new album, Shangri-La, is awesome! “Dystopia” and “Shangri-La” are by far my favorite tracks, I’ve listened to each dozens of times already. “If I can’t go to heaven, let me go to LA, or the west Texas desert or an Oregon summer day.“

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My cat is awesome

Jun 7th, 2011 by

Keeping me company while I install ESX servers

Back in April, I adopted Patch from the Seattle Humane Society.  She was about 8 months old and solid black.  She immediately took to Victoria’s shoulder so that was the sign I had to get her.  She’s such a lovable and well behaved cat, always wants attention and be in the vicinity of humans, but never in the way.

Notable characteristics:

  • When I get home from work, she doesn’t want to be petted nor picked up. She wants me to lay in the floor so she can greet me with headbutts.
  • She doesn’t jump on things. I usually have to coax her to hop on the couch or the bed. For the most part she won’t jump much for a toy either.
  • She loves the stick+feather toy, I think it’s her favorite thing in the world. I even got her a laser pointer, ropes, balls, mice, but she always wants to play with the feather day after day.
  • Around the time my alarm goes off, she’ll be laying on the edge of my bed between my shoulder and the alarm clock.
  • She loves being chased around playing hide-n-seek around the apartment at night.

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zomg :D

Jun 5th, 2011 by

Holy shit the weather is finally WARM.  We finally broke 70 F! I was at Alki Beach on Saturday afternoon and managed to properly sunburn my face. It was fantastic sitting on the sand, tons of people and cute girls wandering about.  Today is the first time I’ve ever been able to go all day without a hoodie and then comfortably sit outside on my balcony at night. There are people actually sitting outside enjoying the courtyard. Faaaaaantastic, I tell you.

It’s 10 PM and there’s still a shard of midnight blue light over the horizon. I pulled an all-nighter last night and I don’t think I ever saw it get dark.  Even at 3 AM it seemed just a little light out.

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PNW weather

May 22nd, 2011 by

The rain stopped, the sun came out, and the days are longer FINALLY, thank god.  A couple of weekends ago it was ~60 F, clear and sunny. There were even girls in bikini playing volleyball on Alki Beach!  (How 60 F is bikini weather is beyond me.)  I’ve been so weather abused and tortured throughout the winter that by comparison this spring weather really is very amazing. It’s still cool enough to need to wear flannel+hoodie though.  It finally gets dark around 9:30, with a hint of sun over the mountains even at 10 PM.  I feel like I’m finally able to really enjoy the west coast now. Having the ocean by so close now is really cool, which is something I’ve never had. I’m never going to take a sunny day for granted anymore!

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Favorite things

Mar 22nd, 2011 by

Some of my most favorite things: sparkling lemonade from Trader Joe’s, chicken coconut curry (extra hot) + garlic basil naan from Tandoori Fire. mmmm.

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Roadtrip: California – Part III

Mar 13th, 2011 by

View of SF from de Young

Saturday morning I struggled to decide out what I should do on my last day. I kind of wanted to go back to the UC Botanical Garden to see the rest, maybe go visit a museum, go shopping, or just walk around outside.

While making up my fickle mind, I drove down the Warren Freeway behind Oakland to oogle the hills and fancy houses. This is the most amazingly scenic part of east bay, it was fantastic! I discovered Piedmont, which is a really nice (read: well-to-do, well kept) area. Wandering around here lead me to Grand Lake Theater at which point the geography sudden snapped into place for me and I realized this was the end of Lake Merritt on the other side of I-580 I had seen before but not been to. It’s a pretty clean part of Oakland, disproving that all of the city is seedy.

I eventually decided I wanted to stay outdoors all day, so I headed to the Golden Gate Park in SF. I figure I need to spend at least some time over there, since otherwise I’d just run around east bay. There, I discovered the Japanese Tea Garden which was cool to walk around. Lots of fantastically manicured trees and the flowers were just beginning to bloom. Aside from the garden, I learned I could get in the observation tower at the de Young Museum for free, which I recommend as it offers a great view of the area. I would’ve like to spent a little time in the museum, but it was really too late to see much. I’ll have to do that later, I hear it’s quite nice.

I closed out the evening and trip by going to Baker Beach. The sound of the surf here was awesome. The beach is directly exposed to the greater ocean, no rocks, and is slightly curved, so the waves make a powerful crushing sound over and over. It was sunset, and there was a handful of people out. It was a great time to just sit and watch the sea.

I started driving back Saturday night.  I wanted to stay so bad, but had to get going. I forget where I landed for the night, some rest area in CA or OR.  Sunday morning I picked up where I left off and kept on driving. I got back to Redmond around 4 PM, wee!

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