Dave's Stuff

Laurel seems to seam

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:25:22 PST

DSC03248
Originally uploaded by Seattle Laurel.

Laurel was able to put together this sweet-lookin' top using her new sewing machine!

New LOST airline

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:46:59 PST

New LOST airline
Originally uploaded by Seattle Dave.

There is a free video on the iTunes Store called "You Found Me" by the Fray. It isn't a great song, but the video features clips from the next season of LOST, and they look incredible. One weird thing is this logo for another airline, which keeps flashing throughout the video. Wonder what that's going to be?

The IT Crowd

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:00:57 PST

I'm lucky enough to be in London on Friday night when the IT Crowd's third season premieres. If you've never seen the IT Crowd, it is worth seeking out. Unfortunately, the only way to see the first two seasons in the US is via BitTorrent, which I'd never suggest anyone use to download copyrighted content.

Four years as a professional photographer

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 11:24:43 PST

Today is my fourth anniversary on Shutterstock, selling some of my photos. So far, I've made $298.64, or a spot less than $75/year. That's even less than I made as a journalist or when I owned my own computer newsletter business. But it is far less work -- I just upload photos I took anyway, and let them sit there and get bought.

RIP, Tuba Man

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:42:53 PST

RIP, Tuba Man
Originally uploaded by Seattle Dave.

I happened to see this story about the death of Seattle's Tuba Man today ... and realized I had taken a picture of him on July 17, 2007.

Laurel is art

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:44:35 PST

Laurel is art
Originally uploaded by Seattle Dave.

Happy Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:35:02 PDT

Scary
Originally uploaded by Seattle Dave.

Saw this fun little guy on Hollywood Blvd today.

Michael J Fox

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:44:21 PDT

Quark

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:10:19 PDT

When I was but a wee lad of 10, there was a new show coming on called Quark that I was extremely excited to watch.

I can't remember why I was so worked up to see it, but the day it finally came on, I was punished for some reason and wasn't allowed to watch TV. I remember throwing an incredible fit, but it was to no avail -- not only did I miss the first episode of Quark, but I also ended up never seeing a single show ... until now.

I rented the DVD of the entire series of Quark (eight whole episodes!), and I just watched the first episode. I waited 30 years for this? What a piece of crap.

Plane emergency

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:57:11 PDT

Moments before pushing back from the gate at seatac for Chicago,
someone two rows back had a seizure. Fortunately three med
professionals were on board to give him CPR and even a heart shock.
EMTs came onboard in response to 911 and lifted him out.

Woman who helped him said he is OK, but he seemed like a goner.

Sent from my iPhone

Last night of the Adventurer's Club

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:01:46 PDT

Inside at last! Last night of the Adventurer's Club
Originally uploaded by Seattle Dave.

We barely made it into the last night of the Adventurer's Club ... after a great dinner at Ragland Road with aunts (Rita, Mia) and uncles (Joe, Marty), Rita, Joe, Laurel and I waited 4 hours in line to get in. They initially closed the line right behind me and Laurel, but I got them to let Joe and Rita in. They eventually let in six more people, but that was in for the next 3.5 hours, when they finally let everyone else who had been milling around waiting to at least get a chance in line ... no idea how many of them actually made it. Once we got to the front, they only had room for three of us (they were only letting one person in for each person that left, and each person that left got a mighty cheer from the folks in line), so I waited outside while the others went in. Fortunately, a Disney employee with some compassion just waved me in, so I wasn't stranded at all. The place was packed, and we got in with only two shows left to go (if you haven't been to the club ... well, you never will, but the shows are all about 20 minute improv skits based on a general theme). We got into one show, but we really wanted to see the final one, called the HOOPLA, but it filled up in seconds and we were left in the waiting area, where fortunately they had a big screen up so you could see what was happening in the show. We finally made it back to our hotel at 3 a.m.

Sam'mich Slingers

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 09:16:24 PDT

West Seattle is about to get a new BBQ place called Sam'mich Slingers. Not only is the name awesome, but I just found out that it is owned by Otis of Greenwood's OK Corral BBQ -- a man so large, he calls me "Tiny."

Last Days of the Adventurer's Club

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:52:08 PDT

Literally packed
Originally uploaded by Seattle Dave.

Laurel and I are in Orlando this weekend to witness the last days of the Adventurer's Club at Pleasure Island in DisneyWorld.

Tonight is the next-to-last-night, and this picture is from around 8:30 p.m. -- about 1.5 hours after opening. The entire bottom floor was packed; we were able to get in with no wait and find great seats on the upper floor, but you can't really enjoy the improv-style show from up there -- plus, even upstairs was starting to get crowded when we left around 9 p.m.

We walked by the club again around 10 p.m., and the line was snaking far out the entrance.

Tomorrow is the big night with the final Adventurer's Club inauguration ceremony. We hope we can get in!

Silverlight with style

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:48:32 PDT

Casey Stein has started a new blog about Silverlight that already taught me something I didn't know (not that that's hard with Silverlight, but knowing this is going to save me lots of time and aggravation, I can tell). Thanks, Casey!

I'm not the only one who thinks so ...

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:29:52 PDT

The local Seattle "alternative" weekly paper says reading "McCain's Promise" by David Foster Wallace should be required by law before election day.

