Willem – Page 226 – Willem's Planet

August 9, 2013August 9, 2013

Thursday/ ‘Eden of the East’

Eden of the East 01 — Here is a street scene, I think this is in Tokyo. The backgrounds are very detailed and realistic. Yes, animated movies from American studios have plenty of detail in as well, but they never seem to play out in real cities. It’s always in imaginary made-up places.

I try to take out a DVD now and again at the 15th Ave video store close to my house .. while it is still there. It’s probably only a matter of time before it closes its doors due to all the streaming movies that are now available on line and on Netflix. Still, this store rents out movies that you would have to buy on Amazon to see. My latest pick was ‘Eden of the East’, a Japanese anime television series. This is not Disney fare, and don’t be misled by the ‘innocent’ wide-eyed faces on the cover of the Blu-ray box! There is violence, nudity, risqué humor, alcohol and tobacco use on display. The movie has an interesting plot : a mysterious Mr ‘Outside’ gives twelve young people almost unlimited power via a cell phone concierge, and the resources of a Power ball lottery winner (¥8 billion, some $US 100 million) to compete with each other and to try to address the general economic and social challenges Japan. (Exactly what constitutes a problem and what does not, is of course wide open to interpretation and political points of view. Here in the USA some Republicans now want to shut down the government because 30 million people can now get affordable health care. It is ‘ immoral’ and unacceptable that the government ‘meddled’ in the private health insurance industry with new laws). The movie also features 20,000 NEETs (young men with No Employment, Education or Training) and a hikikomori. This is a person, usually a young man, that refuses to leave the house and interact with society, preferring to play video games or program computers instead. Anyway : the plot thickens, stuff explodes, people die but then towards the end the plot falls apart a somewhat, and the conclusion of the whole complicated set-up was a little unsatisfying and a little too ‘easy’ and ‘simple’. But I really liked the art, the animation, and the issues that the movie raised as part of the plot.

Eden of the East 02 — Here is one of the agents using his super futuristic smart phone. Interesting that the phones are all of the ‘clam shell’ form. Smartphones no longer look like that! And the days are long gone since Japan was the land of uniquely advanced mobile phones with internet capabilities and lots of other features rarely seen elsewhere.

August 8, 2013August 8, 2013

Wednesday/ another hump day

IMG_7930 sm — The Georgetown Brewing Co. is located just south of downtown Seattle. I see they signed their homepage ‘Manny and Roger’. Manny must be the Manny in Manny’s Pale Ale, and then Roger is the pilsner guy.

Here’s my coaster that matches the beer I had Wednesday night with my amigos in the Columbia City neighborhood. (No, I did not win the jackpot. So I will keep my job, write my blog and count my many blessings with regards to health and friends and family). Check out the GEICO commercial with the camel roaming the cubicles, asking everyone if they know what day it is.

Hump Day — ‘Guess what day it is? asks the camel. ‘It’s hump day’, replies Julie in a quiet, resigned voice without looking up.

August 6, 2013August 6, 2013

Tuesday/ astronomical odds for a fortune

IMG_7929 sm — Here is what a Powerball lottery ticket in Washington State looks like. I don’t know what that 1 in 31.8 odds prize is, but it can’t be much ($100?)

Chances — Here is how the odds stack up (against you). The table shows how many ‘white ball’ numbers should match the winning number. Of course, for the Grand Prize, all six numbers and the red ‘power ball’ must match !

Whoah. The Powerball jackpot drawing of this Wednesday is up to a staggering $ 425 (Four-Hundred-and-Twenty-Five) million bucks. So have I bought a ticket? You betcha! Ok, I know I should not have, right? But I was curious to see what a ticket looks like. (And besides : previous times when jackpot fever had broken out here in the USA, I always seemed to be out of the country, or found myself in the wrong State, one that does not participate in the jackpot).

The odds of winning the Grand Prize is truly astronomical. Since the sun is about 92 million miles from earth, the odds of winning is similar to one mile against the distance from Earth to the sun and back.

