Parkour

So, I guess that if you grow up in Europe and want to show how bad-ass you are, but skateboarding is too American, then Parkour is your sport. This stuff is seriously cool.

Dear Airlines

yeah, those days are gonePlease make up your mind.

Either, enforce your rules about carry-on bags or make the overheads infinitely large.

“Two Bags only, one bag and one briefcase or purse” you announce over the loud speaker. Meanwhile, I’m walking down the jetway behind some other business traveler who has a roll-away large enough for me to fit into, a backpack, a briefcase, and a garment bag. I then have to watch him stuff them into TWO overheads, filling both. He then walks to the back of the plane where his seat actually is. So not only does everyone have to wait for him, but then, everyone else has to scramble for overhead space. Of course, he isn’t the only problem. Half the people are carrying on over-sized bags that either take an entire overhead compartment or most of one.

I fly enough now that this is really a pain in the ass. It leads to people trying to board early so that they can make sure that they can stuff their bags into the overhead. It makes the entire trip crappier for the rest of us, especially if we have to put something into the overhead. (my bag takes up 1/4 of an overhead, thank-you-very-much).

Sure, if you actually start enforcing your rules, it will be a painful transition, making it take longer to get people through the gate, and annoying those who think that their bag really can fit even though it can’t. Long term though, all your passengers will be much happier.

In the meantime, GFY.

If anyone thinks that all of Washington state is filled with ultra-lefties…

Periodically, those of us in Seattle get reminded of the fact that a big chunk of the state feels more in common with our ultra-red-state neighbors to the east than they do with us ultra-red-commies in Seattle.

Gay rights bill for couples passed

The bill passed easily on a 63-35 House vote despite condemnations from conservatives who said the bill was an affront to community values and religious freedom.

Oh yeah, and those conservative freaks on the Eastside trying to recreate Orange County in the forest (well, once forest, now parking lots and housing developments).

BTW, well done Washington State Legislature!

how * am i?

You are 82% Chicagoan!

 

 

Nice work. You know just about everything there is to know about Chicago. Stay out of the suburbs, friend!

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You are 95% Pittsburgh.

 

 

Great job! There’s nooooo doubt about it. You’re from Da Burgh. You deserve a reward, so go have an Ahrn City or two. And GO STILLERS!

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How San Franciscan Are You?

Your Result: You probably just moved here…

 

 

…and you’re probably scared of homeless people and riding MUNI. You probably live in a rathole in the Tenderloin because someone on Craigslist told you it was an “up and coming neighborhood…” You should know better! A lot more time in San Francisco will probably do you good.

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You are 99% Seattle!

 

 

Excellent work! You really know your stuff! You’ve either lived here a long time, know someone who does, or have studied up. In any case, you ROCK! You are officially “SEATTLE”!!

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Average Seattle worker can’t afford to live here

Average Seattle worker cant afford to live here

affordable-housing-0401.gif

Geez, how long have I been saying exactly this?

Tony To, a Seattle Planning Commission member and director of the housing agency HomeSight, said developers could take some steps without incentives. He lauded Belltowns moda condos, which got prices as low as $149,950 by cutting unit size to as little as 296 square feet.

While $149,950 is an amazing price by Seattle standards, 296 square feet is not adequate housing for many people. Those condos aren’t going to under under-privileged folk or newlyweds starting a new life. They are weekend homes for people from out of town. A normal person would have a hard time in a space that small. In New York, with its density’s that might be acceptable, but it’s a tough sell in Seattle.

I honestly wish I had a better solution than those proposed in the article. Honestly, I think that all of them suck. I do think that increasing density and improving the quality of life downtown might be a decent solution, but it isn’t an end-all-be-all. We can’t keep going the way we are though, sprawling out in all directions and still not making the area affordable.

Holy crap this is racist and lame!

