Author: kevin

City planning, eastside style

There are some things I just don’t understand about the way people choose to live.

So, we decided to get out of the city and check out some fall colors this weekend. Maybe go for a walk in the woods. This is metronatural Seattle after all. So we drive east and east past what was once forest and now is housing developments with names like “cascade view,” and I was left wondering something. I can understand the desire for people to buy a house in the suburbs. You want some space, and you want an affordable house, maybe you want someplace safe to raise your kids. Sure, I get it. What I don’t understand is how people can move to these ridiculous subdivisions around Seattle (or San Francisco or Denver or any other place I’ve seen) where you may have a large house, but you stick your hand out of your window and touch your neighbors house. Also, you aren’t saving any money, the starting prices on these things are in the $600K+. Also, you are literally MILES FROM ANYTHING, INCLUDING NATURE. People spend way too much money for so very little in these places and then they have to spend hours in their car getting to work, or the store, or even a frickin’ movie. Meanwhile they are polluting the pristine places which must be at least part of the reason they moved there in the first place. What kind of life is that?

The Motorola RAZR is a poorly made product

But what I really wanted to say was P.O.S…

In under 18 months I’ve seen two batteries die (one catastrophically), and I’ve had to replace one phone completely when the off key stopped working.Also, by the way, screw you Cingular for your incredibly crappy repair and replacement policies.

For a relatively expensive phone, this is ridiculous. I had each of my previous Nokias for years. I only had to replace my first one because my dog chewed off it’s antenna. Shame on you, Motorola.

MySpace is going to fail.

Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred.

This error has been forwarded to MySpace’s technical group.

I get this error every time I’m on MySpace (I have a membership for Intonarumori, I don’t want one for myself, thanks). I’ve been getting it for over a month now and it happens several times. I’ve lost friend requests, I’ve lost messages.This was exactly why so many people left Friendster for Orkut.

This is what I would call “The beginning of the end”

bad advertising

At first the whole, un-advertising movement was fresh. Especially as it was aimed right at me and my friends, Generation X. It is now mature enough that agencies can do it badly, which I see more and more.

Case in point: yesterday I saw a billboard for a national burger chain with a history of getting people sick with badly prepared meat. In big letters over a picture of it’s new burgers it said “Because you’ve only taken 4 fake sick days this month.” While I’m that the copywriter in the ad agency felt that it was very clear that their new burger was a reward for some lucky slacker, my first impression was “our new burger will make you legitimately sick.”

Maybe this is the new thing, where they specifically post stuff like this so that the late night TV shows can make fun of them later?

The Washington State Republican Party

sent me a letter!

Well, really more of a pamphlet. With a picture on the front, showing a vaguely homosexual (maybe a metrosexual) man holding a big sign saying “TAX” and pointing at it. The caption reads “The Democrats have a liberal agenda.”

ummm… Duh?

I can’t imagine that Republicans aren’t insulted by this simplification and vilification, but maybe they are that small minded and any painting not painted in broad strokes is lost on them.

I am not overly fond of the City of San Jose

and I grow less fond every moment I spend there.
If you work in the tech industry, you will spend at least some time in your life in San Jose. If you are lucky, it will just be for a meal or a sharks game, or visiting friends, or visiting a corporation for the day. If you are like me, however, your company will be headquartered there and you will need to spend a significant amount of time in the area. This is especially painful if you live in a nice city, (ie: Seattle) and you grew up in a nicer city (ie: Chicago), because San Jose is not very much fun. The people there are lovely, but it is a bedroom community. For a sizable city, there really is very little of interest going on. Perhaps there are pockets of cool or fun, but for those of us who spend our time downtown, it is a wasteland. Over the last couple of years, I have found a couple good restaurants, and a nice bar or two, but that is about it. If you want music, art, theater, or cool stores; you gotta hop a caltrain north to San Francisco (1.5 hours non-express) and hope that you don’t miss the return train. For those in the area, what am I missing? I am especially talking about night life there. Oh, and I’ve walked all over the downtown areas so I know about the streets of sad bars and yuppie-geek pick up joints. I’m looking for culture, not alcohol.