while in NYC....

...I'll be posting some blog entries on the joint blog with Janet and Bekah, Aimless Wanderings.

We'll be posting pictures too...so check it out! And thank you Bekah for letting JJ and I take over your laptop to play on the internet and upload our pictures so that we can make these blog entries possible. You're the best! (and I love your keyboard...it's so fun to type on!)

p.s. Leah & Dan, if you guys are reading this I will be in touch soon about trying to see you guys, even if just briefly. Still not sure of what the schedule is like for next week, but will try to figure that all out soon! I can't wait to see you guys again and meet Rascal!

Vacation!

Just thought I'd write a brief blog to say that I'll be going on vacation for two weeks in NYC. I'll try my best to write while I'm over there (JJ, Beks...maybe some joint blogging?). At the very least I'll be be back in a couple of weeks with pictures and hopefully some interesting stories.

Birthday Bonanza

I celebrated my birthday recently with a happy hour/ice hockey game party and have some pictures to share from the event. I'm just amazed that we didn't get kicked out of the cocktail lounge between everyone dumping out their party bags all over the place and the scavenger hunt that was set up with birds scattered throughout the premises and toys flying every which way. It was a mad house...just the way I like it! These pictures are dedicated to Janet. Wish you could have been there my friend but we'll have fun for your bday with Beks in New York very very soon!

Yay jello cocktails

All decked out.

The Ingy gang!

Jonah, party planner extraordinaire!

Don't know what to say about this...there are just no words ;)

Dream Home

Angry Little Girls!

phones for the homeless

Google announced that they will be handing out free cell phones and free voicemail to all the homeless in San Francisco, working with shelters and homeless outreach programs to distribute the phones. I think this is a fabulous idea and I'm interested to see how it works out. The one thing that was really clear to me when I was volunteering with homeless women was that a big part of their situation was the isolation that being homeless creates. No phone is a big issue in keeping people from being hired for jobs as well as being able to open a bank account (the other issue is no mailing address). And while naturally there will be those people who would use the phones for illegal activity such as running drugs, etc. there will still be others who will truly benefit from this.

What most people don't realize is that a lot of the homeless out there would much rather pick up there lives and get a job, find a stable place to live and be off the streets. It's when they are given the tools they need to break down the walls of isolation that the lack of money creates in this society that these people are then able to lift themselves up. Simple things like clean clothes, showers, free medical attention, computer and internet access, help with writing a resume and yes, phones...a means of communication with the rest of this fast paced society that is more interested in making sure that they take care of themselves. Who cares about anyone else, right? Me, me, me. The matra of our consumer driven society.

Duh

At least someone is saying something against the treatment of Palestine by Israel on a global level. It would be nice to have some action as well rather than just talk.

I'm still here!

It feels like forever since I last posted...sorry! But I'm back and I've got a couple of days worth of pics to share from last night and last weekend. I'll start with last night...went out with my friend Sarah who is visiting Seattle and caught the lunar eclipse from gasworks park. I didn't get any good pictures of the moon, but I had some fun with the skyline:




Next I've got pics from snowshoeing on monday...that was a ton of fun! I went with my coworker, Craig, and his dog...my godpup...Guinness. We managed to make it out of the mountains alive without getting eaten up by any avalanches...so that was a good thing. We also didn't get eaten up by any sasquatches, but mainly cause we had Guinney with us who scared the sasquatch away by barking his head off at one point. And man was there a lot of snow up in the mountains! For those who are curious we were in the Cascades attempting to climb up to Lake Annette...but we didn't make it...making your own trail in the mountains on snow shoes is a lot more tiring than normal hiking, let me tell you!

Such a handsome pup!

Here be old avalanche debris

That's right, there was so much snow the road signs were covered up.

And now my last batch of pics...just a few more I promise. I went out to Port Angeles and Sequim with my good friend Lisa and her parents for a tour of some wine tastings. I think my favorite winery was Lost Mountain...it's hidden away up in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains so you can sip wine outside on their deck while surrounded by moss covered trees and slight views of the mountains through the branches. We also had some fun walking around the beach in Sequim and then had dinner at the Three Crabs Restaurant which reminded me of my grandmother because i think the last time I ate there was with her..which was a bittersweet memory...I'll start you off with a silly pic from the ferry ride over to the Olympic peninsula:

United we stand...maybe

I was catching up on my reading of the (Notes on) Politics, Theory & Photography blog where there was a link to this Harper's Magazine article. In this article it discusses the merits of a general strike in this country on Election Day, November 6th. The idea being that a general strike would then force the Bush government out. But the article is interesting to read because it is bold in it's description of our society's complete lack of interest in politics and how our country is being run and the decisions that are being made in our name. So read this article...good food for thought.

Summer in the Fall

So even though it's almost the end of October the weather has been pretty warm in a lot of the country...the east has been seeing temps in 70's (even though this is the time when they usually have their first frost if not first snow)...and now Seattle is having some of that warm weather. Today it's in the lower 70's and feels like summer even though the leaves are all changing. It's wonderful to be able to see bright orange and red leaves with the backdrop of a perfectly blue sky...not something we're used to here in Seattle. Of course the downside of all this warm weather here in the west can be seen if you check the news at all with images from the inferno that has enveloped southern California.

walk abouts

Because of the photography scavenger hunts that I've been on I'm carrying my camera around with me a lot more as I walk around town...and taking some random pictures...here are two that I took the other day on my way home after work.