Welcome to South of the Border Online

So anyone who has ever lived on the east coast knows south of the border. Any band that has ever toured has got at least one south of the border bumper sticker on a guitar case (along with the wall drug, mystery spot and little america bumper stickers). We were talking about this the other day and a friend sent me this link to the SOtB website. You’d think that someone might have thought about this hard enough to realize that this comes off pretty bad with the fake-bad-english and all.

I mean, I knew the place was tacky and goofy, but geez…

I was going to make a joke about how they probably have some innuendo about Mexicans being lazy or something, and then I found this:
pedro.gif

Really, this place needs to be nuked from orbit.

The Geography of Nowhere

coverThe Geography of Nowhere (The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape), by James Howard Kunstler

I am a city planning geek. When I was first working on virtual worlds stuff in the mid-90s, I started reading it for work and I got hooked: Jane Jacobs, Kevin Lynch, Robert Venturi, Lewis Mumford and all their kin. James Howard Kunstler is a well-known author as well, but I’d bought this book a decade ago and didn’t get around to reading it until now.

This book has some good information in it: how America became car obsessed and how poor planning lead to the decline of the small town and the rise of suburban sprawl. Some of this was quite interesting, but this kind of information is covered in every book on the topic.

Once the background is established, however, all the author does is complain about it. The book left me feeling a little flat. There were no solid prescriptions for change, or even a reasonable set of tentative next steps. Rather, there was a liturgy of how ugly the American landscape has become and a wagging finger directed at city planners nationwide.

I think that this book wasn’t meant for me. I already curse suburban sprawl, car culture, strip malls and house facades whose most prominent feature is the garage door. I think that this book was meant for the indifferent Americans, who mostly haven’t thought that much about it. This would be a great book if you were looking for a primer on some of these issues. The writing style is very accessible and the book is an easy read (which is more than can be said for many urban planning books).

It does feel a bit dated at times, but what is striking (especially for a resident of one of the country’s fastest growing cities) is how so little has changed since the author wrote it. The strip malls and seas of parking lots continue to be the most dominant feature around the ever increasing subdivisions of identical homes with two car garages facing the street and no sidewalks. If you are a resident of a town being destroyed like this, a case of these books would be a great gift for your mayor and city council.

Overall, it is a worthy read. If you are interested in the subject already, you won’t learn much new, but you won’t feel like your time was wasted. If you haven’t already read much in the area, you’ll learn a lot and you’ll find the writing makes the subject easy to approach.

Support for sculpture gets into show, sculpture does not

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[via John Nack]

This happened last year, but I hadn’t heard about it before. An artist in England submitted a sculpture for a show. The judging panel considered the support for the sculpture as a separate piece and liked it better, so that go into the show instead.

here is the full article

hey sci-fi!

So, I’m finally watching one of your shows in real-time, and I get the “because you are watching this show in real-time go to our website to see blah blah blah blah“. So I go to your website, and I see ABSOLUTELY NOTHING SPECIAL BUT IT TAKES FOREVER TO LOAD ‘CAUSE ALL THE OTHER DORKS LIKE ME ARE ALL PINGING YOUR SERVERS AT THE SAME TIME!

I feel used.

Worst… commercial… ever…

This is that stupid Visa commercial where everyone is moving smoothly, like the little cogs in the capatalist machine that they are, getting their food pellets and paying using their track-your-purchases-sell-your-data-while-opening-you-to -identity-theft-and-making-your-our-debt-slave-Visa card. Then some free thinker uses cash to pay and it gums up the whole thing. Anarchy is introduced until he moves along…

Beyond the whole socio-political bent above, the thing that actual bugs me is that it is complete bullshit. Paying with a card? You might as well pay with pennies and count them out. Everytime I’m getting coffee or a sandwich or something and someone pulls out a credit card for a $1.75 item, it makes me crazy while I sit and watch them run it through, wait for the stupid thing to print out, find a pen and then sign it. Meanwhile, everyone else in the line has their cash in hand, ready to pay, and the cashier can make change much, much faster.