Seattle Life

I Hate Tulip Festivals

Troy — 4/16/2008 5:16:15 AM

Spring is here. Kind of. Isn't April supposed to be the start of Spring?

I couldn't really tell, because I was frozen walking around Belltown.

Anyways, I get home and check my facebook feed. You know what I see?

Every girl in Seattle has updated her facebook picture to a derivation of this:

Apparently, every girl in Seattle thinks she's a beautiful flower, and looks good next to a bunch of tulips. How unoriginal.

Seattle Sunny Pic Of The Day

Troy — 2/27/2008 10:33:30 AM

Oh yes boys and girls. Summer is upon us soon enough. The days are slowly getting longer. Rain is starting to abide. Here's our sunny pic of the day!

[Image Credit: Dean Forbes]

Wet Blanket Tuesday

Troy — 2/27/2008 10:45:04 AM

Hey Readers,

You'll love this one. So one of our bloggers posted information about a Microsoft - Boeing event to get the word out. Essentially, it seems like they were trying to help the organizers and to help our readers. Our Boeing friends actually complain that the invites for that event have hit annoyingly spamtastic levels internally, so it doesn't seem like they were getting enough people.

Sadly, the organizer somehow thinks getting press for her event is a bad idea. Apparently, the blogger took the post down, but we can still see the comment:

Link to comment

I'm pretty sure she had no actual legal recourse, and no one in the legal community thinks this is much more than a scare tactic. Luckily, our bloggers are just nice people, and are just trying to help.

Personally, I would have thrown a hissy fit, and put up links to her pictures she has strewn all over the internet. Or maybe organized a flash mob at nectar.

What do you all think?

P.S. On a different note, it is kind of cool to see how popular this blog is getting.

I Am Seattle Woman. Hear Me Roar!

TheBachelor — 2/20/2008 4:19:25 PM

Top Five Seattle Attractions

Troy — 2/20/2008 3:52:00 PM

I know we all live in Seattle, but like how people in New York never visit the Statue of Liberty, we forget sometimes about the sites we miss out on in Seattle.

Also, these would be some good places to visit with out of towners.

Chittenden Locks and Fish Ladder
Pike Place Market
Space Needle
Underground Tour - This place is only funny the first time. The jokes apparently repeat, but out of towners love it
Woodland Park Zoo

Top 10 Seattle Internet Startups

Troy — 2/20/2008 3:26:31 PM

After taking a look at various startups in Seattle, here's a list of the top 10 internet startups based on traffic. Enjoy!

[Image Credit: ceonyc]

Dog Yoga

Troy — 2/18/2008 3:21:25 PM

Only in Seattle would you see such a site.

Top 10 Reasons Why Guys Love Seattle

Troy — 2/18/2008 7:46:05 AM

Guys will always have plenty of people who want to join your World Of Warcraft Clan.
Never will you fight trolls and werewolves alone again.
Guys won’t get picked on for not being knowledgeable about sports.
Most guys in Seattle have never even touched a pig skin.
Guys can openly be in love with your computer.
With tech heavyweights like Microsoft and Amazon, being a techy or geek is not uncommon.
Guys won’t go home alone after a night on the town.
Chances are your socially incapable friends also didn’t close with the few ladies that graced the night.
Guys might be able to try out their secret gay fantasies.
With such a vibrant gay community in Capitol Hill, I guess you can switch teams if that’s your thing.
Guys can fulfill their older woman cougar fantasy.
Just wander into a trendy bar, and you’ll soon find yourself surrounded by older women with ticking time bombs for uteruses. You can role play your own Ashton Kutcher-Demi Moore fantasy!
Guys can drink pink drinks without ridicule.
Seattle is full of metro guys that can’t appreciate a good beer. Cosmos and pink martinis are their choice flavors for the night.
Guys have more time for themselves
The lack of women in the city equates to you not worrying about celebrating anniversaries, extinguishing jealous dramas, and spending “quality time” with a lovely lady. Without a girlfriend to worry about means more time to catch up with your TV Shows and play Xbox 360.
Guys can finally use the elliptical machines.
Remember when elliptical machines used to only be used by sorority girls to “work out”. The same girls that brought large purses and wore makeup to the gym? Well no more discrimination, in Seattle, guys can also use elliptical machines for grueling cardio that makes you remember that you’re a man.
Guys can enjoy being metro.
Remember when your boys questioned your sexuality after you got your eye brows sculpted? Those days are gone, because Seattle welcomes its metro guys. Now you can gel up that faux hawk, steam press your stripey shirts, and break out that Armani Murse . . . I mean Man Purse . . . I mean Man Bag.