August 6, 2013March 2, 2018

Monday/ building metamorphosis

On my walkabout Monday night I saw that the empty Chutney’s Grille on the Hill restaurant building here on 15th Ave is now clad in wood. The building is ultimately destined to make way for a new four-story, mixed-use apartment building.

IMG_7921 sm — The skeleton of the closed ‘Chutneys Grille on the Hill’ is clad with wooden pallet beams .. best I can tell, it’s meant as outdoor art until the demolition man comes.

August 5, 2013August 5, 2013

Sunday/ the smartphone jungle

Nokia 1020 — The Nokia Lumia 1020 has a 41 megapixel camera, outrageous and unheard of! Is it a camera with a phone on? Is it a phone with a camera on?

I know I cannot hold on to my aging iPhone 4 forever, but I’m going to hang in there a few months longer. There’s always the iPhone 5 (to be replaced by the 5s or iPhone 6 come November; no one knows for sure). The Android phone universe has the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One. And Google has just demonstrated their upcoming Moto X phone, the product of their acquisition of handset maker Motorola. It seems to be a phone aimed at the masses – not a phone for geeks that want the latest Snapdragon processor and the sharpest display. What do I want in a phone? For me the camera specs are paramount. Soo .. should I spring for the Nokia Lumia 1020 with its monster 41-megapixel camera? A big drawback is that it’s a Windows 8 phone. (Interface probably OK, but still very few Windows 8 applications out there). Time will tell.

MotoX-512x460 — Google’s new Moto X phone has middle-of-the-pack hardware but some innovative voice command features.

August 4, 2013

Saturday/ furry fugitives

This cute pamphlet from the Seattle Animal Shelter arrived in my mail on Saturday.

August 3, 2013

Friday/ rain, finally

IMG_7896 sm — Hopefully there was still enough sunlight with the rain on Friday to keep the Big Belly compacting trash can operating !

1. Friday saw a 35-day day streak broken here in the city with a few welcome rain showers. (Per the Seattle Weather blog July was the driest in 50 years here! .. but we did have plenty of rain in April).

2. I spotted a new (new to me, at least) ‘Big Belly’ solar trash compactor on the corner of Yale and Stewart. It looks like a US Mailbox. It uses solar power to compress trash put into it, and electronically alerts trash collectors through a web-based system when its belly is full. The smarty pants trash can with the big belly comes at a price, though : they cost about $5,000 apiece.

August 2, 2013August 2, 2013

Thursday/ STOP the Project!

Alright, I will have to ‘fess up. I went out to Antelope Island State Park on Wednesday, because I knew I will probably not be back in Salt Lake City for work for quite some time. We received word that the funding for our project had been cut. So Thursday was our last day at the site – at least until some time in 2014 at this point. So there is still hope that the project will be resurrected, but the work may be shifted to another site, and the current team members may no longer be available.

IMG_7891 sm — There was some cloud cover, and a few drops of rain fell as we arrived at Salt Lake City airport on Thursday to go home.

August 1, 2013August 3, 2013

Wednesday/ Antelope Island State Park, Part 2

So here are ‘real’ pictures of the State Park. I jumped at it last night when we got back to the hotel, and drove out there. I only had my cell phone with me, but it was good enough to take some pretty spectacular pictures. It was very dry and very warm (99 °F/ 37°C), but there is a musty, salty smell in the air close to the water. There are ‘beaches’ and campgrounds in the park, and some hiking trails. I think one needs a shower after swimming in the Great Salt Lake, though! (The beach that I stopped at, had showers).

IMG_7868 sm — A roadside plaque explains the history of the causeway that was built to connect the mainland to the northern part of the island.

IMG_7875 sm — This sign is on the island itself, after you have driven onto it using a causeway that connects it to the mainland.

IMG_7880 sm — This is the view from the causeway, with water from the Great Salt Lake on both sides, and looking east towards Salt Lake City.

