It's been a good almost two weeks with both kids and the grandkids together for Thanksgiving in Seattle, but my body is not 100%. My granddaughter's gift of a cough has slowed me down.
This was after a trip to Elliot Bay bookstore the other day, getting back to the ferry.
Taking my son and his family to the airport yesterday we went through total fog down to the water on the ferry, to surreal sun pierced fog with giant tree shadows. But I was driving so can't show you that. This was later. Seatac was in the blinding, early morning sunshine, but going back downtown, there were intermittent pockets of sun and fog.
And unnatural fog.
Here's a different Seattle view from the ferry.
And for people like me, who have searched for unsweetened cranberry juice, it exists. My son-in-law had some students who make it at Starvation Alley Farms. It's organic, and I need to mix it about 1/5 cranberry juice and 4/5 water. Mostly they sell it to bars that use it for mixed drinks, but it's also available in a few markets in the Northwest. I know the name's a bit strange for a food product, but that was the name of the farm before they bought it.
We're excited to get home for the Anchorage International Film Festival that starts Friday. I'm taking
these last couple of days to catch up a bit on important things that haven't gotten done yet. Like writing thank you notes to friends of my mom's. I feel bad about how long this is taking me to do, but it's hard, and I want to let people know how important they've been in my mom's life as well as mine.
We wandered into downtown Winslow and stopped at the bookstore (Eagle Harbor Book Co.) where we ran into three local Bainbridge Island authors on display with their books. I guess this can be anywhere from author hell to heaven, trying to get people to buy your books. And for me it was a chance to talk to three writers.
Gutterson with Problems With People and Cedars
I had read David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars long ago - it won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. It weaves in Bainbridge Island's complicated history of Japanese-Americans' relationship to the white population on the island through a murder trial. It deals with the essential topic of this blog - how do we know what's true? Did Kabuo kill Carl over old family feuds? There's also a pivotal role for a journalist who has his own history with the families involved.
David's new book is short stories titled, Problems with People. We talked a bit about the difficulties of writing about people you know. He offered that when it's fictionalized, no one really knows what is true and what is not. Except, I suggested, those involved, and they might not agree with the writer's view of events. Personal experiences are critical fodder for a serious writer. It's a dilemma.
Lynn Brunelle, was enjoying the opportunity to talk about her book Mama Gone Geek. As I understood her, it's about figuring out ways to talk to her kids about big questions - like why Grandma was forgetting things, but really was into Santa Claus when her son was starting to question Santa Claus. Using science.
She used DNA to help explain where babies come from.
My daughter told me when we got home that Lynne was one of the writers for the Bill Nye The Science Guy television show.
The third author was Wendy Hinman. From the title of her book, Tightwads On The Loose, I thought this was going to be about how to live cheap. It is, in a way, but it's really about her seven years of sailing adventures with her husband on a 31 foot sailboat. The route our discussion focused on was from Japan to Seattle - a 49 day trip that was a little south of the northern route that freighters take. I asked if she seen the Pacific Gyre - the continent of floating plastic in the north Pacific - and she said no. It tends not to have good winds and they were sailing. Their radio went out fairly quickly, so all they had in case of trouble was an emergency beacon.
Since I'm from Alaska, she mentioned her friend's book, Treadwell Gold. We had been to the mine back in 2010 when Dennis, a Juneau local with long family ties to the mine, took us around.
Here, from the Hinman's book, is a map of their travels. Sorry it's not a little clearer, but you make it bigger and clearer by clicking on the image.
[Update Nov. 30, 2015: I once told an ADN reporter it would be nice to have an editor to catch my typos. He told me, no, I was better off without one. He was talking more bout choice of what I wrote and and how I wrote, not about typos. That's all a preface to a mea culpa to Wendy and David for misspelling your names. Wendy's caught while I was posting, but left it wrong in the title. I put an extra t in David's. But I think I've got it right now.]
Sometimes I think, enough already. You have already posted pictures from airplanes. But these pictures don't look anything like the ones I've done before. Here are LA, Yosemite, and Seattle.
