Feb 26, 2003 10:19:02 PM
Paper Wings Kite Project
Normally, the idea of seeing "art" does not include standing outside with the sky overhead and the wind ruffling your hair. But the exhibit of paper kites that the Seattle-based Drachen foundation is bringing to Seattle couldn't be any further from the artificial light and stuffy air of the typical museum. During the month of March, kite artists from Canada, Europe, Japan, and the United States will be showing their work in the International District. The kites range from the whimsical, Plympton-esque creations of Montreal's Robert Trepanier to the nearly-microscopic weavings of Nobuhiko Yoshizumi of Japan. The items on display share function (flying) and material (paper), but when you cross the variety of graphic methods that can be applied to paper (imagine a kite made of photographs!) by the multitude of kite forms, the choices an artist can make become endless.
However, as works on paper, these kites can't actually be kept outside for the duration of a show that takes place during end-of-winter weather, so the Panama Hotel Tea and Coffee house will be hosting this event, as well as a week-long residence by several of the artists. With its high ceilings and polished wood floors, the hotel is a work of art on its own. The addition of painted paper cascading down the walls should make it breathtaking. Use seeing the exhibit as an excuse to visit the teahouse, and visiting the teahouse as an excuse to admire the art. Whether you go to the lecture/demonstration on March 8th, or simply head over for a cup of tea and some quiet time with a book, you can count on an inspiring visit. It's the kind of magical convergence you'll only get in Seattle.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 26, 2003 10:19:02 PM [Link]
Feb 26, 2003 11:51:55 AM
I took a quiz to see who my "inner gay man" is, and it's Rufus Wainwright. The name is familiar, but who in the hell is he?
Congrats, you've got a little Rufus in you! Raised
on opera and his mother's show-biz sensibility,
Rufus is a master songwriter and performer.
Though prone to excess and moodiness, his off-
kilter sense of humor and fashion and his
radiant presence make him a joy to be around.
Don't be ashamed; if this still small voice
speaks up within you (with a bit of a slur and
a lisp), listen up! He could make you a star.
Who's your inner gay man?
brought to you by Quizilla
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 26, 2003 11:51:55 AM [Link]
Feb 25, 2003 4:36:22 PM
I didn't realize until my mother died what a good repressor I was. Everytime people would ask how I felt about my mom I'd say I didn't know, or that I didn't care, that I had been angry about how she treated me but now I was just sorry for her. Skipping the details about how I did handle it (it makes me sound like I'm stuck at the age of six), I'll just say that according to an article in the New York Times it turns out that repression may actually be good for you. Reliving things over and over again, however, is a problem; sometimes it really is better not to think about things.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 25, 2003 4:36:22 PM [Link]
Feb 25, 2003 12:40:55 AM
These are a few of my favorite URLs
News
http://agonist.got.net/
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2431&ms=MD
Utility
http://www.google.com/
http://mail.yahoo.com/
http://readmail.bust.com/email/scripts/index.pl
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/4pm/onsite.asp?url=/business/aptech_story.asp?category=1700%26slug=Network%20Associates
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SquirePark12thAveNeighbors/pending
http://www.kelseypub.com/irc/charmap.shtml
http://www.whois.sc/
http://www.calle.com/domains/M15.html
http://www.dawndoll.com/stats/usage_200302.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SeaQAJobSeekers/
http://www.qatraining.net/
Bloggie links
http://www.whiterose.org/michael/blog/
http://dearraed.blogspot.com
http://dawndoll.com/cgi-bin/gm.cgi
http://www.livejournal.com/
http://www.livejournal.com/community/karaokeposse/
http://www.dubman.com/spooky/me/default.asp?show=0303
http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/journal.asp
http://www.scalefigure.com/home.php
http://missmacabre.diaryland.com/crackhead.html
Cams
http://www.funbeach.com/pages/clamcam.html
http://www.loftcam.com/index.html
Recipes
http://www.bawarchi.com/cookbook/index.html
In progress
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid=2471
http://scalefigure.com/itinerary.htm
http://scalefigure.com/spain/barc.php
http://www.washingtonlivingwagemovement.org/05-02NL.htm
http://www.vakids.org/Advocacy/grassroots_advocacy%20notes.htm
http://www.pacreal.com/pacrealcgi/home_out.cgi?search_field=0&search_for=934
http://www.renewnyc.org/
Random
http://nvghosttowns.topcities.com/nye/nyelst2.htm
http://www.toppertowers.com/apts/lofts/bbabs62/indexpage.shtml
http://www.atlasdogs.com/Card/Poodle.htm
http://www.atlasdogs.com/Card/bildp/Pood%2012.htm
http://www.atlasdogs.com/Card/Bilder/Pood%2065.jpg
http://www.deadmalls.com
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 25, 2003 12:40:55 AM [Link]
Feb 24, 2003 2:56:57 PM
My back is sore today. I figured out it's from hoeing yesterday, so it's a good sore.