IMG_7838 sm — This is a view from the causeway looking south. The Great Salt Lake’s water is very shallow here but makes for a giant ‘earth’ mirror.

IMG_7848 sm — This is on Antelope Island .. that brown speck in the middle of the picture on the right is a bison! I couldn’t get much closer, and the cell phone has a wide-angle lens which makes it appear to be far away. There is about 500 bison on the island ..

IMG_7852 sm — .. and the antelope that the Park is named after is a pronghorn antelope. There is a female antelope on the left of the picture, looking at me. She was waiting for me to drive on, and then she scampered across the road to join her mate on the other side. The island has some 200 of these antelope, about 500 mule deer, and 120 California Big Horn sheep.

July 30, 2013July 30, 2013

Tuesday/ Antelope Island State Park

Our Marriott Courtyard hotel is in Layton, between Salt Lake City and Ogden. It’s on Antelope Drive. We leave the hotel too early to get breakfast or even coffee in the morning, so we checked out the Starbuckses closest to the hotel. The two green balloons at the top right is where we are, on Antelope Avenue. That’s when I noticed there is an Antelope Island in the Salt Lake; turns out the whole island is a State Park. So now I have to find time to drive out there on the water with that ‘Syracuse’ road to go and check it out. Google Maps is always there to provide a preview, of course (and spoil the fun of discovering it for real a little bit. We live in the information age and nothing seems to be completely hidden away anymore!).

Starbucks Locator — Our hotel is by the two green balloons at the top right. No Starbuckses on Antelope Island (I would HOPE not : the whole island is a State Park).

Antelope island sm — The scenery on Utah’s Antelope Island State Park (courtesy of Google Maps and Google Streetview) reminds me of the arid Karoo region in South Africa.

July 30, 2013February 13, 2021

Monday/ that ever-temporary ‘elite’ airline status

It is 6 am on Monday morning at Sea-Tac airport and I am in the ‘Sky Priority’ lane to try to get in ahead of my fellow passengers.

How did I get to be a Delta ‘Sky Priority’ Platinum member, since I have flown mostly on United the prior year? Well, you apply for a ‘status match’ with your new airline. Your new ‘preferred’ airline grants you a temporary elite status* match for three months to see if you are actually bringing them enough flying to justify your temporary status. (If you don’t, your elite status disappears and you have to earn it the hard way with a full year of flying enough miles). So while my new Delta Platinum status did not get me upgraded to the luxe first class seats this Monday, it did help me get out of the middle seat in the back of the airplane to a seat further up to the front on the aisle, and with more legroom.

*Please don’t be too jealous of my ‘elite’ flying status. All it means is that I fly a lot, and that I sometimes Iuck out and sit in front of the plane !

July 28, 2013February 13, 2021

Sunday/ packing up for the ‘Salt’ mine

IMG_7769 sm — Let me decode this Capitol Hill bar chalkboard for non-local and non-bar fly readers! That’s **Montana** at the top, ‘happy hour’ means the drinks are cheaper (it makes the clientele happy/ get happy quicker); Rainier is a mountain and a cheap beer*; a well drink means you don’t specify the brand of liquor for your cocktail, so it’s also the cheapest stuff they have (so don’t order a well drink!); and a pickleback is a shot of whiskey thrown back in one’s throat followed by a pickle (supposedly the salt neutralizes the taste of the whiskey and the burn of the alcohol. Oh boy). *[From Wikipedia] In 2004, a black bear received substantial media attention for having consumed 36 cans of Rainier beer in Baker Lake. Washington.

IMG_7779 sm2 — I squeezed it all in : clothes on the right, and two pairs of shoes and a toiletry bag on the left. It helps that I don’t have to pack fancy clothes (no suit and tie and not even a sports jacket). And there’s Willem’s New Baggage Rule : NO FOOD allowed in the suitcase, and absolutely NO CHOCOLATE.