The black bar chart in the lower middle left is down town LA.
Half dome looms over Yosemite Valley.
Downtown Seattle has only one black monolith poking through the clouds.
Fledge is an accelerator for startups that not only hope to make money, but also to make the world a better place. I need to say right at the beginning, that I'm related to the creator of Fledge through marriage. But I think if you look at these videos, you can see for yourself what a great concept it is and how well it's being executed.
A few startups are chosen for each session. They're given $20,000 and six weeks of extensive training on how to make their business work. All aspects from financing to marketing to production to human resources. The fledgelings get mentors and get to meet with investors. At the end of the six [10] weeks, they have Fledge Demo Day, which was last week in Seattle. The videos are from Demo Day. I got to go to the first Fledge Demo day about 18 months ago. It was an exciting event.
This round's fledgelings are all international - from Africa and Argentina. I'm particularly impressed by this group because the entrepreneurs are all local folks, not foreigners, who have already started businesses and they'll return to grow those companies. Several of them talk about how they came to see the problems they're solving as children, watching their moms and grandmothers getting sick from the charcoal fires they cooked on every day. Or, in another case, how Mom could only cultivate two of her ten acres because she couldn't afford to plant the rest of the land.
Tom Osborn Kenya Green Char
Tom is concerned about the health and financial costs of charcoal stoves in Kenya. And charcoal requires the cutting of 125,000 acres of trees per year. His answer is to make charcoal from sugar cane waste. The charcoal is the traditional cooking heating material in his country. His sugar cane charcoal has no smoke, is cheaper than traditional charcoal, burns longer, and provides jobs for women who act as distributors. It also, of course, recycles the sugar cane wastes and leaves all those trees standing.
Has a process to turn non-recyclable plastic into little rocks that can be used make concrete. It produces a cement that is lighter, better thermal insulation, and quieter than traditional cement and also gets rid of the plastic that would go to landfills.
Buying goats from villagers and getting them to market where there is a big demand for goat meat. This gives remote villagers extra money for something they already do and meets a demand for goat meat.
Femi has several companies to bring cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable energy to Nigeria. There's the alcohol based cooking fuel made of agricultural wastes and the solar panels.
This is a financial tool - Mobis - that helps SACCO's (cooperative banking groups in Uganda) be more accountable and gives customers access to their accounts on their cell phones.
Nnaemeka tells the story "For the tomatoes, the clock is ticking." He traces the path of the tomatoes from Chibueze's farm, to Eugene's truck, to Alex's stand at the market. He shows how many tomatoes - about 40% - have to be thrown away because they spoil in the Nigerian heat. His solution is a solar powered refrigerator.
The market can be the solution to a lot of problems. An entrepreneur who doesn't pay attention to the needs of the customers won't succeed. But the market model doesn't require business owners to pay attention to the needs of the community, or to people's health, or to the environment's health. These companies do that.
A What Do I Know? reader in Seattle sent this picture he took Thursday
from the ferry of Shell's oil rig. (But I was in Denali Thursday so I
just got the picture.)
Think about people used to power, used to getting their way. People in
positions of authority in large organizations that have the money to
convince the weak to agree and to destroy those who would stand up
against them.
The large oil companies are used to getting their way, whether it's in
places like Africa or Asia where they can buy government leaders or US
states where they can do the same. In Alaska, Conoco-Phillips put one
of their lawyer/lobbyists into the governorship and two more of their employees into the legislature.
They are so used to getting their way, they pay no attention to those
who disagree with them - including the Democratic minority.
Montana's a slightly different case from the others. Legislators got angry at AFP for going behind their backs and connecting directly with constituents.
In Alaska, it seems they've gone directly to Chenault and Meyers, the
heads of the state house and senate respectively. Because they're
saying no to everyone else and refusing to make any concessions. As I
said, if you get used to power, you think you can do whatever you want.
To get a sense of things, suppose your net worth was $100,000. If you
spent the same percentage of your wealth as the Koch brothers it would
be something like:
Koch brothers spend $1 million.