[Image Credit: kk+]

Top 10 Things Seattle Girls Should Do To Look Hot

TheBachelor — 2/18/2008 7:31:14 AM

Wear Sunblock – your skin is important. Even though we live in a city that the sun ignores, the sun still has a damaging effect on your skin. One of the most gorgeous girls I know in Seattle wears sunblock religiously. I think at the time she may have been 28 or 29, but her skin made her look in her early 20s. Protecting your skin can make a big difference even in Seattle.
Wear Moisturizer – once again this is back to the whole skin is important thing. Girls in Seattle tend to have very rough skin. Our initial thoughts are that this may be due to pioneer-life hereditary genetics or the abuse of years of not wearing sunblock. Regardless, Seattle girls tend to have rough skin, so moisturize.
Wear Makeup – everyone has blemishes, but the odd thing is that most Seattle girls don’t know how to apply make-up properly. In other cities, the girls touch up themselves with concealer and all sorts of voodoo. This greatly improves their complexion. Do Seattle girls just not care, because every time I see one, I throw up a little.

However, this one is tricky. Too much makeup or makeup improperly used can make you look like a hooker or a clown. Both are bad.
Wear Cute Dresses and Skirts – I have a newsflash for all you ladies out there, blue jeans and a black Northface does not constitute as dressing up. After moving to Seattle, I realized how much I missed girls wearing cute skirts. It can really make a girl look pretty. I know it is cold, but that’s what long jackets are for. “I want a girl with a short skirt and a longgggggg jacket!” - Cake
Have a Little Style – this kinda returns back to the whole blue jeans and black Northface thing. Have a little unique style and make yourself look unique. Guys aren’t attracted to the Seattle style. I’m sure the elite designers of high fashion aren’t sending their interns to Seattle to find out what’s hot.
Work Out That Butt – girls in Seattle tend to have wider loads. Maybe the cold prevents them from running or hitting the gym. Maybe they need the cushion to keep warm. Maybe they don’t think anyone will notice, because their pea coats cover their bums. Maybe every other girl has the same wide load, so they think it is normal. Whatever it is, it’s not attractive at all.
Get Some Color – this is really a thing everyone in Seattle needs. Everyone is too pale, and that doesn’t look attractive. Book a quick trip to somewhere sunny and get a nice dose of color on your blank palette. People will take notice. You’ll stand out and look hot doing it.
Wear More Pink – embrace the fact that you have a feminine side. Wear pink! Remind us guys that you’re a girl. It might just be something embedded in our cultural perceptions, but girls just look more girly in pink.
Wear Heels – heels are sexy. They also make your butt look sexier. I forget the actual physics of it, but the way it props up your body makes you butt look cuter apparently.
Stop Looking Like Men – in general, stop dressing like guys. Wear girl stuff. Guys don’t want to date a “maybe” girl. We want to date an actual girl. Don’t look like some butch lesbian. Look like an feminie girl. That’ll be the hottest of all.

[Image Credit: toastycakes]

Subscribe Now !!!

Spork — 2/16/2008 3:13:52 PM

We recently just launched some new subscription options for you.

