The Blog with No Name

The Bam, Iran earthquake and the recent tsunami-quake are separated by almost exactly one year.

I added some more pictures to the gallery. More will be coming.

After a night morning of bowling in Seattle, Jason, Brock, and I started the long trip south. We made a stop in Portland and in Salem to pick up surfboards and supplies. We left Salem at about 5:30 PM and intended to drive through the night. At the time we didn’t know where we were going to go exactly. I was lobbying hard for Santa Cruz while Jason and Brock were stuck with the idea of going all the way to L.A. A fourth guy allied with me and my more sensible plan. We stopped at a Jack in the Box around 9 for dinner. Apparently we just missed their Christmas party. The cashier was creepily helpful and interested in us. He even gave us some cake they had left over from the party. He also invited us to join him on his smoke break. We declined.

On into the late hours of the night we debated what our destination should be. Jason and Brock were still adamant about getting to L.A., and I think this freaked out the fourth guy. So he asked to be dropped off at his brother’s in Vacaville. Vacaville was my home town, while my dad was stationed at Travis A.F.B. Interestingly, the fourth guy didn’t live too far from my old house, so we looked around for it. It was a dark and foggy night, so it was difficult to read signs. It didn’t help that Vacaville has completely changed since I was last there. Nearly all the landmarks I had remembered were gone, but after consulting a map in an AM/PM we found the old house. So, at 2:30 AM I was snapping photos of my old house, which had been re-painted with Sissy Yellow. We sped off before the neighbors thought we were casing the joint.

By this time my powers of persuasion and logic had convinced Jason and Brock to go to Santa Cruz. So we took I-80 to San Francisco, and then took 101 down to Santa Cruz. We rolled into town at about 6 AM. My old roomie was visiting his in-laws in Santa Cruz. He had invited us to stay with them, but we thought calling them at that awful hour would have been a little rude. So, we spent the next half hour looking for a suitable “camping” spot for the next few hours. We finally found one and slept for a few hours. It was nice to sleep under the stars on a dirt road.

After a few hours of rest we called Chris and got directions to the in-laws. They live in a nice house way up in the hills to the southeast of Santa Cruz. After some french toast for breakfast and a little bit of chatting, we went out to find some waves for Jason, Brock, and Chris to ride. We eventually found some, so while the other guys surfed I chatted with Anna and her sister. It was very relaxing. The surfing was pretty crowded, and it was tough for my friends to get to the good waves. Apparently the locals are pretty territorial about the prime surfing spots. After five hours or so, we finally went back to our host’s place and had dinner. Later that night we went out with some of Anna’s friends and had some beers. I spent some time looking for a functional, non-disgusting toilet. I wasn’t very successful. I slept 12 hours that night.

The next day I took a shower outside buck naked. All the animals in the forest were quite impressed. We packed up and started heading north again. On the way we stopped to look at the coast some. Eventually, we made it to San Francisco around 5 in the evening. Jason, Brock, and I have visited many cities: Cabo San Lucas, New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Camden. Usually when visiting cities we just park the car and start walking around, and this time was no different. Eventually we found a neat Irish restaurant/pub where I had Guinness and beef soup and cottage pie. Then we tried to find a cigar bar that the clerk at the cigar store told us about. We found it quickly, but it was packed out so we decided to try to find another. We located a map of the city on a pay-to-use bathroom. I thought the bathroom was pretty cool, so I dropped in a quarter to open it up and use it. I wish I got a gumball instead. Unfortunately, the next cigar bar was at the other end of the city, but since we had time to kill we just started walking. About an hour and a half later (and a lady telling us she liked foursomes), we got to the address, which was deep in the Castro District, but there was no cigar bar. So, we turned around and walked back to the first cigar bar. There I enjoyed a nice Davidoff 2000 and Oban 14 year. The bartender turned out to be the owner, so instead of kicking us out when it was closing time he chatted us up. We were lucky and the guy was a genius. He told Brock exactly what to do with his medical career (plastic surgery or stem cell research). He gave Jason some pointers on how to be successful in the hotel business (hotel consulting), even though Jason hates his job. He also had this weird facial tic that instead of saying “um” or “uh” he’d flash a quick, toothy grin. It was creepy. I don’t think he liked lawyers because he didn’t give me any advice on how to be successful. Around 1 AM I got us out of there because I was afraid he and Jason were about to start something.

So, we got back on the road around 1:30 and headed towards the cold, dark North. Somewhere outside of Vacaville we ran out of gas, so we had to wait at a gas station for a couple of hours until it opened. By 5 AM we were gassed up and on the road again. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful: just three guys taking turns sleeping and driving. By 6 PM we were in Seattle, having dinner at Wendy’s.

At 11:57 AM, the sun decided to show us it’s pretty face.

It’ll be gone in about an hour. I intend to enjoy every moment of it unless the clouds get in the way.

And at 1 PM it “sets”:

And here’s the real sunset:

Sorry about the reflections . . . can’t really avoid them.

I’m up in Alaska now. The weather has been fickle, as always. Behold.

Earlier this afternoon:

And a few hours later:

I’m going to be gone for a while now. I honestly don’t think I’ll have another post until I’m in the snuggley warmth of my parent’s home in Alaska, which will be very early Thursday AM. Here’s the game plan:

1. Sleep.
2. Head up to Seattle for a night of The Big Lebowski and bowling.
3. Head south to California for who knows what.
4. Back up to Seattle to fly. . .
5. Up to Alaska for a week.

See y’all later. Hopefully I’ll have some stories to share.