You spend $1.
You spend $200 on a candidate.
The Koch brothers would spend $200 million.
This is why people like Tom Hayden were talking about economic democracy back in the 1970s. Because without a reasonably level playing field, we lose democracy.
* I'm reposting because Feedburner didn't catch this one to blogrolls. Apologies to those who came here earlier. I'm trying to figure out a good way to signal you, so you don't come back to a post you've already seen.
We had dinner at the Spice Route restaurant in the Pavillion Mall on Bainbridge Island. As we were leaving we began talking to one the employees there. It turns out she's from Nepal and, understandably, very upset about the earthquake that just happened. Alaskan readers, if you think this is too far away, she also lived in Homer for two years.
She's trying to figure out how she can get help here and get it back to Nepal. Not only does she need all the things that are needed, she also needs local Bainbridge Island folks to help her organize this. (And Poulsbo folks, you're in this too - that's where she lives.)
I offered to make a video, which I did, but I had to cut it short because my memory card got full. Here it is:
"My name is Usha McCollum. I live in Poulsbo, Washington and I’d from Nepal. Right now the earthquake very affected my family, the whole country, my relatives. I spoke with my mom, a since a long time trying to talk with her two days ago, she sounds like she’s ok, but she didn’t explain what was going on, because she’s old, she’s nervous, and I tried, you know, to make it better for her, but right now even I’m trying to call but I haven’t any connection with her.
But right now I’m just pray, just pray, So, right now, I concerned about Nepal, what can I do about it? You know, for relief, those people, those children, my country. I’m trying to help from where I am in the Bainbridge Island Indian restaurant, I’m trying to think about it, making the posters, making the pictures, whatever, making a fundraiser, making a dinner here, and trying to explain to the community, maybe talk, maybe school, I’m going to start from tomorrow."
She works at the Spice Route Indian restaurant in the Pavillion mall (upstairs) on Madison on Bainbridge Island. You can contact her there at 206 780 3545. If she's not there, let them know why you're calling. If you can help in any way. Go by there and let them know. She's trying to figure out ways to raise some money to send to Nepal. Maybe you can invite her to talk to your school or your organization. Anyone involved in philanthropy or aid programs could give her some guidance for other organizations that she could work with.
And she lives in Poulsbo, so folks there might want to chip in as well.
Lastly, are there any people in Homer who remember her? She came with her then husband Paul McCollum whom she met in Nepal. Or you can email me at whatdoino(at)alaska.net and I'll forward your message to her.
". . . directed the Seattle Department of Planning and Development to investigate the Port of Seattle's decision to make Seattle the homeport for Shell's Arctic drilling fleet.
"Any project of this apparent significance to our
industrial lands must go through the appropriate review," Murray said in
a statement. 'It's important that the public and surrounding businesses
are informed of all the possible impacts of this lease—both economic
and environmental—and that these impacts are sufficiently disclosed and
evaluated. This is why I’m directing DPD to conduct a thorough review of the Terminal 5 proposal
and determine if the anticipated activities at the terminal involving
the Shell drilling fleet require new permits before it can proceed.'"
Did you get that? 'It's important that the public and surrounding businesses
are informed of all the possible impacts of this lease." Our former governor was doing everything he could, along with his then Attorney General/Commissioner of Natural Resources, now Senator Sullivan, to prevent local communities from knowing and having a say about anything.
Some politicians, it seems, think beyond the short term possible job bump, to the bigger issues.
Are we now going to start hearing about Seattle overreach from some of our Alaskan politicians?
I'm trying to be faithful to my blog, and I have a list of unfinished posts, but I also have other distractions in my life. As we left Seattle I stopped to empty my pockets right before going through security next to the "Dangerous Machine" credited to Cappy Thompson, Dick Weiss, and James Lobb of Pottery Northwest.
Dangerous Machine - Cappy Thompson, Dick Weiss, James Lobb
Cappy Thompson created the stained glass window at the south end of Seatac and Dick Weiss has a big one at the north end.