1) New RSS feed powered by Feedburner (a Google Company)

Apparently, feedburner gives us some more reliability and compatibility. I'm not sure what else they do, but I'm sure a company specializing in RSS feeds will be better than what we currently have. Please migrate to the new RSS Feed soon

RSS Feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/SeattleBlog

2) Email subscriptions

Don't use RSS feeds? Well, I guess you're like most people on the internet. Well we now offer another option for you . . . email subscriptions!!! This is also powered by Feedburner (a Google Company)

Now you can have our post delivered to your inbox! Oh My!

Subscribe Link

Hope everybody enjoys these.

Great Ideas For A Weekend Trip

Troy — 1/31/2008 10:47:30 PM

San Juan Islands - Take the Anacortes ferry (an hour and a half drive) to Friday Harbor to visit one of the many island towns of Puget Sound.
Washington Wine Country - Head west through the mountains and into the desert where you will find the state's vineyard acres (second only to California in the US).
Vancouver - 2 hours speeding or 2.5-3 hours if border crossing is slow or the roads are clogged. Vancouver is a sight to behold. There is lots to see and do, very much worth a visit even if only for a day.
Victoria - Hop on the Victoria Clipper (passenger only) to downtown Victoria. Victoria is quite nice in the summer. You can catch mass transit out to Butchart Gardens or have Tea at the Empress hotel right next to the docks.
Portland, OR - Seattle's little brother city. We haven't been but keep meaning to get down there. 2.5 hours drive, easy day trip.
Mount Rainier - Head up to the national park on Mount Rainier and enjoy the natural beauty of the mother of all mountains in the area. Rainier is a long dormant volcano that makes Mt. St. Helens look like a quaint little hill. 2 hours away.
Mount Saint Helens - Just south of Mount Rainier, see the aftermath of the eruption and check out the activity that has occurred in recent months.
Bainbridge Island – Take the ferry or even better sail to Bainbridge island for the day. It is voted to be one of the best places to live in the world with beautiful sceneries, parks and an amazing movie theater. Try Mora’s Ice-cream Café when you’re there.
Sol Duc Resort – Olympic Rainforest. This place is ridiculous! Situated in the world’s only temperate rainforest the area is comprised of winding roads enveloped in misty clouds. The resort has a natural hot spring and is really nice.

[Image Credit: sagebrush photography ]

How You Can Help Out

Spork — 2/14/2008 4:50:58 PM

Hey Everyone,

A couple of my friends and I created this blog to as an outlet for random thoughts and ideas about Seattle. We contribute to this blog every couple of days or so (basically whenever we have time). Well, the traffic to this blog has rocketed up quite quickly.

While sitting around a month or so ago, one of us decided that we should try and see what would happen if we allowed more writers to contribute their ideas and thoughts to this blog. Hopefully, the blog would become even more interesting, and the quality of writing would increase. So after a couple of weeks of coding, we released the ability for anyone to contribute.

Now the key is that not every post will make it to the home page. This is to prevent spam and crap from reaching our readers.

Based on our algorithms to determine what our users think should go onto the homepage (traffic, viral referrals, voting), certain posts will make it onto the home page. Don’t try to game the system. Just write good stuff, and it’ll get onto the home page where thousands of people will read it.

Now a couple of guidelines. We never had any before, and some of my friends have posted some controversial stuff that really gets people riled up. Others have posted their personal thoughts, etc. This kind of free form worked when we all had the same motivation to create The Best Seattle Blog Ever.

However, since we’re opening this up to everyone, we should set a few guidelines.