According to the New York Times, monkeys used to be really in as a home decorating theme. They even had a name for a monkey decorated room: a singerie, which I guess is derived from the word for monkey. This even further inspires me to get that monkey rug I saw online a few months ago.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 24, 2003 2:56:57 PM [Link]
Feb 23, 2003 8:47:28 PM
Just found out from my grandparents in Arizona that my cousin's son has been molesting her daughter/his sister. Details were sketchy, but the circumstances were conducive (an entire summer spent about entirely unwatched) and the consequences grave (the boy probably can't go back to school in the town he's been living in, and was apparently in some kind of custody for two weeks). What a mess. The whole thing just gave me heart attacks and an incredible stress backache. This sure put a damper on my enthusiasm for this trip. Actually, I think it was a strong reminder of why I avoid going back. I was going to write about this on my other blog, but I can't because I just got my cousin's email and told her to check out that blog for a kick. I figure I'll probably just be shut out of however this is dealt with but it frustrates me that I can't seem to do anything to improve life for any of my relatives out there.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 23, 2003 8:47:28 PM [Link]
Feb 21, 2003 3:46:34 PM
Went out to see Frankenocchio again last night. I was thrilled to see Bret there along with a large contingent of Annex folks, which made me feel great because 1) it means he thinks my opinion is worth something and 2) a lot of cool people got the opportunity to see this awesome show. I could hear him laughing quite regularly, so I know he had a good time.
Today, dead again at work, I am getting things together to refinance the house. All of this work just so I can have a Rainier view from the guest bedroom and the opportunity to have tea on the deck the two months of the year when it's not raining. Oh yeah, and to pee in the night without having to worry about falling down the stairs because I'm not awake and yet I'm walking anyway. It will make things lovely but I just hope and pray the home values in the neighborhood go up instead of down, otherwise we're going to be saddled with more debt than house. And I'm also sad about giving up the opportunity to buy a house in Long Beach. I just love it there so much, I'd love to think there was a little home waiting for me each and every weekend.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 21, 2003 3:46:34 PM [Link]
Feb 18, 2003 4:03:23 PM
Ooh, more people talking about blogs in the news!
I sure hope LiveJournal doesn't get bought by AOL, though.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 18, 2003 4:03:23 PM [Link]
Feb 18, 2003 10:46:39 AM
I am planning on adding my review of the Changeling here today, but I don't have time to write it right now. I promise it will be better than Joe Adcock's, though.
2/21/03 PS: Finally got to it. I didn't really say much about the actual story, though, so if you care: Beatrice is in love with a man other than the one to whom she is engaged. In order to facilitate changing fiancés, she has the creepy servant Deflores kill Fiance #1, paying him back with sex when he refuses her money. Madcap romps ensue as she attempts to hide her loss of maidenhead from her new husband and Fiancé #1's brother/sister attempts to figure out Where's Waldo and avenge his/her brother's killer. It all ends kind of like Hamlet, only without that feeling of satisfaction you get when you watch a really good play.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 18, 2003 10:46:39 AM [Link]
Feb 17, 2003 11:51:00 AM
I swear that just today as I was driving to work I was thinking about Ann Donovan again and wondering why she doesn't want to talk to me anymore. It's a thought that kind of pops up in my head now and then, and I'm not sure what brought it on today. Then I went and looked at my stats for this site and discovered that someone did a search on Ann Donovan Wedding and my site came up. Does that mean she is getting married? It's nice to think that things have gone so well for her and Randy. I saw them together looking in the windows of a bookstore on The Ave after the Jose Limon concert, so I knew/know they are still together but of course I never hear anything about them or her other than through her Capitol Hill mailing list since our social circles don't interconnect at all (the friends I met through her didn't become my friends, or didn't stay my friends). I suppose that almost two years after she decided she didn't want to have anything to do with me that I should just be completely resigned to it, and mostly I am. In fact, since she had so little to do with me in the many months before the cut off, I had plenty of time to get weaned from being friends with her.