Normally, I don’t care too much for state politics. I only really care if I live in that state. I figure what happens over there is their problem. We have 50 states for a reason. Different strokes for different folks. I consider that to be one of the great beauties and assets of this country. However, I’m fairly state-less now. I’m still an Alaska resident, but I’ve spent 5 years in Washington and now currently live in Oregon. But, if there is one state I care about the most (at least in the political sense) it’s Washington because my tentative future plans are to live in the Seattle area and use my progeny to make it a Republican stronghold. Anyway, I like the idea of at least one Republican governor up there making my paths straight for my return. I think it’s been 20 years since the last Republican governor. Anyway, I’m wandering.

The current election mess up there is starting to get even me distressed. Obviously, no matter who wins, the other party won’t be happy, and once again I’ll have to suffer through another four years of incessent political epithets along the lines of “election-stealer.” The first two counts gave us razor-thin margins, but Rossi won both times. Now the Democrats are hoping the third time is a charm, and they can come up with 43 votes. The push for a third recount seems awfully cry-babyish and poor gamemanship on the part of the Dems. However, they were successful and now we have a third recount. Then they discovered a bunch of new ballots in deep-blue King County. The timing of this even had me cocking my left eyebrow in suspicion. Somehow I’ve developed a strong sense of trust in people and The System (even though this trust is all contrary to my Calvinism). These newly discovered ballots have now been thrown out by the courts. Live by the courts, die by the courts. Nevertheless, the ball is in the GOP’s court to act mature and not act like a little baby. It doesn’t help when a Rossi supporter is saying we should have a whole new election. This may be a nice fix for the current situation, but this would be setting an awful precedent. Our elections obviously have flaws that need to be worked out, but these are our elections. They are final, and they are binding. Everybody is in this social contract together, and injecting doubt into the roots of the contract will weaken things.

If Rossi loses this recount, I hope the Republicans do the right thing and let it go. The damage has been done, there’s no sense exacerbating it just so their guy can be in office for 4 years.

Done.

You can’t get the best of me.

Kill some time, throw a cat. It’s a little tough to get the hang of it, but you are rewarded richly by tossing a meowing cat over a great distance. My best is 114.39 119.52 140.3 166.535 [Ed. -- You gotta stop!], but I have a civ pro test to study for . . .

My hatred of cats is greatly exaggerated, but I can’t deny the enjoyment I get from this.

From the The Corner.

On the slim chance that anybody reads this before midnight tonight (PST), you can donate to the team I joined with Greg and Jeremiah in the Spirit of America Friends of Iraq Blogger Challenge. Our team is the Young Smart-ass Bloggers and all of our donations will go to the children of Iraq.

Click here to donate (100% tax deductible).
Here’s what the Friends of Iraq Challenge is about about:

Support freedom, democracy and peace in Iraq
Leading bloggers are competing to raise funds to benefit the people of Iraq. 100% of all donations go to needs selected by these bloggers. Many of our projects support requests made by Americans serving in Iraq (Marines, Army, SeaBees) for goods that help the Iraqi people. Other projects directly support Iraqis who are on the front lines of building a better future for Iraq.

Donate before midnight!

It’s shaping up to be a really lame Tuesday. First, I couldn’t sleep last night (tried twice). Second, I took the weirdest, boringest, lamest test I’ve taken in a long long time (imagine a test that doesn’t even touch on 2/3 of the class). Third, I’m facing a total system failure on my tower (Yeah, like it’s all gone).

It’s moments like these when I think cussing is very justified.

Here’s a few of the more noteworthy blog posts I’ve read recently:

Phildog is quoting Eminem and Joseph Conrad in the same post.

Bob has a very informative post on the whole kerfuffle over ‘roid use in MLB.

Jeremiah of Fringe Blog has an excellent movie of the unexcellent Ocean’s Twelve.

I’m now entering the home stretch of the first semester. Two tests left: criminal law and civil procedure. Christmas Break is going to be a beautiful thing. I have so much I want to do in the month I have off:

• Read Churchill’s Their Finest House Hour
• Read Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet
• Eat a lot of my mom’s Christmas cookies
• Do a road trip with my buddies
• Go to Las Vegas for New Years
• Tweak this site some
• Set up a new site
• Try to get back onto a sane sleep schedule

But first, I need to make it through this week.

Probably only Kyle nobody will really care about this, but here is a funny article about the progeny of one of the most famous plaintiffs in tort history.

Some families are just born unlucky in life and in law.

Via The Volokh Conspiracy.

I just got word that an SPU friend was struck by a car and killed while crossing Aurora Avenue in Seattle. I had known her since my freshman year. I wouldn’t say we were close friends, but I was invited to her wedding. She was one of the sweetest girls, and she married a very wonderful guy. They got married in May I think.

I have no doubts that she’s in a better place now, but my prayers are with her husband. I can’t even imagine the pain he is going through now.

(12/10/04) Adding some more thoughts . . .
As I read through the news after learning of her death, I had a real expectation that I was going to see her death being reported on my news sites. Of course it wasn’t going to be reported in the national news. It wasn’t important to the rest of the world. But it was important to me, and for some reason I was expecting the rest of the world to feel the same.

As I take my finals, I invaribly get some things wrong. So far I’ve discovered one thing wrong with each final I’ve taken. I can’t tell you how unbelievably frustrating it is for me when I realize that I got a question wrong or largely wrong. I’ve been fortunate that both of the questions weren’t worth a lot of points. However, I’m trying to keep myself in perspective here. I know somebody who lost his wife after being married for less than a year. This is true tragedy. Getting a couple of questions wrong on a test are so far removed from the realm of tragedy that it’s pathetic I’m even giving my failures more than a moment’s thought.

I feel that the the full impact of her death hasn’t really hit yet. Or maybe I haven’t let it hit yet. Or maybe I can’t let it hit yet.