Which leads to another project - organizing my photos so I can find old ones, because somewhere I have a picture of the north stained glass window. Can you tell I liked the dangerous machine? It enlarges a little bit if you click on it. And I still have to learn photoshop's tricks for getting rid of the reflected lights. The tips I've read are fairly tedious and time consuming. The best one is use a polarized filter when you take the picture - but that's not an option (to my knowledge) with my Powershot. I did play a little with the background.
Other Distractions
I'm preparing to teach the capstone class for the public administration MPA this spring. It's the class where the students find organizations in the community who could use them on some sort of organizational/management analysis project that will allow them to apply the things they've learned in all their other classes.
I'm going through last year's blog posts to see if there is anything good enough to submit to the Alaska Press Club's contest. Last year's submissions got lost and they sent me my application fee back. I had good stuff in 2013 - I was still finishing up the redistricting board and I'd covered the Kulluk press conferences. 2014 doesn't have anything quite that substantial.
from the book
And I'm working on a book for my granddaughter's 2nd birthday. That still has a ways to go and the birthday is coming up soon.
Today I was at the Citizens Climate Lobby meeting and we heard from Shell Oil's climate change advisor, David Hone, who called in from London. (Here's a link to his blog.) He basically said that Shell knows that climate change is an issue facing earth and is already factoring in a carbon fee into their financial planning. He said they know there will be action to limit carbon and they prefer a straightforward fee or a cap and trade (their preference) approach to regulation. These approaches, he claimed, would be equitable for all carbon producers. (I'm still thinking about that, since one of the maxims I've picked up in my life is that every change has winners and losers. Is his claim limited enough so that 'carbon producers' would be the 'losers' and the winners would be in other sectors? Still thinking that through.) I felt good because the momentum for a carbon fee has grown hugely since I joined CCL a few years ago and CCL has been a key player in changing the political climate for a carbon fee. One of the stats that I heard that struck me was that CCL local chapters now cover - and I can't find the exact number in my notes - 80 or 90 percent of congressional districts. That's a key number because the whole strategy of CCL is to have members of congress lobbied by their own constituents.
There had been some protests, we were told on the conference call, to having the Shell guy there. But the response was that we have to be willing to talk to everyone as human to human if we're going to get things done. He's message, to a degree, overlaps ours. But I also blogged the Kulluk fiasco last year and I know that the Shell spokespersons told us as little as they thought they could get away with and in some cases outright lied - such as whether they left Dutch Harbor when they did to avoid paying a tax.
Then I caught a ride over to the library to pick up a book I had on hold (No Land's Man by Aasif Mandvi). Anchorage legislators were holding a community meeting in the Assembly chambers so I stuck my head in and listened to a teacher talk about the new teacher evaluation system ASD is using after opting out of No Child Left Behind. She was an award winning teacher who got very emotional as she explained that the new system made it impossible for a teacher to be rated highly. But she didn't go into enough detail for me, so I followed her out and asked her for more detail. I've got that on video and so that makes one more post in my line up of unfinished posts.
And then I enjoyed the warm (for Anchorage) 38˚F (according to a bank message board) sunny weather as I walked home.
Got to spend a couple of hours with my little shark on the way home. Including a quick look around at the aquarium. The octopus was putting on quite a show, I was fighting low light and reflections on the glass.
We left early from LA and it was clear until just before Seattle. We were in the cloud until a couple of seconds before landing.
Not sure what promotion this plane was about.
Fare enforcement checked tickets and he spent a long time talking to the lady in the center who had just barely gotten on with her stroller and baby. I was thinking, she was happy when she made the train, but maybe not so much now. But they seemed to settle whatever it was amicably. She did have to show id.
By 3pm the fog was gone, the sky was blue, and the air was clean and not really cold.
So I was busy today and only have a short time to post a little bit before boarding. But I did see the front page of the ADN and hope to comment on the Pierre McHugh's new job as well as the governor's telling Gasline Commissioners not to sign the non disclosure agreement.