Do not write about anything overly offensive (sexual, racist, hate, etc). We are very thick skinned, but we will take down anything that makes our skin crawl. Also, users can easily just vote negatively and things should get kicked off of the homepage. Essentially, we want our users to set the bar of what they consider offensive, but if anything is obvious, we'll take it down.
Do not plagiarize other people’s work.
Do not advertise here. This one is tricky. If you are advertising a non profit, an event, and social organization, this is probably ok. If you advertise a new restaurant opening. Probably ok. If you advertise your tax preparation services, this is not ok. Basically, anything you might find written about in the local newspaper is probably ok here. Anything you would have to pay the newspaper to advertise, probably not ok.
If you write a guest blog post, and would like to link back to your blog, this is fine as long as your blog post was of quality content. We’re here to create a community of bloggers, so this would be great.

Anyways, I’m sure we’ll have more guidelines soon, and this post will get updated. So post about anything and everything that interests you and makes you happy (or sad). This is a free form experiment, so let’s see how it goes.

Happy Posting.

Click here to start posting

Is The GuyTo Girl Ratio Real?

FourMan — 2/13/2008 2:51:28 PM

I read a post from the bachelor the other day about a supposed horrendous guy to girl ratio in Seattle.

Why Girls Love Seattle?

I have always jokingly thought in the back of my head that the bad ratio was real, but never really had any proof til now.

I did some googling, and found this! I had to register and post this for everyone.

My worst fears. There is a huge disparity in the number of single guys vs girls in Seattle.
Looks like more lonely nights where Cream Cheese Hot Dogs are my only comfort.

Top 14 Things To Do in the Seattle Area On A Weekend Day

Troy — 1/31/2008 10:46:42 PM

Seattle Underground Tour – This tour leaves from Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle every hour during the summer months. During the tour you’ll learn about the early history of Seattle and walk through the underground. Highly recommended.
Pike Place Market - The famous Seattle fish market most people have heard of. Great local produce, food, and crafts
Greenlake – A beautiful man-made lake with a popular walking trail surrounded by free tennis courts and great restaurants and coffee shops.
Olympic Sculpture Garden- and Seattle art museum
Snoqualmie Falls — See the waterfall made famous by Twin Peaks. It’s a short drive from Seattle and has a nice hiking trail down to the base of the falls. You can also enjoy a meal at the nearby Salish Lodge where MSFT employees get a discount.
Kerry Park is a great place to visit in Queen Anne Hill as it provides perhaps the best views of seattle. Photography enthusiasts must go here.
Gasworks Park – This beautiful little park is tucked away next to lake Union and is a great place to watch the 4th of July fireworks.
Space Needle - It's the icon of Seattle and time permitting it’s a must. Great views of the water, the city, and Mount Rainier.
Seattle Mariners - catch a mariner’s game at Safeco field. The new stadium (few years old) is one of the nicest baseball stadiums I have been to. If you are a baseball fan, you should check into tickets.
Discovery Park – A gorgeous park in Seattle next to the sea with a lighthouse.
Japanese Garden at the UW Arboretum
Seattle Aquarium – View giant octopuses and sharks. Microsoft Employees get a discount on the entrance fees
Lake Washington Cruise that shows you some very fancy houses along the lake, including bill gates house
The Boeing Museum of Flight is a great place to spend a day.
Redmond Saturday Market – A local farmer’s market, open every Saturday morning during the summer from 9-3. A variety of local produce and crafts are available for sale.

[Image Credit: Kables]

Why Girls Love Seattle? Part II

TheBachelor — 2/12/2008 10:07:13 PM

Addendum: This is a folow up to Why Girls Love Seattle

So one of my female friends read our previous article and half-heartedly agreed with the general idea. However, she wanted to put in one caveat. Seattle is the promised land for girls who didn’t stand a chance in other cities.

I totally forgot about this, because I’m a guy. As a guy, our girl radar is honed only for babes and hotties. Any girl that we have no desire to ever bang or isn’t holding a bucket of ice cold beers is actually invisible to guys. A group of guys can walk into a room full of unattractive girls, and you’ll always hear one say to the other, “Man, there are no chicks here.” So my blindness made me forget totally about this category of ladies.