If you don't mind reading online (or can spare the printer paper), you can read it right now at Rolling Stone's website

David Foster Wallace

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:51:54 PDT

David Foster Wallace
Originally uploaded by Seattle Dave.

My version of the famous David Foster Wallace sketch by Harry Aung in Salon Magazine.

Before you vote ...

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 11:23:23 PDT

You really should read David Foster Wallace's "McCain's Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express with John McCain and a Whole Bunch of Actual Reporters, Thinking About Hope" aka "Up, Simba!" aka one of the chapters in "Consider the Lobster" -- no matter which one you read, it is an incredible report on McCain's year 2000 presidential run on the "Straight Talk Express." Definitely a worthwhile read if you are, like me, conflicted by McCain's undeniable war heroism and leadership qualities vs. being pretty sure he'd be a terrible president.

Some bad news to come home to

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:21:24 PDT

I got home from London just fine -- 19 hours of total travel time, exactly. While working on getting my computer updated (new iTunes and iPhone firmware this week, and all that), I happened to notice a headline on Yahoo.com that literally made me gasp out loud: My favorite author, David Foster Wallace, killed himself. Infinite tragedy.

Thanks, Tyler Olsen!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:14:34 PDT

What's better than opening your MacBook Air in the airport, firing up iTunes, and finding someone's iTunes library with the song "Barbie Girl" by Aqua shared out? Lots of things. But that's all I've got.

True lies

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 01:35:10 PDT

I love the radio show "Seven Second Delay" (search for it on iTunes; you can get the podcast soon after the show airs on Wednesdays).

The premise of the show, such as there is one, is that they come up with an ill-advised radio "stunt" and try to fill an hour of air.

This week, they tried to reunite the Beatles by calling four guys named John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Richard Starkey.

While waiting to talk with one of them (and they did accomplish the task), this little side-exchange cracked me up:

"Yoko Ono, in Japanese, means 'one egg.'"

"Really? That's interesting!"

"Yeah, sometimes facts like that, that aren't true, are the most interesting."

A guest in the house of (hero) worship

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:07:57 PDT

While I was in Kansas last week, I was a guest on the Hero Worship 2.0 podcast. Check out Episode 203. I'm "Seattle Dave." It was lots of fun, thanks to Ian, Jill, and Kevin who are the real hosts of the show for letting me play along.

Because the podcast is completely unscripted and unstructured, Ian ended up having to cut out about 23 minutes because we digressed (even further than you hear in what he left in) into old memories from 20 years ago and named names of folks who we were scared might accidentally listen.

I also say a bad word, so cover your ears at the mention of Beverly Crusher.

Otherwise, my trip to London is almost over ... it is Friday night here, around 11 p.m. right now. I leave tomorrow at 2 p.m., which means I'll have to check out of the hotel in the morning and head straight to the airport. Then it is an 11-hour flight to San Francisco and a 2-hour flight to Seattle, arriving at 9 p.m. Pacific.

Patron of the Arts: The Review

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:53:06 PDT

Eh, not so good. The best part of the play was the same thing you get with every play in London: An exactly on-time start. I realize now that sitting in the second row, rather than being a good thing, was the bad seats (I wondered why the woman who sold me the tickets said, "I'm sorry that's all I have.") ... at any rate, it was fun to go out. Before I went to the play, I stopped at a get-together for some of the folks at work; it was only steps away from my hotel, so I decided to stop by after the play to see if anyone was still hanging out. EVERYONE was still there. Amazing -- these folks have the ability to socialize like nothing I've ever seen.

10 years later

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:53:11 PDT

It's been almost 10 years since I first came to London as part of my three-week European honeymoon with Laurel. When we were here the first time, the only restaurant we ate at twice was the Delhi Brasserie in Kensington. So I had to trek out there on this trip. It was easy to find (sadly, a Burger King right outside the tube station was main the landmark I remembered), and it turned out to be fairly empty -- just me and one other person eating alone, a woman from Zurich (I only know this because the head waiter basically stood at her table and talked to her the entire time she was eating). I had somasa, chicken tikka masala, rice, and garlic naan. I have to say, it wasn't as good as last time, and not just because Laurel wasn't with me -- the food just wasn't as tasty.

Patron of the Arts

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:28:48 PDT

This evening, I took a tube to the Camden Town station, where I got a mocha and enjoyed the many punk-rock-style shops. Then I headed to Leicester Square, and saw a half-price ticket booth that was selling tix to the play Under the Blue Sky, which features actors from Dr. Who and the IT Crowd, two of my favorite British TV shows. So I got a ticket for tomorrow night, and it turns out it is in the second row!

The Old Bank

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:43:09 PDT

After work last night in London, a bunch of us went out to the Old Bank pub (one of several choices within a stone's throw). We drank for 4 hours and then went searching the streets of London for some pizza (we found a place that was willing to serve 12 drunk geeks and it was quite good, although expensive "trendy" pizza and not just simple slices).

I wish I could say this was a one-time thing that they did just for guests (myself and another Redmond Microsoft employee who is here), but apparently the only thing that made this different from a regular night after work was that instead of drinking till midnight and only eating chips for dinner, they got pizza.

We did get chips at the pub, and they were really some of the best French fries I've ever had -- except they were served with mayonnaise instead of ketchup!