How many buildings have climbing prohibited signs?
Here's the water tower in Seattle's Volunteer Park where climbing is verboten.
Actually, this appears to have been a favorite rock climbing site. Mountain Project, a rock climbers website, has a "Rock Climbing Guide to 122,093 Routes", including a post dated in 2009 for the water tower. They have pictures too.
"Description Three fun expanses of brick wall, separated by cement ledges. Brick is uneven with lots of little holds and pockets. Route will depend on which side of the tower you choose to climb. Watch out for the cement ledges, from underneath they look positive, but they are slopers! You can also spend an enjoyable afternoon traversing around the base of the tower.
Location The tower was built as a water reservoir in 1906, but is now empty. It is located in the middle of Volunteer Park in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Address: 1247 15th Ave. E From the inside of the tower, choose your window & anchor spot & that will decide which side of the tower you'll climb. We climbed the east facing side, just to the right of a tall, very leafy tree.
Protection Climb the inside of the tower and rig an anchor to one of the fixed metal banisters. Feed the rope through the window grating onto the ledge & then use a stick to drop the rope over the edge. Belay from the top, inside the tower. Once the climber reaches the top they will need to be lowered down, as all the windows have grating."
Here's a post card of the water tower from 1909 that was part of the displays once you 'climb' the stairs to the top inside.
"Ah, so the sun came out finally in Seattle. No time to make it to the mountains to climb, so thought I would go for a quick session on the water tower at Volunteer park. The tried and true training ground for the broke Seattle climber. I get a few laps in, when I hear "Sir! sir! Get down off of there!". I hop down (from a whopping 2ft) and am approached by a Seattle police officer (along with a parks employee hiding in his truck). The cop tells me that the tower is "private" (!!) property and that it is only to be used for its intended purpose. I tell him that I'm pretty sure its public property and that people have been traversing it for DECADES without incident. At which point he says, "Are you arguing with me? I am a POLICE officer, do you want to go to jail?". I say, "No.. I'm just trying to understand this. Why not put a sign up then? To notify people of the rules, because this is the first I've heard of this" To which he replies, "it wouldn't do any good, people will climb on it anyways" (um, OK!?). I head back to my car, while he sticks around waiting for me to leave. I considered being arrested, just to see if any of this would hold up. Anyone have insight in to this? Are they justified at all? At any given day there is someone traversing the tower, are they for real?! Anyone want to plan a water tower climb-off-protest in the near future...?"
Well, now they have a sign. (Was the cop celebrating the anniversary of Tiananmen Square by harassing the climber?)
Now, More Pictures Of The Tower With Some Photoshop Help
Of all the updated programs I'm dealing with now that I have a new computer, Photoshop (CS6) is the one that's giving me the fewest challenges. I'm not sure what exciting new things I can do with it, but what I do like is that all the basic functions I use all the time, work they way they did in the CS3 version I was using before. In all the others - from Safari, to iMovie, to, well everything - the basic moves are all frustratingly different. Photoshop is, so to speak, still in English.
So here are some experiments I did with my water tower photo. First the original.
This is the original. It's pretty boring, especially since the sunny parts are overexposed and the parts in the shade are underexposed.
In the picture of the tower way up above, I just did simple adjustments so the parts in the sun got a lower exposure and the parts in the shade got a higher exposure. Oh, yeah, I added the spider. I took a photo of a spider I had, but because it was so small a photo, I touched it up to make it bigger.
But then I started to have some fun.
I did this one using curves under image adjustments.
This one used the 'glowing edges' filter.
I got this one with the gradient map (in Image Adjustment) - using Yellow, Violet, Orange, Blue.
My favorite is this one using the water color filter
So, it did snow overnight. More of a dusting really (see picture below). But then sometime between 9 and 10 am or so, the power went off. It's only just gone back on. About four hours. It stayed reasonably comfortable inside, but outside, near 30˚F, with a gusty wind, it was downright chilly. And most places downtown were closed. The bakery had baked goods for sale, but just water to drink. The knit shop had the sign above. A nearby eating place had a sign saying they'd be open again "at the convenience of Puget Sound Power."