I took a walk late Sunday afternoon and then had to pack since I’m heading out to the ‘salt mine’ in Salt Lake City again in the morning. I am pressing a new suitcase into service that I have actually had for a long time, bought it at a sale. Part of the reason for the new suitcase is that I had a melt-down in my suitcase last Thursday while the rental car was parked in the sun all day with our luggage. I tucked a whole slab of chocolate into the side of the suitcase – and of course it was no match for the inferno in the car’s trunk. It liquefied and stained several items of clothing. (I got most of the stains out to my surprise. I used club soda to rinse it, scrubbed it as best I could, and then used Tide detergent and my washing machine’s ‘extra hot’ sanitary cycle).

IMG_7768 sm — Here is another picture I took of the Montana bar on Capitol Hill; the pink neon sign in the window that is Montana.

Monday/ Correction re: chalkboard : it’s Montana. I said Washington State. Thanks to Bryan for pointing that out. I was not paying attention! There is no jagged Puget Sound coastline in this outline.

July 28, 2013July 28, 2013

Saturday/ the Capitol Hill Block Party

IMG_7717 sm2 — Pabst Blue Ribbon beer has been around in the USA for a long, long time : since around 1844. The blue ribbons around the beer bottles were done away with in 1912 already, but the beer is still around (the brand is now owned by SABMiller company).

IMG_7719 sm2 — I say keep it simple with your band’s name. So if it were ME, and I was to choose a name, I would go for the ‘Rabbits’ or the ‘Doldrums’. (Doldrums : 1. a state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or slump | 2. a part of the ocean near the equator abounding in calms, squalls, and light shifting winds. Source: Mirriam-Webster dictionary).

On Saturday Gary got me out of the house to go to the Elysian Brewery Co. for a quick bite. After that we walked down two blocks to check out the Capitol Hill Block Party. The ‘party’ consists of a few Capitol Hill city blocks that are fenced in, with four stages of live music, and beer and food that’s available. I don’t drink enough beer (had my one at the Elysian already!), and I don’t really listen to live music so : not for me. It was still early, and that may be why the crowds appeared to be a little thin. There was also the ‘Seafair Torchlight’ Parade going on in downtown Seattle (which admittedly is more of a family affair than the Block Party).

July 27, 2013July 27, 2013

Friday/ back in Seattle

It was a beautiful warm, sunny day here in Seattle (85°F/ 29°C). The pictures are from Fifth Ave in downtown, near the Convention Center.

IMG_7691 sm — Artist Ginny Ruffner’s ‘Urban Garden (2011)’ was commissioned by the Sheraton Hotel on Fifth Ave in downtown Seattle. The watering can tilts forward from time to time and a stream of water cascades down the green leaf.

IMG_7689 sm — Here’s the Emerald City ‘Trolley’. (We’re cheating a little bit. It’s not a real trolley like the one in San Francisco, since it’s not running on a track. We do have ‘street cars’. One track is in South Lake Union, with ones in Capitol Hill and in First Hill scheduled to open in the next year or so).

July 26, 2013July 26, 2013

Thursday/ checking out

The Marriott Courtyard hotel where we will come to and stay in for the next several weeks from Monday to Thursday is comfortable. I finally got used to the noise of the air-conditioner in the room as well. I set it at 74°F (23 °C), but even then it turns on and runs frequently. The day temperatures have come down from Monday’s extreme highs to the low 90s (33 °C).

IMG_7685 sm — It’s 5.59 am in the lobby of the Marriott Courtyard hotel. I have checked out, and I am checking out the interactive ‘Go Board’ before my colleague and I drive out to the ‘salt mine’ (the factory where we do our project) for one more day on the site. We get to go home on Thursday nights.

July 25, 2013

Wednesday/ earth, wind and beer

Uinta Brewing is named after an east-west mountain range located in northeastern Utah. I spotted their beers in the local grocery store. ‘Earth, Wind and Beer’, says the 12 packs of Cutthroat Pale Ale and Golden Spike Heffeweisen. The wind refers to their claim that Uinta Brewing has been 100% wind-powered since 2001 (according to their web-site). I didn’t buy any; hopefully we will go out to eat some time, and then I will ask for one.