My female friend is absolutely right. In a normal city, guys are busy chasing after the hottest girls and leave girls that are anything less out of the picture. The hot girls will attract a truly disproportionate amount of attention, and guys will keep on wooing for the chance of some action. Therefore, they spend all their time and money on these hot girls, and leave almost none for the rest. Ugly girls aren’t given a fighting chance in a normal city.

Now let’s pick this same ugly girl, and place her in Seattle. She is in a city where there are a lot of guys, but only a very limited number of girls in comparison. Additionally, you’ll rarely see a Seattle girl scoring high in a beauty pageant. Through a combination of factors, the average Seattle girl is just not that attractive.

As a result, guys no longer have all their energies taken up by hot girls. The ugly girls actually stand a fighting chance now!

Also, when a guy from a normal city moves to Seattle, the first few months, he’s still got his old standards by which to compare girls. As time goes by and his sex well runs dry, those standards quickly crumble and his old buddies would cringe at the kind of tail he chases.

So my chick friend is right. Through the lack of competition of more attractive girls, and the sheer number of male opportunities in Seattle, even an ugly girl will get her own healthy share of dating action. Seattle is the promised land for ugly girls.

[Image Credit: pantagrapher]

Why Girls Love Seattle?

TheBachelor — 2/12/2008 6:59:03 PM

[Image Credit: Todd Ehlers]

I often hear it from my lady friends that it is great to be a single girl in Seattle. The basic premise is that there are just so many guys in Seattle. They also say it with a stuck up air of “I’m a hot commodity, everyone should worship the ground I walk on.”

Even though guys are a plenty, the hard reality for girls is that the odds are good, but the goods are odd. In essence, despite the sheer number of men, it takes more than genitalia to be a catch! If you want a attractive guy who’s smart, charming, funny, successful, fun, etc . . . expect to still look as hard as you would in a normal city. The guys in Seattle are often weird, spazzy, and as deep as a puddle.

The guy situation in Seattle is analogous to a buffet. Sure there’s a lot of food, but the food is essentially crap. So you may initially feel that you’re getting a good deal while you’re gorging on a huge spread of choices, you’ll feel awful about your decisions later. Especially, when your food calls you 6 times in the last hour telling you that it really felt a connection with you, and has been trying to get you into relationship status with it on Facebook, even though you just met.

Despite this reality, we as humans tend to have quite shortsighted logic. This is why after a terrible hangover from a night of crazy partying, we’ll swear away alcohol forever. Forever, incidentally means til the next weekend. So when the next week rolls around, we’ll be first in line for the buffet waiting to fill our plates. That’s why girls, despite being on a steady stream of bad dates and Mr. Wrongs, still cling to the notion that quantity equates quality. With so many guys, surely Mr. Awesome is sure to be around the next corner. The truth is only disappointment is lurking.

So if you’re a girl in Seattle looking for a guy to pay for your dinners and be a door mat, you’re in the right city. If you throw your pink Ipod into the air, you’ll easily hit one of these guys at random. They’ll be at your beck and call and you’ll be the center of their meaningless existence. You’ll be queen amongst the warlocks.

[Image Credit: TCM Hitchhiker]

But if you’re looking for Mr. Awesome, you’ll be sifting through a lot more dirt than usual to find your gem. And that dirt plays a lot of Everquest or Warcraft and may still faint at the sight of a nipple. Think 40-year old virgin, but not as sweet. And for that matter virgin is up for debate, because in desperation, he did get lucky with an apple pie . . . twice.

Great guys, don’t lose hope when you show up at a party and there are 8 guys surrounding every 1 ½ girls. Just do your thing, and after those guys have failed with their pathetic conversation, the girls will take notice of your masculine and debonair presence. And don’t settle for the ½ girl (she’s a half, because she may actually be a man), but go for the whole girl. You deserve it.