We have had a couple of almost warm sunny days. (Warm? In the 50's and comfy sitting in the sun.) And grey days, but the day we decided to go into Seattle to go to the bookstore, today, it was raining. Waiting for the ferry, the windows got so fogged up that we could barely see the cars around us.
Once the engine was back on the windshield cleared, but with a sleeping baby in back, we mostly stayed in the car.
There wasn't too much traffic, and we even found a parking space near the bookstore, with big leafy puddles all around.
The noodle shop we hit up for take out was closed, so we headed down Madison, passed the Seattle public library, and down the hill to catch the 3pm ferry back.
"A very busy night around here -- let's start with the snow. We're still rain at times this evening with some mixed snow in Snohomish County, but temperatures will cool later tonight and snow levels will drop. A Snow Advisory is in effect from 9 p.m. Friday through 11 a.m. Saturday for as much as 1-3 inches of snow for King, Snohomish, Island and Skagit Counties plus eastern Clallam County and eastern Kitsap County, with particular emphasis on Snohomish County. Temperatures in the 50s in the morning have plummeted to the 40s and 30s with parts of Snohomish County already had some rain/snow or wet snow Friday afternoon with temperatures in the mid-upper 30s."
It's after 9pm here, but no snow yet. But it's still raining and colder.
Grandchild beats out blogging. All you're getting are a few pics. She's putting words together and walks without thinking about it anymore. Among our tasks today was a walk around Eagle Harbor. We also visited our friend who was born 100 years before my grand baby.
It was a grey day, some light drizzle, but nothing to stop us from walking.
click to enlarge
The water was calm and you can see the skyscrapers of downtown Seattle on the horizon.
That was the announcement on the ferry loudspeaker system. There had been a series of loud blasts of the deeeep horn and we'd come to a stop. Then I looked up to see the cause of the noise and the crew's derision.
The sailboat was no longer in danger of being run over by the ferry. Is public shaming over the ferry loudspeakers a suitable activity for a public entity like the Bainbridge Ferry? I suspect not, but I suspect it made the announcer feel a little better. Will it make the little boat's driver change? I suspect forcing the ferry to stop was embarrassing enough.
But we enjoyed the warm sunny crossing into Seattle last Sunday after a family visit on a long layover on the way to LA. Here's a shot of us approaching the dock in Seattle.
We're back in unexpectedly in LA because my mom was having a downspell and we decided we should come back. Ninety two offers challenges. Things aren't going to get dramatically better and there is a steady stream of health adventures. She's doing better though she's weaker than she was a month ago.
I was able to schedule our trip down to include a long layover in Seattle to see our daughter and granddaughter. And we got a beautiful warmish fall day. I got to go to the park with the little one. She's pushing two now. There are lots of words. Quizical looks. Big smiles. We walked over to the playground, looked at lots of stuff, rode on the swings, went down the slide, and just explored the world. Here are some things we saw.
Here's the mystery fruit. It was about the size of a ping pong ball, with little spines all over it. There's a smaller one in the background. My google search, even a reverse photo search, didn't come up with a name. Or whether it was edible. I'm hoping someone out there will know it.
She can say pine cone now and so she chose this one to examine. My pocket camera is, it turns out, also a sort of microscope so we could look a little closer.
(I have to admit, this is not my childhood image of pine cones. My pine cone is rounder, harder, with sharp tips.)
Then we had to lay all our treasures out on the picnic table in the park.
But it wasn't just biology that interested her. As we went back home she pointed out some features she wanted me to take pictures of.
The pipe coming out of the wall.
And then the sewer cover.
And the drain.
And then we looked a little closer to see the reflection in the water down below.
Getting to spend time with this magical child (I'm not claiming any special magic in my granddaughter, they're all magical, in fact we are all magical, but it's so much easier to see when they're little like this and not hiding it) is a great energy boost on my way to seeing my mom. And my mom enjoys the pictures I bring her of her great granddaughter.