I hope her brother and sister are doing well.
In other news, the New York Times had a great story about the TV coverage that Michael Jackson has been getting lately (which I have been completely unaware of since I haven't turned the TV on in about a month). This quote is what made the story for me:
What seems to be lost in the concern for Mr. Jackson's children and underage friends or disgust over television's excesses is that the more we see of Mr. Jackson right now, the healthier we are as a nation: at least it indicates we are not at war.
Yep. We should all be glad there isn't any REAL news to cover right now.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 17, 2003 11:51:00 AM [Link]
Feb 14, 2003 1:18:51 PM
I can't believe it took so long for me to finally read an analysis of the Bin Laden tape that actually draws the same conclusions I do:
The U.S. media are soft-pedaling it as usual, but the business of the Osama tape has destroyed Mr. Powell's credibility in much of the world. The tape calls Saddam Hussein an "infidel" whose "jurisdiction . . . has fallen," but says that it's still O.K. to fight the "Crusaders" - and Mr. Powell claims that it ties Saddam to Al Qaeda. Huh? All it shows is that Al Qaeda views a U.S. invasion of Iraq as an excellent recruiting opportunity.
I also didn't realize other people saw Powell looking as much like a dope as I do (I hadn't thought about it all that much - he turned hawk and I just can't figure out what happened), but it's nice to know I'm not alone ... but most importantly, on the "total lack of connection" issue.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 14, 2003 1:18:51 PM [Link]
Feb 13, 2003 10:58:37 PM
Tonight I went to see a sold-out pay-what-you-can Frankenocchio at the Nippon Kan. The audience members were an interesting lot. There was the blonde with curly hair peeking out from under a topless fur hat; a man in very long dreads; a girl in a brilliant red cheongsam and a flower in her hair; and a veritable aviary of unnatural purpley-red heads. Suddenly, I had this insight: this is Weimar Germany, with the bohemians living out their wild lives while completely ignoring the turmoil of the world around them. The porcelain skinned bobbed brunette just added to the ambience. I guess if the world is going to hell in a handbasket with no concern for my personal wishes, the least I could do was stop worrying for a night and enjoy the show.
And the show was, actually, very good. The puppets were gorgeous, the original music was both entertaining and well-integrated, and to my great surprise they had actually managed to get a very interesting story together. The combination of these elements with a dose of sexuality and tragedy made for a very good evening. I especially loved the highly-detailed shadow puppets, which provided humorous asides, story-moving action, and an insight into the thoughts of the main character. It didn't feel gimmicky or unprofessional or thrown together. In short, it was good. I may go see it again. Thank goodness the arts editor asked me if I was going to write about it; without her tiny push I might not have made it there, and even though I went by myself it was really fun. The people sitting behind me were also middle aged folks who just really liked puppets, and they all loved the show. The house manager said they had had lots of full houses and she expected that they would be remounting the show soon.
I also had a job interview today ...
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 13, 2003 10:58:37 PM [Link]
Feb 12, 2003 5:01:07 PM
This was supposed to be the day we got our "gold release." Then why did I find two more bugs on one report? I felt like a complete fool until I realized that I had never been asked to test for the problem I found. I looked over the test cases that focused on this area, and it wasn't there. And the way I had been executing one of the tests (manually calculating totals instead of using Excel) kept the error in the dark. Not to mention the fact that the data that causes the problem to manifest (through its absense) hadn't been available for testing until about last week. So now we're talking about our 24 Karat gold release, although I suspect we should stick to 18 or 22 until we have more of a chance to check it out.
Update
A year and a half later, suddenly TONS of people are coming to visit this page. Can you tell me why you came here? I don't see a link to this page, or a search result driving the traffic ....
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 12, 2003 5:01:07 PM [Link]
Feb 11, 2003 3:49:36 PM
I've been looking for an album by a band called the Longshoremen for years and years now. They had a really cool song on it called "The Canning Factory." I did a search on them and found out the album was called Walk the Plank and the label Subterranean. I wonder if I can find it online? I've also been looking for the Candyman album that has a board game on the back. I have fond memories of it from my childhood. I can never find either of these things on Ebay or Google. Why?
