The first ten people who comment here will get something I or Megan make. Could be a real life thing. Could be imaginary. Depends on what I think you will like and my inspirations. (Note, it’s going to be something I think you will like. Actual liking not guarenteed!) The only real rule is that you have to make this offer in your own journal/blog. (and this really isn’t a rule, if you comment, you will be included!) Megan will take either the evens or the odds and I will do the others.
Meat!
I got to take a field trip out to the Cedar River last week. This where a majority of Seattle’s water comes from.
The first picture shows some salmon hanging out, waiting to make their moves.
Next, is the masonry pool.
Which is damned by the Masonry Dam.
Which is fed by Chester Morse Lake.
They all flow down Upper Cedar Falls.
And are all surround by trees.
We also took a stop by the fish passage and got to see some chinook, coho, and steelhead hanging out waiting to go up the pescalator. Which was installed as a part of Seattle’s Habitat Conservation Plan. If you can hold on (or fast forward) to the last 20 secs, it’s a salmon party!
After 2 years of ignoring all Wordpress releases that have come out, I got adventurous and decided to upgrade from 2.0 -> 2.6. For some reason it was easier this time. Not really much crapped out, I lost my category tags for a while. But this blog allowed me to manually put them back into the database. I’m sure there are some nifty things I’ve been missing out on but nothing I can see right off the bat.
Anyway, if something screwy happens whil you are looking at the site, leave me a comment. I need the frustration!
This makes me smile. (via reason hit n run)
In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Great White Fleet (more here), two naval ships docked at the cruise ship terminals in Downtown Seattle for a couple of days. They were the USS Preble and the USS Rushmore. I’m not exactly sure if there were any other events elsewhere, if not, a little odd since the Great White Fleet didn;t make a stop in Seattle on its tour 100 years ago.
I’ve always told myself that I should go down and take the tours they offer when they come through town (often times during Seafair) but I always miss it by a day or just don;t have the time when they come around.
So I proceeded down to Terminal 30 and got down around 12.30. Tours were going to last until 2. The tours of each ship were supposed to last about 20-30 minutes for each boat. The group I was with went and saw the USS Preble first and an 1.5 hours later the tour was over so I didn;t get a chance to see the USS Rushmore. But, the USS Preble was pretty interesting. Although commissioned only 6 years ago, the bridge looked straight out of the 50s or 60s other than a few LCD screens providing some information. The architecture was gray and blocky. The buttons and dials from an age past. Granted, don’t fix what works. They had a helicopter on board. Basically, we gat a tour of the deck, the bridge, and the helicopter landing and storage area.
The most amusing moment, and really the only time I wanted to take a picture, was of this on the bridge of the ship:
I’m glad this function of this maul is clarified for me. heehee.
wheee! Talk about wacky. The Corp of Engineers were seeing material come from the lower portion of their dam on the columbia. Their assumption was that the dam might be failing. A submersible camera was sent down to investigate. To their surprise, they found a big ball of stugeon hanging out at the base of the dam. Reports have it that there were an estimated 60,000 strugeon in this ball with the largest one being 14 feet in length.
Here is the sturgeon link. They’ve also got part of the video feed from the camera.
It’s hard to find decent podcasts. The best kinds are ones I discover after they have been going for awhile so i have a decent backlog of shows to go through. I’ve got 25 minutes each way on the bus. Based on where my stop is on the route, i usually get a seat 70% of the time. When a seat is not available, reading becomes a pain.
The first in the series, which I’ve listened to for the past 3 years or so, is The Sound of Young America. TSOYA is hosted by America’s Sweetheart, Jesse Thorn. Over the years, it has provided a lot of entertainment regarding different comedians, musicians, actors, writers, scientists, etc. One of these podcasts was an interview with the hosts of another radio show (which has it’s own podcast) – WNYC’s RadioLab.
I’m only 4 episodes into the series but have found it quite education and entertaining. The hosts come from a creative background who’s parents were both scientists, Jad Abumrad. He teams up with a veteran scientist writer/prodecer, Robert Krulwich. They spend an hour or so running through different aspects of a theme, not straight interviews, but with production, splicing, and entertaining sound manipulations. (I don’t really know what that means – google them and look for descriptions of their show). There’s no set time schedule to when the episodes come out. They just do their thing and they show up every once in a while.
I think they are schedule every other week but they are only contracted to do 10 or so a year now. (up from 5 at the beginning)
TSOYA has at least a couple of hundred podcasts available ranging from 5 min – 1 hr. While, Radiolab has approximately 20 episodes available – all about 1 hour in length.
Let the anticipation commence! The annual festivities occur on this fateful day. Corned beef and sausages shall be devoured. Guinness and Irish Whiskey shall be pouring generously.
Follow the action here.
The action has once again moved north of the ship canal. It’s been many years since we’ve dared to venture that far north. Seth in his near condemned house will host this years festivities. Heat and restrooms are optional. Who knows what the outcome will be.
edit: Dougie wins! Dougie Wins!
And a little post tournament excitement here.
I’ll post photos tonight (monday).
i found this via boing boing
this post will not make you smarter, however, you will probably live longer knowing that this many versions exist of stairway to heaven.
i got to it from this gem.
Found another good site for biodiesel station location. Nearbio. It appears to me a lot more user friendly that biodiesel.org
A little late. But these fine gentleman have partook in a journey to grow the best mustache. All the donations benefit 826 Seattle which is a program to get kids and young adults interested in writing and the such. Donate to Mr Eric Delfel if you feel the need.
the following are examples of 5 wonderful albums i purchased this year. the links go to the album they are from. lots of great music out there – find it.
darc mind track 1 – visions of a blur
cold war kids track 3 – tell me in the morning
tapes ‘n tapes track 3 – insistor
tv on the radio track 5 – wolf like me
built to spill track 1 – goin’ against your mind.
I’d like to thank whoever sent me a subscription to the economist. Ha ha, I also think it’s a fitting issue to get first, “Happiness.”
I love this magazine but in the past haven’t got a subscription because it is quite spendy and it is a whole lot of reading to do in a week. I buy it once a month or so and immerse myself in it. Now I’ve got steady reading for the next year. Once again, thanks!
They’ve had a couple of these sites in Europe (but of course I can not find them). But finally, another wonderful airfare tool, Farecast. It uses past info and a wonderful statistical model(or some fancy kind of math) to predict what the price of a flight is going to do. It was just released as Public Beta and is really only good if you live in Seattle or Boston right now. We’ll see how things progress. It made me finally get off my ass and buy my ticket to Albuquerque
Another interesting exercise in the possibilities in mapping. These maps show the breakdown of the different religious grops in the US.
This is pretty good. Presents various facts regarding country population, size, and density based on respective continents.