IMG_7684 sm — The Cutthroat is a pale ale..

IMG_7683 sm — .. and the Golden Spike is a heffeweisen.

July 23, 2013

Tuesday/ it’s hot hot hot

IMG_7678 sm — Starbuck’s Utah issue coffee mug. That’s The Arch from Arches National Park on the left, and the Utah state capitol in the middle.

IMG_7675 sm — I had just stepped into the terminal at Salt Lake City airport on Monday. The Delta birds’ dark blue and red tails really stand out against the sky and the tarmac of Salt Lake City airport.

Monday saw 107°F (42°C) where we work out in the deserty area by the Great Salt Lake, reported my colleagues when I met them at the hotel on Monday night. A very far cry from the opposite extreme of -8°F (-22°C) when I was here in the dead of winter! Today (Tuesday) was a little less scorching, but the mountains were still shimmering in the heat, not high enough to carry any snow at all at this time of year.

July 22, 2013July 22, 2013

Monday/ to Salt Lake City

SLC weather It is mid-morning on Monday and I am sitting in the South Terminal of Seattle airport, with very clean teeth. (Fresh from the dentist at 7.30 am this morning to get my chompers cleaned). I see it’s going to hit 97°F (36°C) in Salt Lake City today. I hope I don’t melt or get toasted too badly out there – the weather in Seattle has not been anywhere near that, for the most part this summer. It starts out most mornings at 55°F (13°C), with a high of 75°F (24°C).

IMG_7672 sm — A Delta jet sitting at the gate here at South Terminal. I think this is a Boeing 757-300, same as the one that will take us to Salt Lake City.

July 21, 2013

Sunday/ Trader Joe to the rescue

I ran out of my favorite oatmeal (McCann’s Irish Oatmeal), and had no luck finding it anymore. The grocery stores in my neighborhood stopped carrying it. So I was happy to find fresh supplies at the quirky grocery store called Trader Joe’s. Yes, there are plenty of oatmeals to choose from. Quaker (now owned by PepsiCo) makes a very nice oatmeal as well; just not the ones with maple syrup and apple and cinnamon and all that added.

IMG_7668 sm — Trader Joe is looking out for me, using his telescope to find my favorite oatmeal (McCann’s Irish Oatmeal).

July 20, 2013

Saturday/ Big Bertha is ready

Big Bertha the tunnel borer is ready to start her duties here in Seattle, and there was a dedication ceremony today that Bryan and I attended. The borer is very big, the biggest in the world, and built in Osaka, Japan by Hitachi’s heavy construction division. Check out the excellent write-up by gizmodo that also shows in an animation how the digging, earth removal and tunnel construction works.

IMG_1352 sm — Bertha the big tunnel borer is ready to start with the boring of the 2-mile tunnel.

IMG_1350 sm — The structure on the right is the Alaskan Way Viaduct, now deemed unsafe because of damage it suffered during the 2001 Nisqually earthquake. The Viaduct will be dismantled once the tunnel has been completed.

IMG_1316 sm — There were several food trucks around for ‘noshing’.

IMG_1324 sm — Governor Jay Inslee and Congressman Jim McDermott were in attendance at the Bertha dedication ceremony.

IMG_1332 sm — Finally, we were allowed to step onto the platforms that overlooked the tunnel boring pit with the boring machine in place (that was not ‘boring’ but exciting). The front, cutting face of the machine is on the far end from me towards downtown Seattle.

IMG_1337 sm2 — A first peek from the side ..

IMG_1339 sm — .. and for this picture I had to stretch out my arm over the rail and let the camera take a look for me into the boring pit. Those stickers on the green surface of the boring face are nice for now, but will last about three minutes once the boring starts !