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 11, 2003 3:49:36 PM [Link]
Feb 11, 2003 2:20:57 PM
Oh great. Now I find out I'm Gandalf. It's not very flattering. I blame the quiz writer for making the Gandalf answers the funniest.
Congratulations! You're Gandalf!
Which Lord of the Rings character and personality problem are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Did I mention that I've grown to like my contract job? I still hate commuting but I'm experiencing less stress than I have at any place I've worked probably since Xsides. My boss is really sane and I feel like the projects are manageable. If only this were located on my side of the lake.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 11, 2003 2:20:57 PM [Link]
Feb 11, 2003 12:57:24 AM
Twice since I've been on this project I've received effusive praise for my brilliant discovery of bugs that I found by accident. Once I was goofing off and printed off a page from the New York Times that, when I got home, turned out to have a footer on it from the software I am testing. The second time I was verifying that a bug was fixed and just happened to look at the single report out of 550 that had an instance of a certain data type I had never seen before that caused an obvious problem (look, George, it says 0 + 0 = 21) that I did not deserve credit for finding. I hope these folks think I am just Super Woman when the truth is I am just Super Lucky.
In other news we saw The Russian Ark last night, which I have every intention of writing more about when I've got some down time.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 11, 2003 12:57:24 AM [Link]
Feb 7, 2003 11:41:19 AM
The report came back from the vet yesterday. Bibo appears to have died of a kidney infection, and she said it was unlikely that anything could have been done for him. She also said he had fatty deposits that did not indicate (to me) that he had starved to death. That's kind of a consolation, but my husband is still incredibly mopey and the lack of little bird hangs over the living room like a shroud.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 7, 2003 11:41:19 AM [Link]
Feb 7, 2003 10:16:02 AM
I was crossing a very foggy Lake Washington this morning, and I began to wonder: do Americans substitute material goods for having a culture? Has the pursuit of material goods our national cultural identity? My thought is that Americans would think that it took owning things to express who they were, rather than being able to say, "Well, I'm a member of the Brotherhood of the Rooster, and my family has been in this neighborhood for 800 years. We've carried the City Chalice in the Easter parade for the last 300 years, when we won it from the Brotherhood of the Lion in a footrace." Instead, Americans could say, "Look, I'm cool because I own a Porsche."
Or maybe I was just jealous of the person driving the silver-blue Porshe to work, while I drove my Honda Civic.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 7, 2003 10:16:02 AM [Link]
Feb 5, 2003 11:33:33 AM
I finally got to see the candidates for the final design for the World Trade Center site. My favorite entry made it into the finalists. Well, actually, I liked something about each of the buildings. I liked Daniel Liebeskind's memorial, with the excavation site being maintained and the slurry walls getting a high profile, and I liked the THINK group's airiness. But I've heard that no one would want to work on the upper stories. I can certainly understand why. I doubt that there will ever be another attack like September 11th, but the realities of evacuating buildings of that height for any reason would seem to argue against taller structures being built. THINK group has much of the space of the buildings devoted to public spaces, including a great garden. That would be super nice, I think, and delightfully wasteful.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 5, 2003 11:33:33 AM [Link]
Feb 4, 2003 3:45:10 PM
People have been coming by my site even though I haven't been promoting it. Why? I get a lot of people searching on Sal umi, Sn ow D ogs, and Tad's Chick en and Dump lings (I don't want them to come here by accident so I inserted the spaces.) It's strange to think of the blog having a life of its own -- it kind of makes me feel like Dr. Frankenstein.
My bird Bibo died last night. I have no idea what was wrong with him. He had been off of his food, but since he was eating plenty of pasta mix in the morning I didn't notice the bird cookies weren't going down like they normally do (I thought I had just filled the holder up extra full). I feel like a horrible person, even though I know that birds work really hard to hide how sick they are until they are at death's door ... which was how he was when I came home last night ... almost unable to hold his head up, and breathing shallowly. The vet's report said she was sorry and that she knew we gave him a good home, but that's not how I feel about it.
I'm at work and writing this is making my eyes well up with tears. I'm going to stop now and get back to something mundane like doing SQL queries and trying to come up for a good name for the game site I want to get together. MyFavoriteGames.com is my current favorite.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Feb 4, 2003 3:45:10 PM [Link]