Orange

The next installment of the photography scavenger hunt is up online at the aimless wanderings blog. So check it out for lots of orange fun!

JJ the camera-head

What a big eye you have...

True Blue

Wanting to do some sort of activity with friends who live in different parts of the country is difficult...however, JJ, Beks and I are attempting just that with a photography scavenger hunt! Our first assignment was to photography blue things. We've taken our pictures and today's the day for the Blue Reveal! Ahem, except the other two won't have time to post their pictures on their blogs until this evening, so I'm a bit early. oh well, enjoy!

So here's some blue trivia along with some blue pictures: Ever wonder why a bride needs "something blue"...well, apparently to the early Israelites, blue was a symbol for love fidelity and purity (which is why most old paintings of the Madonna show her wearing blue).

A bit of science, blue light has the shortest wavelength range.

Here's a brave model who agreed to let me photograph her for this mad scheme...thanks Jonah, you're gorgeous all in blue!

The blue color, Azure, is the national color of Italy (the color of the former royal family).

In the Hindu tradition, those who are divine are blue. As a example would be the god Krishna.

And one last blue tidbit..in Japanese blue is "aoi" means innocence and inexperience.

You gotta love stubbornness

She's my neighborhood hero too.

Mountain Day

It's that time again....when I am actually feel jealous for all those little kiddies who are students at Mount Holyoke College...the one day I wish I still went to school there...cause today is Mountain Day. The bell tolls, and the students at MHC are currently enjoying a beautiful surprise day off classes...meanwhile the rest of us still have to be at work out here in the real world. Man I miss that bubble sometimes...could use some milk and cookies too!

Oktoberfest 2007

Fremont held it's Oktoberfest this past weekend, and of course I had to go and check out the Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving Contest. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well on Saturday, so I only went on Sunday...but it was still excellent and a ton of fun. And of course I took some pictures of flying pumpkin guts to share with you all. Please enjoy:


Here was the first contestant...his pumpkin was pretty good, my second favorite of the group.


Then there was the flying viking. Got a pretty good shot of spraying pumpkin guts on this one.


This guy wasn't too bad, although I enjoyed his lumberjack outfit better than the carving. It would have been better if he had broken out in song, "I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok..."


My favorite pumpkin of the lot...and the overall winner.


Then there was the politician, Joe Szwaja, who carved one but didn't stick around for the voting at the end...but that could have been cause he also needed more practice at carving with a chainsaw.


At the end the MC butchered a pumpkin just for the fun of it and to try to get the kids in the front row just a little bit more pumpkin covered. And speaking of the MC...in all my pictures I got some really funny expressions...and couldn't help myself:

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Ahoy! It's National Talk Like A Pirate Day me maties! Arrrr! So don't be a lubber, grab some grog and watch out for the bilge rats of the world!

Injustice

I was just reading some articles on Truthout while eating lunch and I just had to post a link to one of them concerning a small town in Louisiana and the flagrant racism there:

Injustice in Jena as Nooses Hang from the "White Tree"

While this article is highly depressing, I think it's really important that people know that this sort of thing is going on all the time around this country. On the one hand you have young African American star football players going to prison for 22 years because they punched a white kid and got into a fight...meanwhile, Scooter Libby...who lied under oath to cover up serious crimes gets a reprieve from Bush so that he doesn't have to do jail time...and Bush still might pardon him 100%. It makes me sick.

In any case, read the article or at least skim through it.

It's summer!

Forget the summer solstice, the real way you know it's summer in Fremont is when the outdoor movies start up...which was this past weekend (although I didn't realize this until just today). Here's the line-up for this summer...I really can't wait for some of these, like the twisted flicks (where Jet City Improve takes over the dialogue and sound effects to B movies...they're great!)

So if you're in Seattle, or coming to visit (*cough* JJ or Leah *cough*) check out the schedule and let me know if y'all want to see any movies with me!

Good Old Fashioned Summer Fun in Fremont
2007 Seattle Summer Schedule

	Saturday, June 23 - Movie: Fiend without a Face - TWISTED FLICK - Disguise Yourself Night
	Saturday, June 30 - Movie: Airplane! - Disaster Night
	Saturday, July 7 - Movie: The Neverending Story - Fantasy Night
	Saturday, July 14 - Movie: Santa Claus - TWISTED FLICK - Christmas in July!
	Saturday, July 21 - Movie: An Inconvenient Truth - Save the World Night
	Saturday, July 28 - Movie: This is Spinal Tap - Rock and Roll Night
	Saturday, August 4 - Movie: Moulin Rouge - Green Fairy Night
	Saturday, August 11 - Movie: Cat-Women on the Moon - TWISTED FLICK - Space Alien Night
	Saturday, August 18 - Movie: Casino Royale (2006) - Bond Night
	Saturday, August 25 - Movie: The Princess Bride - Storybook Night
	Saturday, September 1 - Movie: Dreamgirls - Showtunes Night
	Saturday, September 8 - Movie: She Demons - TWISTED FLICK - B-Movie Night
	Saturday, September 15 - Movie: The Sound of Music - Pre-Oktoberfest Night