So for all of you guys that are new to Seattle, welcome to the worst guy to girl ratio you’ll ever experience. Maybe it is time to work on your guitar skills or finish that book you’ve always wanted to read. Girls enjoy having guys calling you left and right. It must be great having that full social calendar. But you know that feeling at the end of the day? It’s the same feeling after a 10 minute horizontal hookup . . . unsatisfied emptiness. Still love Seattle now?

Why Girls Love Seattle? Part 2

I Need Some Sunshine

Troy — 2/7/2008 8:08:39 AM

This is the most depressing thing to see on your weather page. I need to book a trip to somewhere sunny.

Great Places For Under $25

Troy — 1/31/2008 10:49:51 PM

Seattle

Mae Phim – Family owned authentic tasting Thai food for under $7 a person.
Szechuan Bean Flower – Spicy Chinese food.
Kebab House – The local favorite for biryani on weekends.
Café Bengodi – Home style Italian food (MSFT employees get a discount)
Ipanema – The most amazing mean fest Brazilian Grill ever.
Todai’s – A sushi and seafood buffet
Postmark Gelato – Best gelatoria in town
Dilettante Chocolates – This café is a nice place for a coffee and an overdose on chocolate.
Mix Ice Cream Bar- My personal fave.
Espresso Vivace is a nice place to have caffe espresso. They do fancy latte art too.
Mora’s IceCream Café – A gorgeous ice cream join on Brainbridge Island.
Simply Desserts - I haven’t had better dessert in the area than at Simply Desserts. It’s a small place in Fremont District but anyone who remotely enjoys desserts can appreciate it.
Kasbah Moroccan Restaurant – This is the best Moroccan food I’ve had and my mate, who is from Morocco attests to that.
Salty’s On Alki – On the other side of Puget Sound, offers stunning views of the city, especially in the evening. There Sunday morning brunch is supposed to be famous.
Thirteen Coins Restaurant – A complete menu of 100+ items available for 24 hours.

Microsofties

Tandoori Kitchen – Excellent kebabs for a decadent but quick lunch buffet
Kebab Palace – A nearby favorite buffet
Malay Satay – Spicy Malaysian and South Each Asian Fare
Noodle Land – Quick and tasty Thai food with lunch special pricing.

On the Eastside

I Love Sushi – Good quality Sushi at a fair price. Located in Bellevue.
Maggiano’s – Large servings, good Italian Food
Mediterranean Kitchen – Great Couscous and kebabs
Kohana’s – Some of the best Mongolian Grill food ever

[Image Credit: leff]

I Hate Seattle Traffic

Troy — 2/7/2008 7:47:46 AM

It seems like every day, this is what I have to look forward to after a long day of work. Great way to unwind right?

Well no more! I've started taking public transportation. I fought it for years, but Seattle just doesn't care about its drivers. I finally succumbed to the wishes of my environmentally friendly friends and gave mass transit a try.

It is wonderful.

Now, I can just sleep or read on the bus while it takes me home. No more stop and go traffic. No more road rage.

I love my Seattle Bus. I love saving the environment.

[Image Credit: A Boy And His Bike]

Seattle Card Skimming

Troy — 1/31/2008 11:40:17 PM

A little background on ATM Card skimming

I received this email from first tech credit union the other day. You guys better stay safe and watch out for this scam. This can happen to any atm

We wanted to inform you of a card skimming scam occurring at various ATMs in the east Seattle area. "Skimming" occurs when fraudsters attach a device to an ATM that can read card information and pin numbers. Using the skimmed information, fraudsters then produce a duplicate card to make purchases and withdrawals.

You may have heard that this scam was caused by a compromise of First Tech member data. However, we want to assure you that no data compromise has occurred. Fraudsters perpetrating skimming scams do not actually have member information; they scan card information at the point of the transaction.

For your protection, we recommend that you monitor your accounts and immediately report suspicious transactions to us. If you have questions or concerns about your First Tech cards, please give us a call at 800.637.0852 or stop by any branch.

Thank you for your membership,

First Tech Credit Union